Add/Subscribe to Community tool overview

The Add/Subscribe to Community tool simplifies user management for Super Admins because several community-based user-management actions can be done "in bulk" (rather than individually) and simultaneously with a properly formatted upload file.

With the tool, you can:

• add member records;
• remove member records (which automatically unsubscribes them from all community emails);
• manage Daily Digest and Real Time subscriptions and overrides for members, as well as subscriptions for the Consolidated Digests; and
• unsubscribe members from all community emails.

And if the file is saved with a name that indicates the action, it can serve as a convenient record of what action was taken, when it occurred, and which user records were managed.

Add/Subscribe to Community tool notes and limitations

Below are a few things to keep in mind as you use the Add/Subscribe to Community tool.

• The tool can be used to manage only one community at a time.
• You cannot simultaneously add and remove users. To do both, you must run the tool individually for each action.
• You cannot simultaneously manage "subscribes" and "unsubscribes." To do both, you must run the tool individually for each action.

Prepare the upload file

The Add/Subscribe to Community tool requires you to upload a properly formatted .CSV file. To do this, you can either:

• download a preformatted file from the Add/Subscribe to Community page or
• create and prepare your own file.

NOTE: Regardless of which option you choose, review the information in Notes & tips, below, to better ensure that your file is properly prepared to avoid possible issues during the upload.

Notes & tips

When preparing and populating your upload file:

• Input valid values only (email addresses or IDs).
  • These values, whether email addresses or IDs, must exactly match the values in the user records.
  • If a cell contains an invalid value or is blank, the upload process will simply ignore that value and continue processing the file; the row is not counted in the 5,000-row maximum.
• Input the values in consecutive rows in the upload file.
  • The upload process can handle a maximum of 5,000 entries. If this maximum is exceeded, the upload file is rejected and an error message displays.
• Data in any columns other than the first column and on any additional workbooks or sheets will be ignored.
• Verify that the values in column A (the header and the user data) are the only data in the upload file.
• When doing subsequent uploads:
  • make a copy of this file and
  • save it with a unique name.

User data type

You can upload user data as either of the following two types. Both of these identifiers are valid, but you must decide on one and then indicate it in the header row (cell 1A) of the upload file. To use:

• users' email addresses, you must populate cell 1A with Email.
• users' IDs, you must populate cell 1A with LegacyContactKey/ID.

NOTE: Failure to use a valid header will cause the upload to fail.

Download the preformatted file

Higher Logic has prepared a .CSV file that you can download and populate with your user data.

To access the file:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Community > Tools > Add/Subscribe to Community.
3. On the Add/Subscribe to Community page, scroll down to the Upload CSV section and click Download CSV template; the file (named add-subscribe-template.csv) should automatically save to the default "downloads" location on your device.

TIP: The download file can be used for "remove" and "unsubscribe" actions, despite its name. Refer to Notes & tips, above, for file-naming tips.

4. Navigate to the default "downloads" location on your device and open the file.

TIP: Save the file with a unique name. For example, include the name of the community, the action (such as, Subscribe-Users), and the date, as in: All-Things-Travel_Subscribe-Users_022125.

Create your own upload file

You can create your own upload file. If you do, keep in mind that:

• you can use your preferred spreadsheet application (MS Excel, OpenOffice Calc, Google Sheets).
• you must save the upload file in .CSV format.
• you should save the file with a unique name. (Refer to Notes & tips, above, for file-naming tips).
• you should refer to the next section for instructions on how to populate the upload file with your user data.

Populate the upload file

The information in this section is applicable to all upload files, regardless of whether you downloaded the Higher Logic-prepared file or are using a blank file to create your own.

NOTE: If you are creating your own, be sure to save the file in .CSV format; otherwise, the upload will fail.

1. Click into cell 1A.
2. Populate the cell with either: Email or LegacyContactKey/ID (based on the type of user data that you want to upload).

NOTE: These are the only valid values for this header cell.

3. Save the file now (if you haven't already):

• with a unique name (refer to Notes & tips, above, for file-naming tips),
• as a .CSV file, and
• where it'll be easily accessible for the upload.

4. Starting in cell 2A, populate the first column only with either the email addresses or the IDs associated with the user records that you want to manage (add, remove, subscribe, unsubscribe) with the tool.

TIP: Refer to Notes & tips, above, for helpful information when populating the file.

Access the Add/Subscribe to Community tool

The Add/Subscribe to Community tool is easily accessible in the Admin interface.

To access the tool:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Community > Tools > Add/Subscribe to Community.

The Add/Subscribe to Community page has several fields.

The upper part of the page is where you configure the action that you want to take (add, remove, subscribe, or unsubscribe):

NOTE: The radio button and the checkboxes that you select will determine which additional fields and settings display. All of the fields and settings that you might encounter are described in the next section.

The lower part of the page is more straightforward and is described below:

NOTE: The Submit button remains inactive until a viable combination of settings has been configured to execute an action. If you're ready to proceed but the button is inactive, review your settings and check for incomplete fields or selections.

TIP: Higher Logic recommends clicking Download CSV template before starting the process. Populate the template with your data and save it to your device as described above in Prepare the upload file.

Configure the tool

This section details how to configure the Add/Subscribe to Community tool to:

• add members to a community,
• remove members from a community,
• subscribe members to community email messages, and
• unsubscribe members from all community emails.

NOTE: The Subscribe Members option has "override" sub-settings. Higher Logic cautions against overriding the expressly selected preferences of your members.

To manage users and/or subscriptions:

TIP: Any setting or field that you might encounter during configuration is described in this section.

1. Click the Choose community dropdown and select a community.

• The dropdown displays a maximum of 15 communities. If the community that you want to manage doesn't display, start typing the community name into the field.

2. In the Choose an action section, choose one radio button (either Add or Subscribe or Remove or Unsubscribe), and refer to the appropriate section below for information on how to configure the action.

After completing the Choose an action section, proceed to the Upload CSV section.

Add or Subscribe members

The Add and Subscribe options can be used individually or together to manage your member records.

Choose:

• Add members to add to the community all users in your upload file who are not already members of the community.
  • If this box is not checked, any users in your upload file who are not already members of the community will be ignored.

NOTE: This option is intended for HL-managed communities only. Do not use this tool to manage member subscriptions in communities that are integrated with an AMS/CRM database.

• Subscribe members to add to the community's "mailing list" all users who are included in your upload file. This option requires a few additional selections. You can check:
  • Override subscriptions to apply the selected Subscription type setting even if users have already set their preferences. (If checked, this enables the Override unsubscriptions setting below.) NOTE: Higher Logic cautions against overriding the expressly selected preferences of your members.
  • Override unsubscriptions to resubscribe users who previously unsubscribed. NOTE: Higher Logic cautions against overriding the expressly selected preferences of your members.
• In the Subscription type section:

• Select which email messages (Daily Digest, Real Time, or none) all users who are included in your upload file will be automatically subscribed to.

If the Daily and Weekly Consolidated Digests are enabled in the selected community, they display as selectable options, and the "send-day" dropdown displays for Weekly Consolidated Digest. If these Digests are not enabled in the selected community, these options do not display.

• In the Consolidated Digests section:

• Check a box to automatically subscribe, to the Daily and/or Weekly Consolidated Digest, all users who are included in your upload file.
• If you select Weekly Consolidated Digest, click the dropdown to set the day of the week on which the Digest will be sent.

Topic communities notes

If the selected community is a Topic community:

• Topic subscription types display instead of the Subscription types shown above,
• the Daily and Weekly Consolidated Digests options do not display, and
• all users who are included in your upload file can be subscribed to Topic subscription types for the community.

Remove or Unsubscribe members

The Remove or Unsubscribe option is more straightforward and requires only one additional selection. Choose either:

• Remove members to remove from the community all users who are included in your upload file.
  • This selection automatically enforces the Unsubscribe setting.
  • See Deactivate, Delete, & Remove for information on the affects of removing users from a community.
• Unsubscribe to remove from the community's "mailing list" all users who are included in your upload file.

(Configuration steps resume...)

3. In the Upload CSV section, you can download a "template" file to use for the upload. Refer to Prepare the upload file, above, for guidance on populating the file.

• Click Download CSV template and save add-subscribe-template.csv to your device.

4. In the CSV file section, click Choose File, and then navigate to and select your saved upload file. The file name displays next to the Choose File button.
5. In the Email address for report recipient field, specify a valid email address. A success/fail message will be sent to this address when the upload completes.

NOTE: Specify only one email address; multiple addresses cause an error.

6. Click Submit and, on the confirmation dialog, click Confirm.

A message displays at the top of the page.

When your request has completed processing, the system automatically sends an email message to the "report recipient" address that was specified.

Confirm the action

Be sure to check your inbox for the confirmation email. If the request failed, you'll want to know so that you can investigate and retry the upload.

Reports

There are two reports available on the Reports > List page in the Admin interface.

• If you have added or removed members, view the Current Community Members report.
• If you have managed user subscriptions, view the All Discussion Subscriptions report.

Related articles

• To learn the differences in and the impacts of the deactivate, delete, and remove actions in a community, see Deactivate, Delete, & Remove.
• To remove individual members, rather than in bulk as described above, see Manage Community Members.