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A way to monitor changes on objects or categories of objects
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User Watches

If a user wants to receive an email when content is added or edited—such as wiki pages, forum topics, or (almost) any other content — they can create a watch. Watches can also be set for group notifications.

For example, for the page Using Wiki Pages on this documentation site, a registered user can monitor it (i.e., add a "User Watch"):

Watch feature screenshot

Contents of this page

1.1. 'My Watches' User Interface

A user can manage watches on many Tiki objects (such as new articles) via the My Watches page under their My Account menu:
User menu > My Account > My Watches (tiki-user_watches.php).

The User Watches and Preferences page includes several tabs (depending on which features are enabled on the site):

  1. Report preferences
    Click to expand
    Click to expand
  2. My Watches
    Click to expand
    Click to expand
    • You can select an event type from a list, which varies depending on the enabled features and your permissions on the site.

      Click to expand
      Click to expand
  3. Notification Preferences
    Choose whether to receive notifications for your own changes. If unchecked, you will not receive notifications for changes you made.
    Click to expand
    Click to expand

1.2. Types of watches

You can click the icon near the top of many pages (often in a dropdown menu or popup). Clicking it activates a watch and changes to (indicating that you have set a watch).

  • Wiki page watch: Notifies you of edits and new comments/replies.
  • Wiki structure watch: Notifies you when new pages are added to the structure.
  • Wiki sub-structure watch: Notifies you when objects are added or removed in a sub-section and its descendants.
  • Content category watch: Notifies you of objects added or removed in a Category.
  • Category and descendants watch: Notifies you of changes in the category and all nested categories.
  • Forum watch: Notifies of new topics only (not replies).
  • Forum topic watch: Notifies of new replies in the thread. It does not notify you of new topics or replies to the new topics, unless you have subscribed also to that Forum.
  • Forum topics and threads watch: Notifies of new topics and all replies.
  • Calendar watch: Notifies you of added or edited events. (As of Tiki28 (2025), there is no way to watch all calendars at once.)
    • Note:
      If you have multiple calendars, deselect all but one to see the watch icon for a specific calendar.
  • And similarly, for all the other Tiki objects that accept "User Watches" . See below the table listing all Tiki objects accepting them.


Admins can configure Group Watches to notify user groups about changes:

  • a "group watch" on a structure (to force one or several groups of users to watch for changes on the Structure of wiki pages where that wiki page belongs to).
  • a "group watch" on a category (to force one or several groups of users to watch for changes on the category of objects).
  • a "group watch" on a forum (to force one or several groups of users to watch for all topics of this forum), or
  • a "group watch" on a forum topic and threads (to force one or several groups of users to watch for all topics and all their replies of that forum).
  • a "group watch" on a calendar sends you information of the new events added or edited in that specific calendar. As of Tiki10 (2012) there is no way yet to watch all calendars at once.
    • Note about Calendar Watches:
      Please note that if you have more than one calendar created in your site, you have to deselect all calendars except one (from the list of viewable calendars to be displayed) so that you can see the icon to group watch that single Calendar.
  • And similarly, for all the other Tiki objects that accept "Group Watches" . See, below, the table listing all Tiki objects accepting them.

1.3. How to turn off watches

To turn off a user watch, a user can either:

  1. Click the "stop-monitoring" icon . It will change to indicate the page is no longer watched.
    or

  2. Or, go to My Watches and delete the desired entries.


To be removed from Group Watches:

  • Ask a site admin to remove you from the group.
  • Or, request the group watch to be reconsidered—users may prefer setting their own watches now that the feature is widely understood.


Note: Some older Tiki documentation suggests that minor changes might not trigger a notification. This may no longer apply.

1.4. Which sections can be watched

Feature name and linkDescriptionWatch item
ArticlesArticles can be used for date-specific news and announcements. You can configure articles to automatically publish and expire at specific times or to require that submissions be approved before becoming "live." In addition to categories and tags, articles include their own unique classification system of Topics and Types.yes (global)
BlogsMultiple blogs can be created with various author and display configurations, etc.yes (global and individual)
CalendarEvents calendar with public, private and group channelsyes (individual)
CategoriesGlobal category system. Items of different types (wiki pages, articles, tracker items, etc) can be added to one or many categories. Categories can have permissions.yes (global and individual)
File GalleryStorage and sharing via download or display in pages, of images, videos, and other file types . Supports check-in and check-out (lock), versions, etc.yes (global)
File GalleryFile Galleries enable secure and efficient uploading, storage, downloading and other serving of all types of files including images, videos, podcasts, text and PDF documents and more.yes (global)
ForumsForums are online discussions organized by topic (or thread). Tiki forums feature threaded or flat views, file attachments, moderation and queuing, monitoring (subscription) of particular forums or topics, and full usage of wiki syntax.yes (global and individual)
MapsMaps can be created and displayed using OpenLayers and OpenStreetMap.yes (global and individual)
StructureIn Tiki terminology, a structure is a hierarchy for wiki pages. Structures have navigational features such as breadcrumb links and menus; also enabled is printing all pages in the structure and in order.yes (global and individual)
TrackersFacts and figures storage and retrieval. A forms and database generator, with reporting. Can be used for a bug tracker, item database, issue tracker, etcyes (global and individual)
WikiCollaboratively authored documents with history of changes. Tiki's wiki has all the features you could want from a first-rate wiki. Ex.: attach files, comments, history, images, warn on edit, page locking, powerful wiki syntax, alternative WYSIWYG editor, etc.yes (global and individual)


You will receive notifications when items are: Added to or removed from a category, but also when items in the category are modified. This can be useful for Tiki as a Document Workflow or in Project Management.

Watches can also be applied to groups, so all members receive notifications.

1.5. How to enable/disable this feature

To activate or deactivate watches:
You must go to Settings-> Control Panels -> Global Setup -> Features, and under Global features tab, scroll down to Watches feature and check/uncheck User Watches and/or Group watches.

Related pages

Alias names for this page

Watches | User Watches | User watch | Pull | Watching | user watches | userwatches

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