Notification system and related UI issues and improvements

[JSHBV]

Hi,

This is more a discussion thread then a feature request thread although some things i am going to mention perhaps are feature request.

First the UI issues:

1. On mobile the notification bubble is not visible on all pages except account pages. Desktop view:
   
   

Mobile view:

The fix is rather easy, just move the user account meu item to the header-navbar__actions

:

The way it is now is unacceptable. Worldwide last month 62% of internet traffic was mobile.

2. Uasability issues:

• Navigation. In order to navigate to a page that requires attention or an action it takes 2 pages to navigate through. For example there is a Message bubble. In order to view this new message one has to go to the Message thread page and then select the thread where the new message is posted in. The same applies to actions being needed for my own Best Offer extension (written conform the Hivepress structure). I have not taken a look at other extensions like the Booking one, but i am sure it will be the same.
• Lack of user feedback. There is no “removal” or decrease in count of the bubble once a a message is read or an action taken. It takes reloading the page.
• Likewise the only way to get notified through the Bubble is by reloading or visiting another page.
• Lack of user preference. There is no way for users to disable (certain) notifications (this goes as wel for email notifications). With 14k of unread emails in my email account, i am incensitive for the “bubble” but there are many people freaked out about it.

In my opinion the whole notification system needs a revamp and not now but yesterday.

What i would like to propose is a dedicated notification extension. This would simplify the whole current codebase (once refactored for) considering every extension has its own notification implementation and all need to be maintained.

Now, i know the team is busy. When i look at the development time line table, i am very pessimistic. When i read the thread about native modbile apps with React and all the bells and wissles, while the current state of the hivepress core and various extensions are in absolute need of necessary improvments which are planned 6-12 months from now! I could cry.

Don’t get me wrong. I am almost in the finishing state of my first Hivepress extention and fell in love with the framework. But it does makes me wonder what is up with the timeline. Why so slow? considering i am new to Wordpress and the Hivepress framework and working with it for half a month, a lonesome (experienced) developer can churn out an almost a complete extension in 2/3 weeks.

Therefor i would be willing to develop a universal notification extension for Hivepress free of charge, but under certain conditions for example the current extensions needs to be refactored for it. Otherwise it makes zero sense.

Put it up for sale, charge customers for it and hire extra staff in order to make the timeline more reasonable. It will increase the future proofnes of the framework. At the current stage implementing push notifications or any other system will be a pain to implement or maintain acrross all the extensions. If i was asked to refactor all the code to push, i would quit my job.

[ChrisB]

@JSHBV

For example there is a Message bubble. In order to view this new message one has to go to the Message thread page and then select the thread where the new message is posted in

Hey @JSHBV,

While I do like your suggestion of a separate notifications system plugin for HivePress, the part I’ve quoted slightly confused me.

In order for there to only be 1 click necessary, wouldn’t the red bubble need to expand to a dropdown style menu that would give a link to each message/action?

i.e: if the bubble shows (2) new messages, and I clicked it to go there, how would it know which of the 2 messages to take me to?

In this case, I see it as better to land on the ‘messages inbox’ then you would click into the relevant message.

Unless, like I said above, the bubble acts as a separate dropdown menu that links to each action/message directly.

Just trying to imagine this actually implemented!

Cheers,
Chris

[JSHBV]

UI wise a better implementation would be a clickable bubble which shows you the list of notifications (you have subscribed to by means of enable or disable in preferences) which will take you directly to the message, order, booking or whatever that requires attention.
Also is should show a “mark as read” option. Currently when for example you have 3 unread threads of which 2 threads you do not want to bother dealing with. In order to get rid of the bubble it will require 4 clicks to mark them as unread. It is rediculous, not including the fifth click to actually register and visualize you have read the thread.

This saves the user time and effort, you as website owner will save an extra page load, les stress on the server. every body wins.

But my main issue is with the current implemntation of handling the notifications. The user has got zero controll of them, there is no central mechanism within the framework to support notifications, every extension queries the database for new events on page load. So it is a pull system instead of a push system.

All extensions should push any event to the database in order for 1 central system be it the Hivepress core, or an extension handle the logistics and UI

[ChrisB]

It all sounds brilliant and feasible, but realistically, I can’t see it rising to the top of the core teams priority list at the moment. It definitely makes sense though, and the implementation you’ve described sounds really useful.

I’ve no idea about your background, but there’s plenty of HivePress documentation, and I’m almost 100% sure the staff would provide general developer guidance to help hook into the necessary things.

If you do put this together yourself, I’m sure the entire community - and staff would highly appreciate your contribution.

Realistically, though; I reckon creating an entire new notifications system based off the existing posts in messages etc. - or, an expansion to the existing plugins - is the best route to go.

It just comes across as a big ask to get HivePress to adjust all of their plugins to work with your idea.

I’m not really a developer myself, but from what I’ve read and understand; HivePress is built in a highly-customisable framework, so theoretically, creating almost any custom plugin should be feasible.

I get the impressive the team isn’t as large as it once was, as well, hence updates and replies occasionally taking longer, and appearing to only come from two or so members now. So, it’s only natural to expect development to slow down with a smaller team, but I sincerely hope this new wave of customers HivePress seems to be gathering helps justify more vacancies in the future.

Again, no offence meant; but in my opinion, unless there’s a gaping security issue or something site-breaking, it’s unrealistic to expect them to drop the ball and make this their priority, but like I said, there’s loads of documentation and snippets, as well as, all of the existing plugins code, and, whatever help @ihor and @andrii can provide, so if you’re familiar with coding, or can afford to hire a developer; I can almost guarantee this will be a faster approach to get this made.

You could obviously sell the extension yourself, but it would be cool if you helped inspire the community to donate time and effort into HivePress, and share what you’re able to throw together.

Lastly, I believe the core team have recently launched a new paid customisation service, so that’s another option you could consider.

I’m not staff and don’t get paid to endorse it; I can just see the vision and I’m already incredibly grateful for the plugin we’ve been given so far, and the updates in the pipeline. Obviously, I’d like to see development speed pick up, too. But, I’d rather have better quality slower updates over poorer quality quick ones.

I’m not trying to argue, but you need to see it from their side, too.

Cheers,
Chris

[JSHBV]

I am not proposing everything being dropped for this and make it top priority.

I am proposing this idea to make the framework more future proof, more structured, better maintainable, more performant and more user friendly. It is litterally a win for everybody involved including the team.

Without the support of the team there is no point in developing this considering there is no way to turn off notifications for any extension at this point. Sure one can do a CSS hack and hide the bubble, but this will not stop the queries running for notifications from each extension installed on each page load.

The code of the plugins will have to be refactored regardless sooner or later in order to connect it with real push notification services or anything like that. As the codebase grows with new extensions the issue of adjusting all plugins will only grow.

Let me remind you that i am not only talking the talk and just want something. I am willing to put in time and effort, for free in order to improve product for everybody.

[andrii]

Hi,

Thank you for the detailed description. We will consider adding this feature to improve the UI/UX.