The "Must-Read" functionality is a new option in the search web part configuration. It allows you to highlight any kind of content on the intranet, whether it is news or documents.
With this functionality, you can see when the article is read by users. You can also display only unread content.
You can dedicate a content type to "must-read" news & docs or use an existing content type filtered on a property to create "must-read" content.
Finally, you can associate this functionality with the gamification center, to notify and reward users when they create content and see all readers of an item.
Check also the article "Standalone Template -Company policies" as a possible use case of must-read functionalities.
All of this will be explained below in more detail.
Set up a search web part with must-read features
The Must-Read feature is only available with Orion display templates (more will come soon) in the "Search web part" :
- Aggregate content tiles,
- News list,
- News tiles,
- News tiles (large display)
- Video tiles.
- Save read items: Store items for each user individually if they have read the content
- Hide read items: If a user reads an item, it will not be displayed in the search results
- Show number of readers: displays the number of users who have read the item. Clicking this number will display the full list of users in the left panel. This feature only works if you have linked it to the gamification site and enabled the RDI action "Read Article" on it.
You can add and configure these options as you wish and save your web part to be able to use the "Must-read" feature.
Set Search to display/hide must-read content and the number of readers
"Display/hide must-read contents"
Once you finish the configuration of your must-read features, you can add settings in your Search web part to display or hide must-read content.
It's really easy to do. In your Search web part configuration, enable the "Hide read items" option.
This way, if an item is read by a user, it'll not be displayed in the result list anymore for this specific user.
For your content to be instantly hidden once it has been read, please disable the "Enable the cache" option in the Miscellaneous section.
"Number of readers"
This option displays a button with the number of readers. It opens a panel with the complete list of readers.
If you do wish to use this feature, make sure you follow the entire article to make sure you don't miss any settings.
If you decide to enable it, you can also add a "Due Date" managed property that will allow you to fill in a managed property of your content type to see if readers have read the content before or after the due date.
You can leave this field ( due date managed property) empty and it'll only show the list of readers.
(Optionnal) Set "Must-Read" gamification action
As we said before, the Must-Read feature requires linking it to a specific gamification action. For this, you need to make sure :
- Your site collection is linked to your Gamification Center
- The gamification center has the "Read items" action, with the RDI code, added to it.
If these 2 prerequisites are not met, here is what to do :
How to link your gamification center to your site collection?
If you don't have a Gamification Center, follow this link to see how to deploy the Powell Gamification Center.
Go to the settings of your site collection, and click on the configuration tab of the environment where your site is deployed:
Then, in the Gamification category, click on the button to link your gamification center to your site collection.
You can either choose, if it already exists, a Gamification site, or create a new one by clicking the button "Create a Gamification site collection".
Once you have your gamification site, you can select it and click the "validate" button, to save your changes.
How to add the "Read content" to your Gamification site?
To add the "Read content" action, you need to be a Site administrator. Go to the Gamification site.
At the bottom of the "Gamification actions admin" web part, click the "Add a new action" button to create a new action.
Then, click the "Create action" to add your custom "Must-read" action.
The followings fields are required to be filled for this feature to work :
- "Title" : Give your "Must-read" action the title you wish
- "Code action" : It has to be "RDI"
- "Points" : The points a user receives for the action
You can finish configuring your action by filling in all the other fields. You can publish your action by clicking the "Publish" button.
How to add the "Create content" to your Gamification site?
Even if it's not mandatory, we suggest you add the "create content" action to your site. This will allow setting a gamification reward if a user creates a must-read item. ( In the next step : (Optional) Set a content type dedicated to must-read contents action will be used.)
You'll just have to follow the same steps as in the "How to add the "Read content" into your Gamification site ?" but with the following fields filled differently :
- "Title" : [USER] when a user creates content, his name will appear as a title.
- "Code action": e.g. For the "News creation" action, the code NCS has been used.
You can also notice that this action gifts more points and Is Boosted.
Finish your configuration by filling all the other fields and then publish your action by clicking the "Publish" button.
(Optional) Set a content type dedicated to must-read content
If you do not wish to add a content type linked to this feature, you can go to the next section. It won't influence the use of the "must-read" feature. It is not mandatory to have a content type dedicated to "must-read".
You'll need the gamification action "Create content" created in your environment, to make it available on your actions, as shown in the "How to add the "Create content" into your Gamification site ?" part.
In Powell Manager, in the content-type section, you can set a content type dedicated to must-read content.
You can :
- Create a new content type (number 1 in the screenshot below),
- Edit an already created content type (number 2 in the screenshot below),
- Duplicate a Powell content type (number 3 in the screenshot below) to edit it after the duplication.
You can now set a gamification action to your content type to notify and reward a user if he creates content.
Once your content type is selected, you'll just have to go on the Gamification tab to the left and turn on the button to "Enable the Gamification".
You can select "Manual value" in the list below and add the code action linked to "Create news" action we set previously on Sharepoint.
Then save and deploy your content type to make your changes appear on your site.