Overview
Streams function as the main method for distributing content throughout Jive places. The “home page” of Jive that users reach on login, which contains the list of recent activity in the form of News is all composed of these Streams. Jive utilizes Streams for the distribution of user-created content. Without Streams, jive content would be isolated to search results and direct links.
Information
Types of Streams
There are a number of different kinds of streams within Jive. The most common usage of the term applies to the main News Stream or Activity Stream (often referred to as the “Home Page”.) In addition to the main News Streams, there are also Custom Streams and External Stream sources.
News Streams
All the streams are ordered from left to right with subscription streams being ordered by priority. Jive pulls up to 6 items from each stream and displays the first two items from the first stream, then it alternates the top item from each stream until we run out.
In many cases, a news stream might only have 1 new post this week, which means there will only be 1 item shown, and content from lower priority streams will move up. If the news stream has 10 new posts, it will be capped at the 6 most recent on the news overview so content from other streams will not be pushed too far down.
Clicking into a specific stream will show everything and there are now two options within each stream - a recently viewed that shows all new content by time or a top and trending view that shows the most active content since the user last viewed that stream (up to the last week).
The News View
The News view aggregates and displays content posted in your News and Following streams. However, unlike your individual streams, the News page does not show content updates and comments in a stream view. Content that gets updated or interacted with is not bumped to the top of the News view. The News view shows only new things. Content is pulled in and displayed in the News view in the order in which your streams are displayed to the right of News (Order set up in the config). Duplicated content is removed if it is already being pulled in from a higher-order stream.
The content you have read (by clicking through to it either from your desktop or a mobile version of Jive) will stay in News for 2 days before going away. The content you have not yet read will stay for 10 days. Because the News streams are designed just for you, you will not see the same content pulled into the News view that others will see.
Configuring News Streams
These are normally configured as a site-wide content stream. They are configured to display for “Everyone” or “Specific Users” based on a set of filters from the main “Edit News” field on the Jive Main News page:
These will apply to all users that match the criteria that you have defined. If a particular stream is not defined for the “Everyone” People group, only those users that the criteria apply to will see the Stream within the main News view and the list of Streams.
For example, here we have a “Java Unified” Stream that is not configured for the Jive Admin user:
When reviewing the list of Streams via the Admin user, the Stream nor its content will appear:
Custom Streams
Allows users to refine their own specific content for users or groups to appear. These custom streams are configured via the Plus Sign that appears on the far-right of the Stream list bar:
These can be configured in a similar method to the site-wide Streams based on People, Places, and Tags:
For this reason, it is possible for a single piece of content to appear within a number of different streams. This can make isolating issues with a particular Stream content item more difficult when a large number of Streams are being used. Similarly, two users viewing the same “Stream” may be seeing different content, as they each have a similarly named custom stream with different source content being pulled in or their access to certain content is varied due to their user permissions.
External Streams
In addition to the built-in Jive Streams, Community managers can decide to implement a number of external content sources within their Jive environment. Most commonly, these external stream sources will make use of Add-ons available within the Global Registry(Avatar > Add-ons), such as the RSS Add-on or Facebook Add-on. These external streams can then be integrated into your Jive pages.
Handling Common Issues
The two most common complaints with News Streams are that the streams are not loading(sometimes reported as "Home Page" is not loading) or issues related to the News Stream's content. When you encounter issues with Streams not loading, the most important first step is to isolate whether the issue is specific to a particular Stream or if it is a site-wide issue.
<supportagent>
Agent Only: When receiving reports of Stream Issues, it is suggested that you reference the guidance within News Stream / Activity Stream - Troubleshooting Article. Take extra care to fully understand the issue reported, including the scope and environment type affected by the issue.
</supportagent>
Issues with Entire Streams
Often when a Stream issue is site-wide this is the result of issues with the Application Cache, which can be addressed by clearing these as shown in Clearing Different Types of Caches in Jive. If only a particular Stream is affected, you can instead take a more targeted approach and rebuild the affected Stream.
Issues with Stream Content
The most common issues with Stream Content relate to old content not expiring based on the lookback day configuration or new content items not appearing within a particular Stream.
Issues with External Streams
As external streams often make use of special Add-ons for their functionality, reviewing their issues is often different than reviewing standard Stream or Custom Stream issues. For issues related to the RSS Integration, the most common external stream source, you can reference Troubleshooting Common External RSS Integration Errors.
Priyanka Bhotika
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