Timeline & Notifications | SideDrawer

This article is for: All SideDrawer users

You will receive notifications from SideDrawer to keep you informed of activities in your account: when new files are uploaded, when Collaborators are added, when you are invited to a new SideDrawer or Record, and more.

Most notifications come from the SideDrawer Timeline, the log of activities in each SideDrawer.

This article covers the Timeline, the kinds of notifications you'll get from SideDrawer, and how to manage and troubleshoot your notification settings.

SideDrawer Timeline

The Timeline is a log of activities in each SideDrawer, maintained in real time.

You can access the Timeline by clicking on the 3 dots next to the SideDrawer name, and selecting Timeline from the menu

Each entry in the Timeline shows:
User - the person/account who performed the action
Action - what they did (added, deleted, updated, created, etc.)
Object - File, Record, Collaborator, etc.
Location - Tile and/or Record involved
SideDrawer - Name of the SideDrawer where the action took place
Date - Month/Day/Year when the action took place

The Timeline is hyperlinked, so you can click on a line about adding a file to navigate to that file, as long as you have permission to access the Record where it's saved

Timeline Notifications

The SideDrawer platform takes a 'snapshot' of each SideDrawer every 2 hours, looking for new activity.
If there has been new Timeline activity - files uploaded, files deleted, Collaborators added, etc. - the system will generate and send a Timeline Notification email

Notifications are batched, so one email will include all the activity in that 2-hour window
So if you upload 10 files, your client won't get 10 notification emails, just the one email with 10 events listed in it

The link in the Notification email will take users to the SideDrawer login page, then navigate them directly to the Timeline once they've logged in

Notification emails are sent to all Collaborators on the SideDrawer with Viewer-level access or higher (SideDrawer Owner, SideDrawer Editor, SideDrawer Contributor, or SideDrawer Viewer)

Exception: the user who performed the actions will not get a Notification email
So if you upload a file in a client's SideDrawer, the Notification email will be sent to the client, but not to you

Collaborators with Record-level access (Viewer or higher) will receive Notification emails only for the Record(s) that they have access to

Other Notifications

Besides Timeline Notifications, there are other activities in SideDrawer that will trigger notification emails.
Settings that mute Timeline Notifications will not affect these other notifications.

Invitations: clients will receive an email from SideDrawer notifying them when they've been added as Collaborators on a SideDrawer or Record.
Invitation emails include a link to the SideDrawer login page - existing users will be prompted to log into their account, and new users will be prompted to register, before navigating to the new SideDrawer or Record
Info Requests: sending an Info Request to a SideDrawer will trigger a notification email, showing the name of the Info Request, the user/account who sent it, and the name of the SideDrawer.
The link will take users to the login page, and once they log in, they'll be navigated right to the Info Request
Reminders: Reminders generate a notification with the customized message that's created for the recipient.
Simple File Requests and Share File both use the Reminder email template for their customized messages.

Managing Notifications

SideDrawer is designed for maximum transparency, so the default settings ensure that all Collaborators on a SideDrawer receive all relevant notifications.

We do have some options to help users manage their notifications, to mute Timeline notifications for an account or for a SideDrawer - the aim is to make sure that you're always informed, but not overwhelmed with emails!

Account Notifications

You can mute Timeline notifications for your SideDrawer account, from your My Account settings

This will turn off Timeline notifications only - you will still be notified about new invitations, Info Requests, or Reminders, but will not get the day-to-day messages about new files, Records, or Collaborators.

Note also that this setting is for your entire account, so it will mute Timeline notifications from all SideDrawers that you have access to.

In the SideDrawer front-end app, click on My Account at the lower left
In the My Account settings, toggle Activate personal notifications to the off position, then click Update to complete the change

If you ever need to turn notifications back on, just set the toggle to the on position and click Update again

While you have Timeline notifications turned off, make sure to log in to your SideDrawer account periodically to check for new activity!

SideDrawer Notifications

Timeline notifications can also be muted at the SideDrawer level - this will turn off Timeline notifications for all Collaborators on that SideDrawer

This option is useful for admins or advisors who want to do setup work in a client's SideDrawer before inviting the client.
Setup can involve a lot of Timeline activity - creating Records, adding files, etc. that may not need notifications right away.

Click on the 3 dots next to the SideDrawer name, then select Manage SideDrawer from the menu
In the Manage SideDrawer screen, scroll to the bottom, and toggle Activate SideDrawer notifications to off

If you're turning notifications off temporarily, remember to turn them back on when you're done!

As with Account Notifications, remember that this control only mutes Timeline notifications - other notifications, for Info Requests, invitations, and Reminders, will still be sent

Custom Messages in Console

This section is only relevant to SideDrawer Console users

If you're an admin user with access to the SideDrawer Console, you can use Settings > Custom Messages, to see the templates for all the notification emails used in your SideDrawer environment

From this menu, you can activate or deactivate individual message templates, or edit their content

Remember that these controls are for the entire Affiliate, so turning a message on or off from here means that message is activated or deactivated for all users in your environment

For more details on Custom Messages in Console

Editing Timeline & Notifications

You can customize the Timeline display as well as the notification emails using 3 items in the Custom Messages menu in Console:

Activity Summary Message (full details)
Activity Summary Message
Activity Summary

Activity Summary Message (full details)

This item governs the display of the actual Timeline across all your SideDrawers
If you change or remove a value here, that value will be changed or removed in the Timeline display of all SideDrawers in your environment.

The default format is:
{{user}} {action} a {{entity}} in {{Record}} within {{SideDrawer}}

e.g. Maya G (user) added (action) a file (entity) in Life Insurance (Record) within Maya Golding (SideDrawer)

Some objects will appear in the Timeline with more details - for example, adding a Collaborator will show the Collaborator's name and their email in the Timeline, and adding a file will show the file name

You can edit the template so that certain objects don't appear in the Timeline - for example, if you don't want Collaborators' emails to show here, you could remove that field

Remember that editing these objects just changes what's displayed in the Timeline - the full details are still recorded in the log, and can be restored by re-editing these fields

Activity Summary Message

This item determines how the Timeline objects will appear in the Notification email

Editing the items in the Activity Summary Message won't change the Timeline, but it can change what items are included in Notification emails

As in the Timeline, the default format here is:
{{user}} {action} a {{entity}} in {{Record}} within {{SideDrawer}}

e.g. Maya G (user) added (action) a file (entity) in Life Insurance (Record) within Maya Golding (SideDrawer)

By design, the Notification email omits some details from the Timeline, such as Collaborator names and file names, to ensure that sensitive information is not shared over email

You can edit this template to remove some items - for example, if you want to take out the {{user}} field, so that clients see updates, but don't see which user initiated an action

Activity Summary

This is the template for the Timeline notification email, which is sent out to clients to let them know about updates in their SideDrawer

The default format is:

{{{message}}} pulls the details from the Activity Summary Message, above, with one line for each action:

You can edit this message to change the text around the notifications, or delete the {{{message}}} element if you want to leave the details out of the notification email

Troubleshooting Notifications

If you notice that you (or your client) are not getting notifications, here are some troubleshooting steps:

Check email settings
Make sure that notifications aren't going to your Junk folder, and that [email protected] (the email address that sends our notifications) isn't being blocked by your email program
Check the account settings
Go to My Account in the lower left-hand menu, and check that you have Timeline notifications turned on for your account
If notifications are turned off, click to toggle on, then click Update
Check the SideDrawer settings
If you're getting notifications from some SideDrawers but not others, click on the 3 dots next to the SideDrawer name, select Manage SideDrawer, and check that notifications for that SideDrawer are turned on

If notifications are turned off, toggle them to on

Only users with SideDrawer Owner, Editor, or Contributor access will be able to use this menu and change these settings
Check permission role
Not all notifications go out to all users!
If you're set up with Record access and not SideDrawer access, then you won't receive most Timeline notifications - you'll only get notified about the Record or Records that you have access to.

If you're set up with SideDrawer access as an Observer or No Details, you won't get Timeline notifications for that SideDrawer

For more on Collaborators and permission roles
Check Custom Messages in Console
Only admin users with Console access will be able to view these settings, so you may need to ask your advisor or admin

In Console, under Settings > Custom Messages, the Activity Summary email needs to be turned on in order for users to receive Timeline notifications

Deactivating this item turns off Timeline notifications for all users in your environment

Note that Activity Summary log and Activity Summary email are separate entries!
The log just collects the batched activity every 2 hours, the email is the actual notification that goes out to clients