Channels

A channel is a topic or identifier that acts as a conduit for related information. The channel carries the information from the publishers who created it to the subscribers who want it.

Channels have a name, description, subject, keywords, and reference keys that are associated with them. Search facilities use this information in Subscription Manager to help you locate channels that are of interest to you. They are also used in the administrator application to locate specific channels for administration purposes. Channels can also have subscribers who are associated with them.

Each association of a subscriber to a channel is a subscription. A subscription lets the information that is published to a channel be delivered to the interested (subscribed) subscribers.

Administrators create a channel for each distinct topic or audience. For example, users of a particular application might want a channel for discussion and data exchange, while the programmers of that application might want another channel to discuss technical problems and future enhancements. Although the topic is the same application, the discussion and data exchanged can be very different. Therefore, two separate channels would probably best serve the needs of the two groups of users.