Understanding Portal Server Subscriptions

Subscriptions enable end users to create a profile covering many sources of information, including categories, discussions, and searchable documents. The profile is updated with the latest information each time the end user accesses the Subscriptions channel. The Subscriptions channel summarizes the number of items of relevant information that match each profile entry that the end user defines for categorized document or discussions.

You can match the following types of content using the search server:

• New documents in a target category from a specified range of days

• New relevant comments within a discussion from a specified range of days

• Document hits against saved searches

The result is displayed as a link that shows the number of matching information to the profile entry. This link redirects the end user to a more detailed view of the match itself.

In case of a category subscription, the link redirects the end user to the search channel, which summarizes the specific documents of interest in a standard category search result format. The Subscriptions channel acts as the doorway to a more detailed view for the end user.

The Profiler function provides email notifications when the content of specified interests has changed. The Profiler obtains subscription details for end users from the Access Manager, fetches the results from the Search server, and sends email notifications to end users. You can schedule the Profiler to run at a specific time at the organization level.