Overview of Subscription Management Interfaces

In the course of using the Web, you've probably encountered several SMIs. Think about websites that offer email newsletters that you can sign up to receive or online retailers that offer to notify you when out-of-stock products become available again. Each of these presents a way for you to request that information be sent to you, either when some interesting event occurs (such as a product being restocked) or on a schedule (as in the case of weekly newsletters). This is the primary function of an SMI: to give users a way to request information in the form of notifications.

SMIs can take on many forms, but regardless of presentation, they typically provide users with an interface by which they can

• Register as a subscriber

• Specify how information should be to be delivered to them

• Choose exactly what information they want and specify when it should be delivered

Registering as a subscriber establishes a record of the user in the underlying notification system. This record may contain specific information about the user, such as contact details and billing information.

When registering, subscribers usually specify the delivery mechanism for the information being requested. For example, they might choose email delivery and specify a particular email address.

Subscribers choose the information they want to receive by entering subscriptions. Depending on the application, there may be several types of subscriptions, each with various parameters that the subscriber can control. They may also specify a schedule for the delivery of the information or indicate in some other way when the information should be sent.