_notify

Sends a notification to one or more Members of this Space -- Function

Anything -> _notify (recipients, subject, body, thing, topic) -> Whole Number Type

Receives: Anything -- this will only be used by the parameters
recipients: The Members to receive this notification
subject: The subject line for the notification
body: The body of the notification. Can be arbitrary QL.
thing (optional): If specified, the Notification will link directly to this Thing. If not, it will link to the Space root.
topic (optional): If specified, noifications with the same topic are grouped conceptually, letting recipients manage them better.
Produces: The number of people this was sent to.

Notifications are Querki's concept of messages. Using this function, you can cause QL expressions to send messages to people when certain events happen. The recipients, subject and body are pretty much as you would expect from email.

The header of a Notification is a link. If you specify a thing, that is what the link will go to; otherwise, it will go to the Space Root.

Notifications may be sent as email, but don't count on that. It is strictly up to the recipient to decide what they want to get as email. If a recipient unsubscribes from certain notifications by email, they will still receive them in Querki's Notifications page. (Note: we will eventually provide capabilities to block notifications entirely, if the recipient so chooses.)

The topic parameter is optional, but can be helpful. It should name the general category of this kind of message. Recipients can decide to unsubscribe a certain topic from email, while still receiving other notifications by email.

Important: this is likely to become a paid-only feature in the future, and the number of emails that can be sent this way will be limited for most Spaces. (Sending email costs actual money, so we will have to pass that on.)