Finding Conversations

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

The Conversations feature is designed to give users easy access to any Conversation. You can find Conversations from any catalog page by searching, opening the Conversations slideout, or accessing your Inbox.

Your Inbox contains only Conversations you’ve participated in. Using Your Inbox explains your Inbox’s features and how they help you keep track of your Conversations. Conversations search and the Conversations slideout allow you to discover past Conversations while browsing in the catalog. These features will be discussed below.

Conversations Slideout

The Conversations slideout allows you to interact with the Conversations feature while you’re on a data object’s catalog page. You can use the slideout to find existing Conversations connected to the data object, or to start a new Conversation.

When you open a catalog object page, the Conversations slideout appears as a tab on the upper-right side of the page. The tab displays the Conversations icon and the number of Conversations inside the slideout.

../../_images/Conversations_Slideout_Closed.png

Note

The Conversations slideout does not appear on Conversations, Column Values, Functions, Users, and Groups pages.

To open the Conversations slideout, click the slideout tab. The slideout will expand from the right so you can access its functionalities.

../../_images/Conversations_Slideout_Open.png

Post a New Conversation

Every Conversations slideout includes a + Conversation button in its upper-right corner that you can use to create a new Conversation. If you post a new Conversation from the slideout, it will appear in the slideout’s Started Here area.

For more information about Conversations started inside Conversations slideouts and instructions on posting a Conversation, see Posting a New Conversation.

Started Here and Mentioning This

Most of the space inside the Conversations slideout is devoted to the Started Here and Mentioning This areas. The Started Here area contains a list of Conversations that refer to the catalog page the slideout’s on. Conversations that @-mention the catalog page are displayed in the Mentioning This area.

You can change the Conversations displayed in the Started Here and Mentioning This areas with the Status filter above the Started Here area. By default, the filter is set to Any. To view only open or resolved Conversations, click Any and select Open or Resolved from the dropdown menu that appears.

Click a Conversation to view its details. The Conversation will expand inside the Started Here or Mentioning This area so that you can see the full original post as well as other users’ replies. The expanded view allows you to interact with the Conversation by replying or making changes. You can also see the Conversation in full-page view using the three-dots ( ) displayed in the upper right of the expanded view.

Note

If the Conversation also appears in your Inbox, there will be two additional icons in the upper right of the expanded view. You can use them to open the Conversation in your Inbox or archive it.

Next

For more information about the role Conversations play in Alation, head back to Conversations. You may also be interested in these topics: