I wish there was a count that showed up in the upper right corner when there are new private messages.So, let's say I have two new messages in my inbox, in the upper right menu, it would say: Inbox (2)Or even an icon to show that there are new messages.
http://community.metalreview.com/forums
Hi Zshazlez,
Zshazlez:This is a critical and necessary feature for site communications. You really do need to add it in.
While I don't have much more to add, I did want to respond that we *agree* that message read/unread status is important. Furthermore, as I mentioned above, we definitely plan to add it to our first point release. Unfortunately, with all the new work we've added in Community Server 2008, we had to make hard trade-off decisions. Of all the features that didn't make the cut, I would agree that this one was the toughest (and will be the first to be implemented).
If you do decide to implement read/unread on your own, feel free to ping me (jlema AT telligent DOT com) and I can give you some pointers so that your implementation most closely matches what we'll be doing.
One is glad to be of service...
I have made a display condition that can be used to display content based on whether or not a user has any unread private messages - see the UserHasUndreadPrivateMessageCondition @ http://askcrome.co.uk/alexcrome-cs/1-3/ for more details & instalation instructions.
It doesn't provide a count of unread private messages however it does goe a large part of the way to your ultimate goal.
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Awesome, that's just as good as the counter.I will check that out. Thanks.
At this stage, it's unlikely that being able to mark conversations as read/unread will make it into the release of CS 2008. I won't rule it out completely, but wanted to let you know to not count on it being there just yet. If feedback is strong enough it might, or at least in the next point release.
Woops, didn't realise this was in the CS2008 forum. The control I linked to above will not work in CS2008 due to changes in how CS08 handles Private Messages. That control will only work for CS2007.
afscrome - Thanks for clarifying.
Adding feedback to have this added. It's a pretty common feature on a lot of compeiting products and I for one would sure use it.
Yeah, what's the point of the private messages if you aren't alerted of them when you are in Community Server?Most people would want their users to be logged into their community all the time. If I get a private message while I'm logged in, I want to be made aware of it and can respond.Now, unless a user has their email open they have no clue that someone is contacting them via private message.Please add this.
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Dave,
Having rereading your post, it appears you're talking about a different feature to the one being asked for in this post. You appear to be talking about marking Private messages as being read or unread, whereas this thread is asking about whether or not either, chang the inbox text (above the search box in the top, right of this page) to either have different text when a user has an unread conversation e.g. "You have unread Private Messages" or to chagne the Inbox text to include a count of unread messages e.g. "Inbox (3)".
Even if it's not available out of the box, will such a thing be possible using Chameleon controls / Display Conditions?
Hi guys,
Allow me to add some clarity.
In Community Server 2008, the "private message" feature is no longer associated with forums (so it doesn't benefit from thread read/unread status). It's part of our new Messaging system that supports profile announcements, comments, activity logging in addition to "conversations". In our early design decisions, we chose *not* to support read/unread status on messages (of any kind) for v1. As a result, the *only* way that a user is notified about a new conversation is via email.
That said, since we know seeing conversations is an important feature, our redesigned home page (which will exist in Beta 2) includes your most recent conversations front and center.
So, just to make sure we're all understanding each other , it's *not possible* to show unread count in the top-right area, since there's no read/unread status on the message.
Thanks for the feedback, let us know if you've got questions...
Thanks for the clarity. As mentioned above, I would like to second that the unread status is usually a standard feature in other community frameworks - I would classify it as high-priority to get it in the next beta release. Knowing that a new message has arrived is pivotal for effective communication. Relying on email notifications mitigates the usefulness of PMs - it would be easier to just email one another.
Whenever I setup CS for a client they immidiately request this feature.
Thanks.
Lunarmedia.com
I'd also like to add my support for having the ability to see new messages added, in my community the messaging system would be nearly useless without this feature for many of the reasons others have said. Not everyone sits at home with Outlook open 24/7 to receive an email notification, and even then they may as well cut the middle layer out and email directly, and I don't think members should be made to have to look for replies every 5 minutes. Why was it decided not to include the functionality may I ask?
Hey Guys,
Unfortunately, it's too late in the dev cycle to add this feature. As I mentioned above, message read/unread status will *not* exist in CS2k8. It *will* be added to our first point release post launch.
OnionMan:Why was it decided not to include the functionality may I ask?
Since CS2k8 has so much new functionality, this item never made it to the highest priority and was pushed back to the next release. With the creation of groups, media galleries, viewer support, webservices, centralized files, messaging, ... there's bound to be some features that will not make the final release. This, unfortunately, is one of those features.
Thanks again...
Thanks for the reply Jose,
A few months wait won't be to bad if it is going to be added in a point release
I really want to chime in and add that my company has been looking into Community Server for some new development we have and we've been in negotiations for CS2008 when it becomes available. The fact that a message count isn't included because messages don't have a read status means we either need to code the ability to track that read status ourselves or develop our own messaging system. I have loved so much about CS and have fought for using the great functionality you've built. Unfortunately I won't get support from our management for using your messaging system because of this one oversight. This is a critical and necessary feature for site communications. You really do need to add it in.