Streams and Email Notifications

What are Streams?

A stream shows you real-time updates of activity as community members interact with content, people, and places in the community. You can see all public activity in the Activity Stream, or create your own custom streams that show only the people, places, and content items you select.

The Connections Stream in action, pushing recent updates from people, places, and content I Follow.

You'll see a new stream items as people interact in your community, for example: create a document, reply to a blog post, post a status update, create a Product Idea, and so on.

A stream item is created when people interact with content, people, and places in the community. Here are some examples of activities that trigger new stream items:

• Content: someone modifies the content item, for example, edits, comments on, or replies to it.
• People: someone posts a status update, creates a content item, comments on a content item, and so on.
• Places: someone updates content in the place, for example, publishes a new document, edits a blog post, or comments on a document that lives in the place.

How Do I Create a Stream?

Follow these easy steps to create your own customized streams:

1. Click on New Stream and enter a name for this stream, for example: All PTC Creo, Social Groups, Community Member Watches, and so on.

2. Drag and drop items from the Suggested People and Places in the right column, or use the Search box to find specific items you want to follow in this stream.

3. Select whether you want to receive an email every time there is a new item in this stream (Email update > "On" or "Off").

4. To save this new stream, click "Done".

Examples of Custom Streams

Here are some examples of custom streams you might create, depending on your role in the organization or how you want to check in on community activity throughout the day. Consider creating and organizing your custom streams based on the following strategies. Try using a combination of these to develop the best approach for your needs:

• Email Watches - Follow critical news items here and then make sure to set Email Updates to "On" when you are editing this stream. You can also set this by clicking your avatar > Preferences. Use this stream wisely so that you don't create an email nightmare for yourself.
• PTC Product A - Follow everything related to one of the products you're working with.
• PTC Product B - Follow everything related to another product you're working with.
• Community Members - Follow specific people within the community so that you stay current with their activities.
• Social Groups - Follow all group related activity within a custom view

Add to a Stream

Quickly add content, people, and places to any of your streams using any of these methods:

From the Activity Stream

Hover your mouse over a person's name or avatar, or the name of a place, and click the Follow button . You can then select which stream(s) you want to follow the person or place.

Within the Main Navigation

Use Browse within the main navigation and select Content, Communities, Groups, or People from the resulting dropdown menu to browse for things to follow. Be sure to check the "Recommended" tab for suggestions based on your individual activity and connections within the community. When you see an item you want to follow, click on the gear icon on the right-hand side and then Follow. Then select the stream(s) in which you want to follow the content item, person, or place.

Using the Search Functionality

Use the Search feature to find keywords, categories, and tags on things that might interest you. When you find something you want to follow, click on the item. From there, click Follow. Then select the stream(s) in which you want to follow the content item, person, or place.

Tip: If you are already following something in a stream, you'll see the notation "Following in". If you're not following it, it will show "Follow".

For more information on adding content to a stream check out the documentation: How do I Follow people, places, and content?

Edit Your Streams

As your community interests change over time, so should your custom streams. Edit them to match what you need from the community at any given time.

You can change your streams over time to add or remove people, places, and content from them, depending on what you're working on. From any of your streams, you can hover over a place name or person's name and select "Following" and then "Stop Following" from the resulting dropdown.

For content items, click the name of the item, and the select "Stop Following". You can also click the gear icon next to the stream and click "Edit stream" to use the stream drag-and-drop feature.

Troubleshooting Streams

A stream item is created when people interact with content, people, and places in the community. Here are some examples of activities that trigger new stream items:

• Content: someone modifies the content item, for example, edits, comments on, or replies to it.
• People: someone posts a status update, creates a content item, comments on a content item, and so on.
• Places: someone updates content in the place, for example, publishes a new document, edits a blog post, or comments on a document that lives in the place.

If you are seeing something in your stream that you don't think you are following, ask yourself these questions:

• Am I following the person who posted the item?
• Am I following the place where the item was posted?
• Am I following this content item?

If you discover that you are following the person, place, or content item but you don't want to, go to or hover over the person, place, or content and click "Stop Following".

Email or No Email?

Part of the power of PTC community is that our app-based approach to communication allows members to participate and create content online, while also reducing the clutter of email. The Jive product we use allows you to customize your notifications so that you receive an email, or not, when a person, place, or item posts an update in one of your streams. Since our community a pretty busy place, some users may find that they rapidly accumulate hundreds of email messages from any streams that have email notifications set to "On".

Here are some good email notification strategies:

• Turn off all email notifications and follow all activity within PTC Community 100%. You will never get an email when your followed people, places, or items post updates in the community.
• Create an Email Watches stream and set email notifications to "On" for only that stream. Then, only follow critical items in your Email Watches stream. This stream can be helpful when you're away from the community for a few days or if you want to watch something that you haven't directly participated in (if you had, you'd see those updates in your Inbox).
• Set email notifications to "On" for your Inbox (direct social actions) so that you'll get an email any time someone @mentions you, sends you a direct message, or shares something with you. Remember that if you set email notifications to "On" for Inbox (everything in my Inbox page), you will receive an email each time someone posts an update to an item in which you were previously @mentioned or that you participated in.

Customizing Email Updates

You can set email notifications on any of your streams, including your Inbox, so that you receive an email each time a person, place, or item posts an update in that stream. There are two ways to turn email notifications "Off" or "On":

When you're editing a stream

1. Click the gear icon next to the stream name and select "Edit Stream"
2. At the top of the stream, switch Email Notifications to "Off" or "On"
3. Then click  "Done" next to the stream's title in the left sidebar

From your Preferences page

1. Click the triangle next to your avatar in the upper right corner and select "Preferences"
2. From there you can turn Email Notifications to "Off" or "On" for each stream, including your Inbox
3. Click "Save" when you're done.

CAUTION: When you turn "On" email notifications for a stream or your Inbox, you will get an email every time for any activity generated in a stream stream or Inbox. This can get overwhelming quickly; we recommend setting email notifications to "Off" whenever possible.