Install Activity Tracker: Install New Updates
Link: https://support.brilliantdirectories.com/support/solutions/articles/12000109018
The Install New Updates module on the admin dashboard lists one-time platform installers that have pending steps for your specific website. Click the green Check For Updates button to refresh the list — an installer only appears when your site actually has something left to install, and it disappears from the list once its steps are complete.
What Install Activity Tracker Does
This installer sets up the database storage that the Activity Tracker feature uses to record activity on your website. It does two things:
- Creates the activity table. It adds a new, empty database table named website_notifications. Each row in this table holds one activity record: a title, a message, a category, the date it happened, and details about who or what triggered it.
- Adds indexes to that table. Indexes are small lookup structures that let the database find records quickly instead of scanning the whole table. This step adds a standard index to each of the table's date, title, source, and lookup columns (specifically notification_date, notification_title, interactor, interactor_index, notification_table, notification_table_index, notification_table_index_value, and, where present, interactor_ip), plus a full-text index on the notification_message column so activity messages can be searched by their text.
The installer only adds things. It does not edit, move, or delete any existing data, and the table it creates starts out empty.
Why It Appears
It appears when the website_notifications table is missing from your site's database, or when the table exists but one or more of its columns do not yet have the expected indexes. This is usually a legacy condition: it typically means your website's database was created before this table became a standard part of the platform. It does not mean anything is wrong with your site. Each step checks your database directly and only offers to run when something is actually missing, and the table-creation step makes no changes at all if the table already exists.
Why It Matters
Without the website_notifications table, your site has nowhere to store activity records, so the Activity Tracker feature cannot keep a history of what happens on your website. Running this installer gives that feature its storage. The indexes keep activity lookups and searches fast as records build up over time; they improve query speed but do not change what is stored. This is a behind-the-scenes update, and nothing on your public website looks different because of it.
How to Run It
- From the admin dashboard, find the Install New Updates module and click Check For Updates.
- If your site has pending steps, Install Activity Tracker appears in the list. Click Install.
- After it completes, click Check For Updates again — the entry disappears once all steps are done.
If Install Activity Tracker does not appear in the list, your website is already up to date — the module only shows installers with pending steps, so there is nothing to do.
After Running
There is nothing to configure afterward. The new table starts out empty and fills in as the Activity Tracker records activity on your site. Nothing on your live website changes visibly, and no existing content, members, or settings are touched. If you want to confirm the update took effect, click Check For Updates again and the entry will no longer be listed. Because the installer only creates one new empty table and adds indexes, it is safe to run and there is nothing that would need to be undone.
