Allowing users to subscribe to blog comment notifications

Users can subscribe to receiving notifications about new blog comments in a blog post.

Enabling subscriptions in a blog

You can enable users to subscribe to blog comments by checking the Allow subscription to comments box on the Form tab of the corresponding blog page.

Enabling double opt-in for blog subscriptions

To make users confirm that the e-mail address they’re subscribing with really exists and belongs to them, you can enable the double opt‑in functionality. With double opt‑in enabled, subscribers will be sent an e-mail with a confirmation link. They will have to click the link to create their subscription.

To enable double opt‑in globally for all blogs

  1. Open the Settings application.

  2. Navigate to Content -> Blogs.

  3. Turn on the Enable double opt-in for blog post comments setting.

  4. Specify how long you want the confirmation links to be valid in the Double opt-in interval setting.

    Optional steps - follow the steps if you don’t want the system to use the default approval page located in~/CMSModules/Blogs/CMSPages/SubscriptionApproval.aspx:

    1. Place the Blog post subscription confirmation web part on a page. Adjust its properties according to your needs.
    2. Enter the page’s path into the Double opt-in approval page path setting.
    3. Confirm by OK. The system places the web part on the page.
  5. Save the settings.

Double opt-in should now be configured for all blogs. You can override the settings for each existing blog by selecting the corresponding blog page, switching to the Form tab and adjusting the settings in the Comments: Subscription category.

The functionality uses the Blogs - Subscription request e-mail template. You can insert the confirmation link into the template using the {%SubscriptionLink%} macro.

Allowing users to manage their subscriptions on the Live site

You can allow users to manage their own blog post comment subscriptions by placing the My account web part on a page.

To place the My account web part

  1. In the Pages application, navigate to the page on which you want to allow users to manage their blog post comment subscriptions.
  2. Place the My account web part on the page.
  3. In the Other tabs section of the web part properties, turn the Display my subscriptions check-box on.
  4. Adjust the rest of the web part properties according to your needs.
  5. Confirm by OK. The system places the web part on the page.

Users can view and Delete their blog post comment subscriptions on the page. If double opt-in is enabled and a subscription hasn’t been yet confirmed, users can also Approve the subscription.

Users can also unsubscribe from blog comment notifications by clicking a link that cancels their subscription. The link is in each notification e-mail. For this to work, you have to:

  1. Place the Blog post unsubscription web part on a page
  2. Set the URL of the unsubscription page

To place the Blog post unsubscription web part on a page

  1. Navigate to the Pages application.
  2. (Recommended) Create a special page for the web part.
  3. Place the Blog post unsubscription web part on the page.
  4. Specify the Confirmation details and adjust the web part properties according to your needs.
  5. Confirm by OK. The system places the web part on the page.

Set the URL of the unsubscription page

You can set the Unsubscription URL in two ways:

Globally, for all blogs

For a specific blog

  1. Open the Settings application.
  2. Navigate to Content -> Blogs.
  3. Set the Blog unsubscription URL to the address of the page on which you placed the Blog post unsubscription web part.
  4. Save the changes.

Note that you can override these settings by setting a different URL on a blog’s Form tab.

  1. Navigate to blog for which you want to specify the Unsubscription URL.
  2. In the Comments: Configuration section, set the Unsubscribe link URL to the address of the page that you placed the Blog post unsubscription web part on.
  3. Save the changes.