User specific recent activity feed #2444

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OVERLORD · 2026-02-05T04:09:51+03:00

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 04:09:51 +03:00

Originally created by @jhrdt on GitHub (Oct 19, 2021).

Describe the feature you'd like

A user should be able to observe shelves/books/pages (like marking a page as favorite)
- The page level would be the most relevant of those three
A user should have the option "Activity Feed" in his user menu
- This could also be a tile in the "My Profile" view
A counter should appear inside the profile logo. The counter shows the number of new (not seen) activities.
A activity is marked as "seen", when the use visits the feed page.
Update or create events should be listed in the feed. Each item should link to the affected shelve/page/book
- De facto this is only a user defined subset of the recent activity feed

Describe the benefits this feature would bring to BookStack users

This would be a way for a user to keep track of recent changes in a self-defined way.
A user gets all information about the relevant changes, without the need for scanning through the recent activity view. In a very active BookStack app, the relevant changes are filled very quickly.

Use Case:
This feature is a benefit, when there are different working groups that overlap only in a subset of pages that are relevant to them.

Originally created by @jhrdt on GitHub (Oct 19, 2021). **Describe the feature you'd like** * A user should be able to observe shelves/books/pages (like marking a page as favorite) * The page level would be the most relevant of those three * A user should have the option "Activity Feed" in his user menu * This could also be a tile in the "My Profile" view * A counter should appear inside the profile logo. The counter shows the number of new (not seen) activities. * A activity is marked as "seen", when the use visits the feed page. * Update or create events should be listed in the feed. Each item should link to the affected shelve/page/book * De facto this is only a user defined subset of the recent activity feed **Describe the benefits this feature would bring to BookStack users** This would be a way for a user to keep track of recent changes in a self-defined way. A user gets all information about the relevant changes, without the need for scanning through the recent activity view. In a very active BookStack app, the relevant changes are filled very quickly. Use Case: This feature is a benefit, when there are different working groups that overlap only in a subset of pages that are relevant to them.

OVERLORD added the 🔨 Feature Request label 2026-02-05 04:09:51 +03:00

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 04:09:57 +03:00

@ssddanbrown commented on GitHub (Oct 19, 2021):

Thanks for the request @jhrdt. So something like GitHub's "Watch" functionality. Personally I'm not so sure on the counter aspect of the request. The desire for a counter (And it's distracting nature), and the expectations of how exactly that would be cleared, would be mixed among users, but a watch feed could provide value. I do wonder if this overlaps too much with the favourite system or if they should be built into the same system.

Some questions to consider though:

Should "Watching" cascade to track child items?
- For example, would watching a book show changes for pages within?
- Cascading may introduce expectation and functionality complexities for shelves.
Would it be better to just provide an activity feed for favourites so we don't have overlapping features?

@ssddanbrown commented on GitHub (Oct 19, 2021): Thanks for the request @jhrdt. So something like GitHub's "Watch" functionality. Personally I'm not so sure on the counter aspect of the request. The desire for a counter (And it's distracting nature), and the expectations of how exactly that would be cleared, would be mixed among users, but a watch feed could provide value. I do wonder if this overlaps too much with the favourite system or if they should be built into the same system. Some questions to consider though: - Should "Watching" cascade to track child items? - For example, would watching a book show changes for pages within? - Cascading may introduce expectation and functionality complexities for shelves. - Would it be better to just provide an activity feed for favourites so we don't have overlapping features?

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 04:10:07 +03:00

@jhrdt commented on GitHub (Oct 19, 2021):

Hi @ssddanbrown,

I would favor some kind of visual clue. As a user, I would like to get some kind of hint, that my observed pages a updated. A flag could be enough, or a notification after login. The counter is not needed. Personally I will click at it, besides the actual count.

Some questions to consider though:

* Should "Watching" cascade to track child items?
  * For example, would watching a book show changes for pages within?
  * Cascading may introduce expectation and functionality complexities for shelves.

Cascading would be cool. If you could track a book and/or someone adds a new page to it, then this new page would be added to my watch list automatically. But I understand the complexity burden of cascading.

As a starting point, a page-level tracking would be great.

* Would it be better to just provide an activity feed for favourites so we don't have overlapping features?

This was my initial thought and this could be an great extend to favourites.
You are right, those two would do the same.

EDIT
If we would use the favourite page for this, this would be important to me:

I would like to order the pages by name or recent update
I would like to see the last (or last 3) activity message(s) f.e. "1 Day Ago - Updated by John - Fixed typos"
I would like to see the message below the page link (or in some logical proximity)
- I think a splitted view, with the activity log inside a sidebar and the favs in the main sections would make it hard to link the events to the pages

@jhrdt commented on GitHub (Oct 19, 2021): Hi @ssddanbrown, I would favor some kind of visual clue. As a user, I would like to get some kind of hint, that my observed pages a updated. A flag could be enough, or a notification after login. The counter is not needed. Personally I will click at it, besides the actual count. > Some questions to consider though: > > * Should "Watching" cascade to track child items? > * For example, would watching a book show changes for pages within? > * Cascading may introduce expectation and functionality complexities for shelves. Cascading would be cool. If you could track a book and/or someone adds a new page to it, then this new page would be added to my watch list automatically. But I understand the complexity burden of cascading. As a starting point, a page-level tracking would be great. > * Would it be better to just provide an activity feed for favourites so we don't have overlapping features? This was my initial thought and this could be an great extend to favourites. You are right, those two would do the same. **EDIT** If we would use the favourite page for this, this would be important to me: * I would like to order the pages by name or recent update * I would like to see the last (or last 3) activity message(s) f.e. "1 Day Ago - Updated by John - Fixed typos" * I would like to see the message below the page link (or in some logical proximity) * I think a splitted view, with the activity log inside a sidebar and the favs in the main sections would make it hard to link the events to the pages

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 04:10:12 +03:00

@jhrdt commented on GitHub (Oct 20, 2021):

Hi @ssddanbrown ,

I totally forgot about comment. This watch feature should also include notifications about comments. I think comments are great, but they are hard to follow, this would improve their use.

@jhrdt commented on GitHub (Oct 20, 2021): Hi @ssddanbrown , I totally forgot about comment. This watch feature should also include notifications about comments. I think comments are great, but they are hard to follow, this would improve their use.

OVERLORD commented

2026-02-05 04:10:16 +03:00

@hristijan5 commented on GitHub (Nov 16, 2021):

I would love the idea of being notified of a change in a page (maybe a dedicated area in the profile that will list the notifications?).
BTW Great job on the overall BookStack app.

@hristijan5 commented on GitHub (Nov 16, 2021): I would love the idea of being notified of a change in a page (maybe a dedicated area in the profile that will list the notifications?). BTW Great job on the overall BookStack app.

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Reference: starred/BookStack#2444