Web Changes Notification Service

Each TWiki web has an automatic e-mail notification service that sends you an e-mail with links to all of the topics modified since the last alert.

Users subscribe to email notifications using their WikiName or an alternative email address, and can specify the webs/topics they wish to track using one of these bullet list formats:

three spaces * [ webname . ] wikiName - SMTP mail address
three spaces * [ webName . ] wikiName
three spaces * SMTP mail address
three spaces * SMTP mail address : topics
three spaces * [ webname . ] wikiName : topics

In the above examples, topics is a space-separated list of topic names. The user may further customize the specific content they will receive using the following formats:

• Specify topics without a Web. prefix
• Topics must exist in this web.
• Topics may be specified using * wildcards
• Each topic may optionally be preceded by a '+' or '-' sign. The '+' sign means "subscribe to this topic" (the same as not putting anything). The '-' sign means "unsubscribe" or "don't send notifications regarding this topic". This allows users to elect to filter out certain topics (and their children, to an arbitrary depth). Topic filters ('-') take precedence over topic includes ('+').
• Each topic may optionally be followed by an integer in parentheses, indicating the depth of the tree of children below that topic. Changes in all these children will be detected and reported along with changes to the topic itself. Note This uses the TWiki "Topic parent" feature.
• Each topic may optionally be immediately followed by an exclamation mark ! or a question mark ? with no intervening spaces, indicating that the topic (and children if there is a tree depth specifier as well) should be mailed out as complete topics instead of change summaries. ! causes the topic to be mailed every time even if there have been no changes, ? will mail the topic only if there have been changes to it. This only makes sense for subscriptions.

For example: Subscribe Daisy to all changes to topics in this web.

   * daisy.cutter@flowers.com

Subscribe Daisy to all changes in all webs that start with Web.

   * daisy.cutter@flowers.com: Web*

Subscribe Daisy to changes to topics starting with Petal, and their immediate children, WeedKillers and children to a depth of 3, and all topics that match start with Pretty and end with Flowers e.g. PrettyPinkFlowers

   * TWiki04x01.DaisyCutter: Petal* (1) TWiki04x01.WeedKillers (3) Pretty*Flowers

Subscribe StarTrekFan to changes to all topics that start with Star except those that end in Wars, sInTheirEyes or shipTroopers.

   * TWiki04x01.StarTrekFan: Star* - *Wars - *sInTheirEyes - *shipTroopers

Subscribe Daisy to the full content of NewsLetter whenever it has changed

   * daisy@flowers.com: TWiki04x01.NewsLetter?

Subscribe buttercup to NewsLetter and its immediate children, even if it hasn't changed.

   * buttercup@flowers.com: TWiki04x01.NewsLetter! (1)

Subscribe GardenGroup (which includes Petunia) to all changed topics under AllnewsLetters to a depth of 3. Then unsubscribe Petunia from the ManureNewsLetter, which she would normally get as a member of GardenGroup? :

   * TWiki04x01.GardenGroup: TWiki04x01.AllNewsLetters? (3)
   * petunia@flowers.com: - TWiki04x01.ManureNewsLetter

A user may be listed many times in the WebNotify topic. Where a user has several lines in WebNotify that all match the same topic, they will only be notified about changes that topic once (though they will still receive individual mails for news topics).

If a TWiki group is listed for notification, the group will be recursively expanded to the e-mail addresses of all members.

Tip: List names in alphabetical order to make it easier to find the names.

Note for System Administrators: Notification is supported by an add-on to the TWiki kernel called the MailerContrib. See the MailerContrib topic for details of how to set up this service.

Note: If you prefer a news feed, point your reader to WebRss (for RSS 1.0 feeds) or WebAtom (for ATOM 1.0 feeds). Learn more at WebRssBase and WebAtomBase, respectively.

---

Comments & Questions about this Distribution Document Topic

It would be useful to include a sample of an email alert here.

-- ColinIngarfield - 17 May 2006

This page looks nothing like WebChangesAlert, which makes it strange to comment here on what's missing there. Nevertheless, I'll post my comment assuming that the content to which it applies remains valid.

When viewing WebNotify, the %{INCLUDE}% of WebChangesAlert displays information on getting alerts for some and not for other topics with + and -. The syntax is, apparently, [+-] [A-Z][a-z]+[A-Z][A-Za-z]* (or thereabouts). That is, the space is required to get notifications, yet the bullet that describes using + and - doesn't mention the needed space. The examples that show various usage scenarios show the spaces, but since they aren't described as required, one can incorrectly conclude that they are optional.

• The spaces after the + are indeed optional.

Another problem is that, despite examples that might suggest otherwise, there is no description indicating that a leading asterisk is needed to get all topics except some subset. That is, - XYZ* apparently will not match any topics, but * - XYZ* will.

• I don't understand the example. Your will not and will examples are identical.

Finally, to avoid the confusion about whether the leading asterisk is part of the bullet prefix or is a necessary part of the notification syntax, I suggest showing the full syntax in the examples, with a dummy WikiName. Thus, instead of this

   * daisy.cutter@flowers.com

show this

   * Main.SomeOne * daisy.cutter@flowers.com

• Well, that's not valid syntax. But there is an example already in the doc showing valid syntax.

-- RobStewart - 17 Aug 2007

I should mention that if you would like me to submit new content for your consideration, let me know.

-- RobStewart - 17 Aug 2007

Thanks Rob for the feedback. I fixed the content to reflect the latest release. I filed Bugs:Item4488 to track your suggestions.

-- PeterThoeny - 23 Aug 2007 I added comments above.

-- CrawfordCurrie - 06 Sep 2007