Watch Category or Sub Category

[whitts]

Is there anyway to watch a Category or Sub Category? I want certain users or groups to be notified when a new topic is created in certain categories.

A little like the option that Discourse has:

"You will automatically watch all new topics in these categories. You will be notified of every new post in every topic, and a count of new replies will be shown."

Thanks,

[baris]

All categories are watched by default and you get new posts in the /unread section. There is a ignore button on each category, clicking it will ignore that category and you won't see new posts in /unread.

[whitts]

Hi, yes i just noticed that its by default and thats why i didnt see the button . I was wondering if there was a way to get email notifications in the same way as it notifies the unread section? I tried the email notification plugin but it doesnt seem to do anything apart from have a constant loading icon in the top right. Thanks

[baris]

To get emails of new replies in topics, watch the topic and turn on email notifications in your user settings page.

[whitts]

I was wanting to get emails for new topics in categories... not replies to topics. I would like certain users (lets call them category admins) to receive emails when a user posts a new topic in their category..

So for instance we have category Products:

• Products
  • Product A
  • Product B

What i was after is that as soon as a topic is posted in on of those sub categories the category admin gets an email - since they will not always have the site open.

Thanks

[baris]

In that case https://github.com/NodeBB/nodebb-plugin-category-notifications might do what you want.

[whitts]

Thats the plugin i tried at first but it doesnt seem to work with the latest nodebb.. When this plugin is enabled and you go to a category the loading bar gets stuck (the forum still works though). I left comment on github for the author. Thanks

[whitts]

If anyone else is wondering.. I fixed this by modifying the following file:

node_modules\nodebb-plugin-category-notifications\public\scripts\client.js

I changed:

var cid = ajaxify.variables.get('category_id');

to

var cid = ajaxify.data.cid;

[baris]

@whitts Thanks for figuring that out, I applied the fix and published 1.0.6.

[whitts]

@baris Hello, could there be an issue with this plugin in the following scenario:

User follows a category, user posts, user changes username, another user replies to the post?

I tried this and nodebb crashes each time, i had to log in with the user that changed the name, unwatch the category and then nodebb stopped crashing..

Thanks,

[baris]

Please post the stack trace when you get a crash.

[whitts]

@baris Thanks baris, i will see if i can get a dev server setup to test it since i removed the option for username changes.

On a sidenote, is there a way to disable emails for post replies? Since if the user is both subscribed and watching a topic they will get two emails, one from this plugin and one from the system. I tried enabling the "Disable subscriber notification emails" option at the bottom of the nodebb email settings but i still get two emails.

[whitts]

@baris Hello wasnt sure whether to start a new topic or not but i couldnt find the main topic for this plugin.. Is there a way to force a user to watch a category? I am using this as an internal company forum and need people to keep receiving emails for new topics (whether they like it or not)... and from what i can tell people have found out how to unsubscribe pretty quickly.

Thanks,

[AElmoznino]

I just wanted to add that in order to use the plugin, you must on your site include a <div> or <span> with component="category/controls" (it may be empty). As you can see in the public/scrips/client.js, it's looking for that element and adding the button into it, along with its functionality.
Hope that helps and saves people some time!