Notification Center

The purpose of this extension is to provide a central and flexible way for Contao developers to send notifications via their extensions.

If we can get this extension to be widely used, users will quickly get used to the way one can configure the notification center.

Which version should I choose?

Contao Version	Haste Version	PHP Version	Notification Center Version
<= 4.13	4.*	^7.0 ǀǀ ^8.0	1.6.*
4.13.*	5.*	> 8.1	1.7.*
4.13.* ǀǀ 5.*	5.*	> 8.1	2.*

Translating

The notification center can be translated via Transifex: https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/notification_center

Adding your own notification type

// config.php
$GLOBALS['NOTIFICATION_CENTER']['NOTIFICATION_TYPE']['isotope'] = array
(
    // Type
    'iso_order_status_change'   => array
     (
        // Field in tl_nc_language
        'recipients'    => array
        (
            // Valid tokens
            'recipient_email' // The email address of the recipient
        ),
        'attachment_tokens'    => array
        (
            'form_*', // All the order condition form fields
            'document' // The document that should be attached (e.g. an invoice)
        )
    )
);

Sending a notification

Extension developers most likely want to send a single notification identified by ID,:

$objNotification = \NotificationCenter\Model\Notification::findByPk($intNotificationId);
if (null !== $objNotification) {
    $objNotification->send($arrTokens, $strLanguage); // Language is optional
}

If you want to send all notifications of a certain type, you can send it like this:

$strType = 'iso_order_status_change';
$objNotificationCollection = \NotificationCenter\Model\Notification::findByType($strType);
if (null !== $objNotificationCollection) {
    while ($objNotificationCollection->next()) {
        $objNotification = $objNotificationCollection->current();
        $objNotification->send($arrTokens, $strLanguage); // Language is optional
    }
}

Queue

It is possible to save the messages in a queue before sending them. The queue is available as a gateway. The queue can be processed via a "Poor man cron" or via a console call - see https://github.com/terminal42/contao-notification_center/blob/main/bin/queue

$ queue -s <queue_gateway_id> -n <number of messages to be sent>

Hooks

If you want to enrich each message being sent by some meta data or want to disable some messages being sent, you can use the sendNotificationMessage hook:

// config.php
$GLOBALS['TL_HOOKS']['sendNotificationMessage'][] = array('MyHook', 'execute');

// The hook
class MyHook
{
    public function execute($objMessage, $arrTokens, $language, $objGatewayModel)
    {
         if (!$objMessage->regardUserSettings || !FE_USER_LOGGED_IN 
            || $objMessage->getRelated('pid')->type !== 'custom_notification') {
            return true;
         }
         
         $user = \MemberModel::findByPK($arrTokens['recipient']);     
         if (!$user || !$user->disableEmailNotifications) {
            return true;
         }
                      
         return false;
    }
}

Community Extensions

• Slack Gateway by Present Progressive: Send notifications to Slack channels or users.
• AWS SNS Gateway by numero2: Send notifications via Amazon Simple Notification Services.
• Zammad Gateway by Contao Academy: Send notifications to Zammad.
• KlickTipp Gateway by FenePedia
• Mailjet Gateway by mindbird
• Mailjet SMS Gateway by Richard Henkenjohan
• ClockWork SMS Gateway by Richard Henkenjohan

Note to self

Managing translations files.

1. Install transifex client.

2. tx pull -a to fetch updated translations.