Sharepoint 2013 : Managing and Configuring My Sites (part 2) - Configuring My Sites - Enabling the Activity Feed Job

1.4 Enabling the Activity Feed Job

The User Profile Service Application - Activity Feed Job creates and sends system-generated updates to the user’s newsfeed based on different user activities. When a user performs a specific action, an event is generated that subsequently produces an update in the newsfeed. A few examples of events that generate newsfeed updates include the following:

• Following a tag
• Tagging an item
• Changing a job title
• Updating Ask Me About
• Posting on a note board

This timer job is enabled from the Monitoring section in Central Administration. You need to browse to the Edit Timer Job page for the User Profile Service Application - Activity Feed Job, and configure the job to run on the schedule most appropriate for your environment. The default is every 10 minutes.

This completes the configuration of My Sites, except for the scenario that utilizes multiple User Profile Service Applications, which is discussed in the section, “Trusted My Site Host Locations.” Assuming users have permission to create a personal site, and self-service site creation is enabled, Figure 2 shows the newsfeed site landing page when users navigate to their My Site at http://my.contoso.com/default.aspx.

FIGURE 2

You can see several navigation links on the left-hand side of the page, the newsfeed in the center of the page, and a summary of the objects being followed on the right-hand side. The following steps provide a brief walk-through of the features, highlighting a few key points:

1. Click the About Me link on the left-hand side. This is the page that other users see when they navigate to someone’s My Site. Investigate the other links, and note that you can add your own links to the navigation.

2. The newsfeed should be empty because you are not following any objects yet, and you are not a part of any communities. You can view posts from only those objects you are Following, or posts from Everyone, or posts that specifically mention your name. Create a microblog post, and review the menu options for the post, shown in Figure 3. Click the Follow Up option in the menu. You should receive a notification in the upper-right corner that a task has been created. My Tasks aggregates all the user’s tasks from Outlook 2013 and SharePoint 2013, and you can see the task you just created by clicking the Tasks link on the left-hand navigation. Note that #tags are contained in a new term set, so you may want to pre-populate that term set with important #tags. In order for @mentions to be included in the microblog post, the person being mentioned must be included in the profile database.

FIGURE 3

3. To view the Web Parts on the page, enable editing by clicking Edit Page from the drop-down menu. Explore the various Web Parts and zones on the page.

4. These Web Parts are new, so browse their properties by clicking Edit Web Part. When you are done, click the Newsfeed link and return to the newsfeed page.

5. Click each object link underneath I’m Following, and notice the changes in the URL, as well as the pages that are revealed.

6. The My Site also includes two other sites, SkyDrive Pro, and the Sites website, which are shown in Figures 4 and 5, respectively. You should browse to these sites and note the changes in the URL.

FIGURE 4

FIGURE 5