The Online addon lets you display a real-time “who’s online” list in your community, so members can quickly see which users are currently active.
You can add the "who's online" list to your community in two ways:
- Via the Online addon’s settings
- Via the Who's Online widget in Layout Editor
NOTE: Regardless of how you add it, you must enable the Online addon for it to work.
Enable the Online addon
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Addons > Addons.
- Click the Online toggle to turn it ON.
Online addon settings
On the Settings > Addons > Addons page, locate the Online addon and click its settings icon.
In the resulting dialog, you can configure the following settings:
- Where should the Online list be displayed?: You can display the list:
- on every page,
- only on the Discussion and Category pages,
- on all discussion pages,
- or you can choose to add it manually in your theme.
NOTE: If you want to manually add the Who's Online widget to your custom layouts via Layout Editor, we recommend using the I'll place it manually with my theme option to avoid duplicate lists. Learn how do this in the section below.
- Show active users for the entire site: If ON, all users are included; if OFF, only users in the current Category are listed.
- How should the list be rendered?: Choose how to show users in the list: either User Icons (avatar) or User Links (name as hyperlink).
- Hide the Online list from guests?: Select whether to show or hide the Online list from guest users.
- How long are you "online" for after you visit a page?: This option lets you determine the length of time users are considered "online" after visiting a page, and therefore whether they're shown in the list. You can select 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or 20 minutes. While users outside this range are still logged into your community, this allows you to hide users who aren't active.
Manually add the Who's Online widget
In Layout Editor, you can add the Who’s Online widget to any custom page layout, letting you place an online-users list exactly where you want it.
NOTE: You must enable the Online addon for this widget to function.
- Navigate to the Dashboard > Appearance tab.
- Edit or create a layout for the desired page.
- Add the Who's Online widget to a section and configure its settings. Check out this article to learn more.
- Save the layout.
User privacy
Each user has the freedom to decide whether they want to be shown in the Online list.
- Access your profile.
- Click Who's Online in the right-hand panel.
- Check or uncheck the Hide my online status from other members box.
- Click Save to apply your change.
