Managing Web Document Discussions and Subscriptions

Archived content. No warranty is made as to technical accuracy. Content may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist.

Microsoft's SharePoint team Web sites include two special collaboration features that allow users to communicate with each other on the World Wide Web:

  • Web document discussions 

    These are threaded discussions that allow users to collaborate on HTML documents on a server running SharePoint™ Team Services. Users can add and view discussion items located within documents, or general discussion items located in the discussion pane.

  • Web subscriptions 

    These allow users to subscribe to an e-mail notification service. When documents on a server running SharePoint Team Services are created or modified, subscribers receive e-mail messages that identify changes.

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Note   Web document discussions and Web subscriptions are not available with Microsoft® FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions.

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Users can participate in discussions in documents created in SharePoint Team Servicescompatible word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation programs, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint®, as well as any HTML or Rich Text Format (RTF) file. The threaded discussions are maintained on either the Web server that has SharePoint Team Services installed or a remote Microsoft SQL Server™ computer.

To participate in a discussion, users click the Discuss button on the Microsoft Internet Explorer toolbar, or in a SharePoint Team Servicescompatible spreadsheet, word processing, or presentation programs; or click the Web Discussions command (Online Collaboration submenu on the Tools menu). If necessary, they then select the appropriate Web server running SharePoint Team Services to store the discussion items. All user discussion items are displayed in a shared document that users can view either in the original application or in most Web browsers.

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Note   With SharePoint Team Services, the user can work with discussion servers in two modes. With the first, the user chooses to always try to use the server that a document is hosted on as the discussion server. However, when the user switches to viewing a document on a different discussion server, the user is automatically connected to the new server for discussions. (In this mode, the user can discuss only documents hosted on discussion servers, not generic Web servers.)

Alternatively, the user can switch to a mode where there is a specific server set up for hosting discussions. In this mode, the user must specify the discussion server to use (by using the Discussion Options command).

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Because discussion items are stored separately from the shared document, users can modify the document without affecting the collaborative discussion. This separation also allows multiple users to create and edit discussion items simultaneously. Users can also add discussion items to read-only documents.

By using the Web Discussions toolbar, users can view, search, or filter discussions by author, or date and time. Inline discussions print as part of the document, while discussions in a discussion pane print on a separate page when the document is printed. Users can view discussions offline, but they cannot add to them offline. Users can participate in discussions about documents that are stored on a server remote from the Web server that contains the SharePoint team Web site.

Editing discussion items

The logon authentication account identifies a user, and depending on the role assigned to a user, the user has different rights for working with discussion items. For example, a user with View Web Document Discussions rights can only view other users' discussion items but cannot contribute to the discussion. Whereas a user with Manage Web Document Discussions rights can not only participate, but can edit or remove other users' discussion items.

With SharePoint Team Services, and with the appropriate user rights, you can perform the following actions on an existing discussion item:

  • Reply Append your discussion item to another user's discussion item.

  • Edit Change your own or another user's discussion item.

  • Delete Delete your own or another user's discussion item.

  • Close Mark a discussion item as closed.

Anyone with discussion rights (from View Web Document Discussions on up) can close discussion items. Resolving discussions allows users to clean up old or annoying discussions from a document. When discussions are marked closed, they are not deleted from the database, and therefore there is no risk of losing important information. If the discussion turns out to be important, it can be restored.

Modifying documents that contain discussion threads

Because discussion items are not stored in the document, users can modify the document independently from any discussions they create.

The following table explains how a modification to a document can affect threaded discussions in a document.

When a document is modified in this way

The discussion data is affected this way

The change is made in an area without a discussion item attached.

Inline and general discussions are not affected.

The change is made in an area with a discussion item attached.

Inline discussions attached to modified text are deleted. General discussions are not affected.

The entire document is moved, renamed, or deleted.

All inline and general discussions are lost.

Configuring and managing Web document discussions

You can manage Web document discussions for one virtual server or all virtual servers on a Web server by using the command-line tools or HTML Administration pages. If you use HTML Administration pages, you can:

  • Turn Web document discussions on or off.

  • Delete Web document discussion items.

  • Edit Web document discussion items.

  • View Web document discussion settings.

  • Limit Web document discussions to documents local to the site.

  • Set aging policy for Web document discussions.

If you are using the command-line tools, you can:

  • Turn Web document discussions on or off.

  • Limit Web document discussions to documents local to the site.

  • Set expiration for Web document discussions.

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Note   You can administer Web document discussions on a per-virtual server basis only, not per subweb. This is because Web document discussion data is stored in the SharePoint Team Services database, and there is only one database for each virtual server.

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Using HTML Administration pages to manage Web document discussions

You can use HTML Administration pages to manage Web document discussions. With HTML Administration pages, you get an easier-to-use interface, with all of the choices listed on the form. Select the options you want, click Submit, and you are done. To manage Web document discussions, you use commands on the Site Administration page.

To view the Site Administration page
  • If you are a server administrator, on the server computer click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Microsoft SharePoint Administrator, and then on the Server Administration page, click the name of the site you want to manage.

  • If you are a site administrator, on your Web site, click Site Settings, and then under Web Administration, click Go to Site Administration.

To turn discussions on or off for a virtual server
  1. On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Change Web discussion settings.

  2. In the Enable Web Discussions area, next to Web Discussions are, click On or Off.

  3. Click Submit.

If you want discussion items to automatically expire and be deleted from the database, you can change the settings on the Change Web Discussion Settings page.

To set an expiration time for discussion items
  1. On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Change Web discussion settings.

  2. In the Web Discussions Settings area, select the Automatically delete stored discussions after ___ day(s) check box.

  3. In the Automatically delete stored discussions after ___ day(s) box, type the number of days to store Web discussion items before deleting them.

  4. Click Submit.

You can also specify whether to allow Web discussions anywhere on the Internet, or only on the current server, by selecting options on the Change Web Discussion Settings page.

To allow Web discussions on the current server only
  1. On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Change Web discussion settings.

  2. In the Web Discussion Settings area, under Allow Web Discussions on, select the Documents located on this server only check box.

  3. Click Submit.

If you want to use the default Web discussion settings for your server, rather than the settings currently used for your virtual server, you can revert to the default settings by clicking Restore Defaults on the Change Web Discussion Settings page.

You can also view and delete discussion threads on your discussion server. To manage discussion threads, you use the Manage Web Discussions page in the Site Administration pages.

To manage web discussion threads
  • On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Manage Web discussions, and then do any of the following:

    • To see all discussion threads on your server, click All Web document discussions, and then click Update.

    • To see discussion threads filtered by a particular URL, click Web document discussions filtered by URL, type a URL in the box, and then click Update.

    • To view a particular discussion thread, click the URL for the thread.

    • To delete a particular discussion thread, select the check box next to the thread, and then click Delete.

    • To delete all discussion threads on your server, click Delete all discussions.

Using the command line to manage discussions

You can manage discussions from the command line by using the GetProperty, SetProperty, and DeleteProperty operations with Owsadm.exe or Owsrmadm.exe. You can set the following properties to manage how discussions work.

Property

Description

DiscussionsExpiry

Specifies the length of time (in days) before discussions expire and are deleted from the database. Default is 0 (discussions never expire).

EnableDiscussions

Specifies whether discussions are turned on or off (either at the virtual server level or globally). Default is 1 (discussions on).

LocalDiscussionsOnly

Specifies whether discussions are restricted to the current server. Default is 0 (discussions not restricted).

The following example shows the syntax to use to set an aging policy for discussions, so that discussion items are deleted after 60 days:

owsadm.exe -o setproperty -p <port> -pn DiscussionsExpiry -pv 60

SharePoint Team Services stores documents and Web document discussion items separately documents are stored in the file system, and discussion items are stored in the database. Because the discussion items are separate, users can use your SharePoint Team Services discussion server to discuss any document (either HTML or binary format) on any Web or file server and store their discussion data in your database.

If you want to restrict discussions to only work on documents on your Web server running SharePoint Team Services (thus possibly saving space in your database), you can use the LocalDiscussionsOnly property to do so. By default, discussions are not restricted. The following example sets the property to restrict discussions to the local server only.

owsadm.exe -o setproperty -p <port> -pn LocalDiscussionsOnly -pv true

Configuring and managing subscriptions

You can manage subscriptions for one virtual server or all virtual servers on a Web server. You can use the command-line tools or HTML Administration pages to administer discussion settings. If you use HTML Administration pages, you can:

  • View subscription settings.

  • Turn subscriptions on or off.

  • Delete subscriptions.

  • Edit subscriptions.

  • Change the e-mail address that users reply to regarding subscription notifications.

  • Set timer settings for subscriptions.

If you are using the command-line tools, you can:

  • Turn subscriptions on or off.

  • Turn folder subscriptions on or off.

  • Change the SMTP mail server used for subscriptions.

  • Change the e-mail address that sends subscription notifications.

  • Change the e-mail address that users reply to regarding subscription notifications.

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Note   You can administer subscriptions on a per-virtual server basis only, not per-Web site. This is because subscription data is stored in the SharePoint Team Services database and there is only one database for each virtual server.

Cc768009.rule(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

Using HTML Administration pages to manage subscriptions

You can use HTML Administration pages to manage subscriptions. With HTML Administration pages, you get an easier-to-use interface, with all of the choices listed on the form. Select the options you want, click Submit, and you are done. The Web subscription options are on the Site Administration page.

To view the Site Administration page
  • If you are a server administrator, on the server computer click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Microsoft SharePoint Administrator, and then on the Server Administration page, click the name of the site you want to manage.

  • If you are a site administrator, on your Web site, click Site Settings, and then under Web Administration, click Go to Site Administration.

To turn subscriptions on or off for a virtual server
  1. On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Change Web subscription settings.

  2. In the Enable Web Subscriptions area, next to Web Subscriptions are, click On or Off.

  3. Click Submit.

You can determine when subscription notifications are sent by default. For example, you could set the default weekly notifications to be sent out at 5 P.M. every day. To specify these settings, you use the Change Web Subscription Settings page.

To set the notification time for subscriptions
  1. On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Change Web subscription settings.

  2. In the Notification Recurrence Settings area, in the Immediate notifications every ___ minutes box, specify how quickly to send out immediate notifications.

  3. In the Daily notifications at box, specify the time to send out daily notifications.

  4. In the Weekly notifications box, specify the day of the week and the time to send out weekly notifications.

  5. Click Submit.

Also, you can specify the from and reply-to addresses to use for the subscription notifications.

To specify the from and reply-to addresses for Web subscriptions
  1. On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Change Web subscription settings.

  2. In the Mail Settings area, in the From address box, specify an e-mail address to use as the From address in subscription notifications.

  3. In the Reply-to address box, specify an e-mail address that users should reply to if they have any questions.

    Be sure that the address you use for the reply-to address is monitored.

  4. Click Submit.

If you want to use the default Web subscription settings for your server, rather than the settings currently used for your virtual server, you can revert to the default settings by clicking Restore Defaults on the Change Web Subscription Settings page.

You can also view and delete subscriptions on your server. To manage subscriptions, you use the Manage Web Subscriptions page in the Site Administration pages.

To manage Web subscriptions
  • On the Site Administration page for the virtual server, under Web Discussions and Subscriptions, click Manage Web subscriptions, and then do any of the following:

    • To see all subscriptions on your server, click All Web Subscriptions, and then click Update.

    • To filter the list of subscriptions, click Web subscriptions Where, select a criteria, and in the equals (=) box type the value to filter by, and then click Update.

    • To delete a particular subscription, select the check box next to the subscription, and then click Delete.

Using the command line to manage subscriptions

You can manage subscriptions from the command line by using the GetProperty, SetProperty, and DeleteProperty operations with Owsadm.exe or Owsrmadm.exe. You can set the following properties to manage how subscriptions work.

Property

Description

EnableNotifications

Specifies whether subscriptions are turned on or off (either at the virtual server level or globally). Default is 1 (subscriptions on).

FolderSubscriptions

Specifies whether users can subscribe to folders as well as documents. Default is 1 (subscriptions are allowed for folders).

SMTPHost

Specifies the IP address of the SMTP server to use in sending subscription notifications.

SendMailCommand

Sets the name of the program to which e-mail should be piped. Typically this is sendmail, but it could be any program.

MailReplyTo

Specifies the e-mail address to use when replying to subscription notifications messages. The default for SMTP is user@host, where user is the current user account and host is the current host name.

MailSender

Sets the user name to use as the From account when sending subscription notifications. The default for SMTP is user@host, where user is the current user account and host is the current host name.

The following example shows the syntax to use to turn off folder subscriptions:

owsadm.exe -o setproperty -p <port> -pn FolderSubscriptions -pv false

The following example shows the syntax to use to set the MailReplyTo property to send messages to a particular e-mail address (for example, someone@microsoft.com):

owsadm.exe -o setproperty -p <port> -pn MailReplyTo -pv <e-mail address>

For more information about using the command-line tools or setting properties on the command line, see Command-line Administration.

For more information about using HTML Administration pages, see HTML Administration.