Article Notification Email Configuration

Knowledgebase may not be configured correctly or the SMTP Services is not running.

You can enable the subscriptions in several ways: for the entire portal, for a specific article, or for a category.

Enable Subscriptions for the Entire Portal
Enable article subscriptions for a Portal from the Portal Customization Area.

1. Log in to the KB Admin Control Panel.
2. Click the Portal tab and select the Portal that you wish to edit.
3. Click Configure on the Portal Customization frame.
4. On the Customization Options page, click Edit in the Article Display frame.
5. In the Article Information Features area, select Article Subscription then click Save.

Unless other changes are made, this will enable subscriptions for all articles in this Portal.

Enable Subscriptions for Specific Users for Specific Articles
Administrators may find that they do not want to allow open subscriptions, but do want certain individuals notified if an article is changed. Administrators can manually subscribe specific users to specific articles.

1. Log in to the KB Admin Control Panel.
2. Click the Content tab, and then click Article Subscription.
3. Click New Subscriber. The e-mail setting screen appears.
4. In the Email Address text box, type the email address.
5. When you are done, click Save.
6. You can now subscribe the email address to Articles or Categories.

It is also possible to enable subscriptions for individual articles.

1. Log in to the KB Admin Control Panel.
2. Click the Content tab, and then click Article Management.
3. Click the title of the article you wish to edit.
4. Select Properties and then Subscriptions.
5. You can enable or disable subscriptions, as well as see who is subscribed to the article.

Category Subscriptions
There is an additional subscription option – Category Subscription. A Category Subscription allows user(s) to receive notification when ANY article in a given category is updated. This option is managed from the Article Subscription section on the Content tab, and CANNOT be subscribed to from the Customer Portal.

To add an article subscription while creating a new article, see Managing Content (chapter 12) in the KB Users Manual.

Note: In the Administration tab of the KB Admin Control Panel, Email Administration section, there is an area where the administrator can turn on the subscription option for the Knowledgebase. The administrator can also customize the template that is emailed. In order for the subscription e-mails to be sent, the notification must be enabled for the Knowledgebase from this section.

Notifying Subscribers
Once an author updates an article, there is a link on the article properties page they can click to notify the subscribers. This option is provided because minor article edits may not require notifying the subscriber base. To notify subscribers of article updates, the author must click the “notify subscribers” link, otherwise no e-mails will be sent.

Additionally, once an External User has used the subscribe / unsubscribe feature, their e-mail will appear in the Article Subscription section (found on the Content tab of the KB Admin Control Panel) under “External Users.” (drop-down box in upper right corner). You can use the same subscription features as with the manually added Unregistered users

Administration Email Address:
As per Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 319285, IIS requires a From email address in ASP web mail forms. If this is not configured your email will not be sent. To configure a From address in your Knowledgebase follow these steps:

1. Log into the KB Admin Control Panel.
2. Click on the Administration tab and select System Settings.
3. Add an email address to both the KB Support Email Address and KB System Email Address fields and click Save.

SMTP Service: The SMTP service must be running on the Windows server which hosts the Knowledgebase in order for email to be sent. There is no extra SMTP configuration in the KB Admin Portal required to send email.

Knowledgebase Administratiors and Article Subscribers.