Subscribe Plugin

This is a companion plugin to the MailerContrib. It allows you to trivially add a "Subscribe me" link to topics to get subscribed to changes.

Example (only works if plugin is installed, and you are logged in - you are: WikiGuest (not WikiGuest)):

Usage

Anywhere in a topic or template:

• %SUBSCRIBE{...}% or simply %SUBSCRIBE%

Parameter	Default	Meaning
who	Logged-in user	Who to subscribe (wikiname, no web)
topic	Current topic	Topic to subscribe to. Wildcards may be used e.g. topic="Item*" will subscribe to all topics starting with Item. Use topic="Main.*" to subscribe to the WebNotify for that web.
unsubscribe	Not set	If set to "on", will unsubscribe the user
format	Simple HTML Link with an action anchor "Subscribe" or "Unsubscribe"	Defines custom look-and-feel for subscribe link using the following format variables: $topics, $url, $wikiname, $action
formatunsubscribe	format	Serves same function as format, but allows the user to define a different format than subscribe.

• The button toggles subscribe/unsubscribe if the user is already subscribed or vice versa. So after the next click on the button, the user will be unsubscribed.
• The plugin will do the best it can to optimise the subscription lists in WebNotify.

Note: This subscribe macro is for adding and removing individual subscriptions. It is not aware of subscriptions due to membership in a subscribed group. If a user is subscribed to a topic due to group membership, the subscribe link will show the user as subscribed, but clicking it will not unsubscribe the individual user. If a user wishes to unsubscribe as an exception, manually add a "negative subscription" to the WebNotify topic. Ex: If JoeUser is a member of SomeGroup, then the user can unsubscribe manually:

• Main.SomeGroup : *
• Main.JoeUser : - UndesiredTopic

Access Controls

The guest user is not allowed to subscribe for notification.

You don't need VIEW access to the WebNotify topic in order to subscribe to changes in a web, but you must have CHANGE access. If you want users to be able to subscribe or unsubscribe, but you don't want them to be able to modify their subscription or otherwise edit the WebNotify topic, you can restrict VIEW access to WebNotify. This will make it uneditable from the browser (but will not block save urls, so is not fully secure).

Note that permissions on individual topics are not checked when subscription mails are sent out, so be very careful about who you allow to subscribe.

Configuration

This plugin has been found to be extremely costly when processing highly complex WebNotify topics. However in most environments, its not an issue.

If you wish to limit the plugin to one or more webs, specifiy the list of Active Webs in one of the following ways. This list is a comma-separates list of Web names. A "Regular-expression" style wildcard can be used. For example: Main,Sandbox.* would permit the Main web, Sandbox, including subwebs of Sandbox, or any web prefixed with Sandbox.

• configure -> Extensions -> SubscribePlugin
  • {Plugins}{SubscribePlugin}{ActiveWebs} = "Main,Sandbox.*
• As a standard preference setting, set in SitePreferences or individual WebPreferences topics.
  • Set SUBSCRIBEPLUGIN_ACTIVEWEBS = Main,Sandbox.*

The configure setting takes precedence over the topic based preference setting.

Plugin Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. Use "Find More Extensions" to get a list of available extensions. Select "Install".

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See http://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

Plugin Info

Another great Foswiki extension from the WikiRing - working together to improve your wiki experience!

Author:	Crawford Currie
Copyright:	© 2008, Crawford Currie, 2012 Foswiki Contributors
License:	GPL (GNU General Public License)
Version:	14200 (2012-03-04)
Release:	2.0
Dependencies:	Name Version Description Foswiki::Contrib::MailerContrib >=0 Foswiki mailer module
Change History:
03 Mar 2012	GeorgeClark - Foswikitask:Item11594 - Add ActiveWebs configuration.
03 Dec 2008	Re-released for Foswiki
15 Oct 2008	TWikibug:Item4115: enable subscriptions with (child), TWikibug:Item5950: fix cross web SUBSCRIPTION indication (requires updated MailerContrib) can now get feedback to %SUBSCRIBE{topic="*"}% - TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
25 May 2008	TWikibug:Item5488: merged TWiki:Main.DavidPatterson's patch to fix deep subscription
25 Jan 2008	TWikibug:Item4812: added TWiki:Main.BobGoldstein's noexpand patch for groups
9 Sep 2007	TWikibug:Item4175 added MAKETEXT in case the string is available
13966	TWikiBug:Item4155 Fixed for 4.0.x and 4.1.x
13787	TWikibug:Item4010 - fix web subscription, and format parameters. - TWiki:Main.SvenDowideit
13525	TWikibug:Item3731 - Update documentation topic.
13512	TWikibug:Item3731 - final pre-release tweaks, result of testing on 4.1.2
13510	TWikibug:Item3731 - completed the plugin now that the Mailer updates are done
13506	TWikibug:Item3731 - Update dependency to latest version of MailerContrib
13081	TWikibug:Item3731 - Added SubscribePlugin, and cleaned up and updated APIs in MailerContrib
24 Apr 2007	First version
Plugin Home:	http://foswiki.org/Extensions/SubscribePlugin