Events are often one of an organization's most important methods of disseminating information and engaging with their community. Because many events are hosted live (e.g., webinars, trainings, etc.) and are time-sensitive, Higher Logic Vanilla (Vanilla) events include a comprehensive notification system to ensure your users stay in the loop regarding new events and changes to existing ones.
In this article, you'll learn about each of these notifications, including how they are triggered and how to manage your personal notification preferences.
Notification types
Vanilla supports two types of notifications. When managing your preferences, you can:
- Check the bell icon box to receive real-time popup notifications; these display at the bottom left of your screen while logged in to the community.
- Check the envelope icon to receive email-based notifications; the system will send an email to the address listed in your profile.
The importance of a particular Category you follow or Group you belong to will dictate which types of notifications to receive (both, only one, or neither).
Notifications for new and updated events
When it comes to notifications about new and updated events, you have three subscription options:
- Receive notifications for events associated to Categories you follow
- Receive notifications for events associated to Groups you belong to
- Receive notifications for ALL events, regardless of where they originate from
Learn how to manage these subscriptions in their associated sections below.
Set Category preferences
Any time you follow a Category, you can decide whether to receive event notifications via the Notify me of new or updated events option. Check the associated boxes to receive popups, emails, or both.
📝 NOTE: Your notification preferences dictate the initial selections but you can overwrite these defaults, if needed.
📝 NOTE: You can update the notification selections at any time for all of your followed Categories on your profile's Followed Content page.
Set Group preferences
Unlike Categories, you cannot directly control event notification preferences when joining a Group. Instead, they are controlled on your Notification Preferences page, accessible via your profile.
- Check the bell icon and/or envelope icon for the
Notify me of new or updated events option in the Groups section to be notified about new and updated events for all of the Groups you belong to.
Receive notifications for ALL events
If you'd simply like to opt-in to receive notifications for ALL new and updated events across your community that you have access to:
- On your Notification Preferences page, check the bell icon and/or envelope icon for the
Notify me of new or updated events option in the Community Tasks section.
With this option enabled, you will receive notifications for ALL new and updated events:
- at the "top level" of your community, meaning even those not associated with a Category or Group);
- in Categories that the user has permission to view;
- in Groups that the user is a member of (this does not include public groups that the user is not a part of)
- for communities with subcommunities only, any events posted at the "top level" of a subcommunity that the user has permission to view.
Send notifications for event updates
If an Admin edits an event, they can choose to send notifications to all users who have expressed interest in it. The popup shown below displays upon clicking the Save button:
- Check the appropriate option based on your needs. For inconsequential title or description changes, notifications are likely not needed; they are crucial, however, for important changes, like timing or location updates.
- These notification emails provide the updated details only; they do not highlight the specific changes.
📝 NOTE: A user's notification preferences dictates whether they'll receive these update notifications.
RSVP notifications
Do you want to receive immediate confirmation emails when you RSVP to an event, complete with an ICS attachment for seamless integration with your personal calendars?
- If so, go to your profile > Notification Preferences page and check the envelope box (email-based reminder) for the
Remind me of upcoming events option in the Community Tasks section.
Event reminders
Do you want to ensure you don't miss an upcoming event? If so, Vanilla gives you the option to turn on reminder emails for all events in which you've expressed interest (i.e., clicked the I'm Interested button on an event's page).
How it works
When this feature is enabled, you will receive a reminder email 24 hours prior to an event's start time for every event in which you've expressed interest.
How to enable
On your profile > Notification Preferences page and check the envelope box (email-based reminder) for the Remind me of upcoming events option in the Community Tasks section.
Set default event notification preferences for your users
Admins can set global, default preferences for event notifications via the Dashboard. These preferences will be the defaults for all users across your community. While preferences set by individual users supersede these global defaults, their purpose is to ensure a global baseline is in place for your community.
📝 NOTE: If you don't see this option in your community, reach out to Vanilla Support and request to have it enabled.
To set these global defaults:
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Membership > User Preferences.
- Click Edit Default Notifications.
- In the resulting dialog, set your desired preferences on the Groups and Categories tabs.
- Click Save to apply them.
