(Return to All Documents view)
Using Discussion
To follow a discussion:
Select the All Documents view to see a chronological listing of main topics for discussion and their responses. Select the By Author view to see what individual members of the discussion group have said. Select the By Category view to browse the group's discussions by a categorization of main topics.
To begin a discussion:
From the All Documents view, By Author view or By Category view, create a Main Topic document to start a new topic for discussion. Be sure to enter a category for the topic (Training, Documentation, Technical Tips, etc.).
To respond to a main topic or a response document:
Menu
If you want to respond to a main topic, first highlight the main topic document and then select Create, Response. Fill out the response form. When you are done, press ESC and answer Yes to save your new document.
If you want to respond to the message in a response document, highlight the appropriate response document and then select Create, Response to Response. Fill out the response form and then save your changes.
Actions
Open the document you wish to respond to and click the Response action button at the top of the document.
Web Browser
Open the document you wish to respond to and click on the New Response hotspot at the top of the document. Fill out the response form and then click on either the Submit hotspot on the top of the response form or the Submit button at the bottom of the response form.
To flag a document as Private:
You can use the "Mark Private" and "Mark Public" actions in the template to control whether anyone other than yourself can read a specific document. For example, if you have not completed the writing of a particular document, you can click the "Mark Private" action and others will not be able to see the document. When you complete the document, you can click the "Mark Public" action to make it available for others to read.
Note: This action is not available to Anonymous web users.
To mark a document as expired
Notes
Use the Action menu item Mark Document Expired to mark a document as obsolete. After a certain number of days (set in the Archive Profile) the obsolete document will be copied to an archive database and deleted from the discussion database.
Web Browser
Put the document in edit mode by clicking the Edit Document hotspot. Click the Mark Expired/Unexpired hotspot at the top of the document.
To set up an Interest Profile:
Notes
Use the Action menu item Edit Interest Profile to bring up your personal interest profile document. You can elect to be notified via a newsletter if certain conditions are met. These conditions can include the appearance of your name or phrases that you designate.
Web Browser
Select the Edit Profile hotspot from any of the views in the database to bring up your personal interest profile document. You can elect to be notified via a newsletter if certain conditions are met. These conditions can include the appearance of your name or phrases that you designate. This feature is not available to Anonymous web users.
To add the current discussion topic to your Interest Profile:
Notes
Use the Action menu item Add Selected Topic To Interest Profile to add the current discussion topic to the list of items you wish to track via newsletter.
Web Users
Open the Main Topic which you would like to be added to your interest profile and select the Add Topic to Interest Profile hotspot. This action is available whether you are reading or editing a main topic document. This feature is not available to Anonymous web users.
Anonymous responses:
If you wish to respond anonymously to a discussion, highlight the main topic or a response and select Create, Other. Then select either Anonymous Response or Anonymous Response to Response. This feature is not available to web users. If an anonymous web user is able to open the discussion database, all documents created will reflect that the user is anonymous.
Agents & Archiving:
Newsletters - A user can elect to be notified via e-mail when a new response has been added to certain topic(s) of discussion. These topics are specified in the user's Interest Profile. There are seven agents pertaining to newsletters.
Edit Interest Profile: The Interest Profile contains individual topics, phrases, keywords or categories of interest to the individual. It can be tailored to contain as wide or as narrow a selection of topics as the individual is seeking information on. This document is used by the Send Newsletters and Add Selected Topic to Interest Profile agents, described below.
WebEditInterest Profile: Web users equivalent of the Edit Interest Profile agent.
Web InterestProfileSave: Saves the Interest Profiles for web users.
Add Selected Topic to Interest Profile: Allows the user to add new topics of interest to their individual interest profiles. After a new topic has been added, a Notes agent will process this request and notify the user via e-mail whenever new responses to this topic are added to the database. If the error "This is not identified as a thread. Contact the database manager if you want all threads initialized." appears, the database manager must run the agent called Initialize ThreadIds (see description below).
WebAddTopic: Web users equivalent of Add Selected Topic to Interest Profile agent.
Send Newsletters: Reviews the "Interest Profile" of each user who has a profile on a server-based Discussion database. It matches criteria on the profile with any criteria it finds in the topics of the current database. Each match generates a document link, which will become part of the newsletter; that newsletter is then mailed to the subscriber. The agent can be run periodically. Typically this would be on a daily basis.
WebRemoveThread: Removes the selected thread from the web users Interest Profile.
Archiving Documents - This is a process by which certain documents are removed from the current database and stored in a different database. This keeps the discussion up-to-date with only the latest topics. Most of the Archiving activities take place from the "Archiving" view. You must switch to this view in order to initiate archiving on a discussion database.
Notes
To set up archiving on any discussion database, switch to the Archiving view and click the action called "Setup Archive". The Archive Profile appears. This document contains criteria that the user specifies for archiving topics in a discussion (e.g., inactive after 'x' days, or expired after 'x' days). The archive database is automatically created when the Profile is saved. The archival database filename is also specified in the Archive Profile; the title of the archive will be the title of the Discussion database followed by "(Archived)". After the archive criteria have been specified in the Archive Profile, other agents run on the database to move the document(s).
Web Users
Switch to the Archiving view and click the Setup Archive hotspot. This hotpot only appears to Managers and Designers of the database. The Archive Profile form appears. The archive database is automatically created when the Profile is saved. The archival database filename is also specified in the Archive Profile; the title of the archive will be the title of the Discussion database followed by "(Archived)". After the archive criteria have been specified in the Archive Profile, other agents run on the database to move the document(s).
Mark/Unmark Document as Expired: Marks a topic as "expired". If the Archive Profile specifies that expired topics should be archived, the document(s) marked with this agent would fall into that criterion. If a document is already marked as expired, this agent tells the user what the expire date was, and will ask if the user wants to un-expire it.
Periodic Archive: Reviews the Archive Profile and moves documents which meet the archive criteria into the archive database. This agent is run automatically on the server; the schedule is set by the database manager/designer.
Redesigning R3 Discussion databases - The R4 discussion template is fully backward-compatible with R3 discussion databases; therefore, these databases can be redesigned to use the R4 template/features. The R4 template has new agents (described above), one of which uses something called a ThreadId (also a new feature in the R4 template) to generate newsletters. The agent Initialize ThreadIds must be run on a redesigned database if users wish to use the new "Newsletter" agents.
Initialize ThreadIds: Using @Unique, sets a common "id" to a discussion thread (main topic and all its responses). This agent runs on all documents in a database; it is recommended that it be run on any R3 Discussion database that is redesigned using the R4 Discussion template. The agent only needs to be run once.
By default this agent is hidden. The database designer/manager should un-hide the agent by editing it and selecting "Manually from Menu" as when the agent should run. The agent should then be hidden again to avoid accidental re-running.