For this guide, we’ll use Bracketspace’s Notification solution—a powerful plugin that works with all Triggers and Notification types, providing endless possibilities to control what and how notifications are sent.
I cover the pro features that come from implementing paid extensions (WooCommerce, Push, etc.), the free features, and the free extensions (BuddyPress, bbPress, etc.).
With this plugin, it’s as simple as 1. Defining when to create a notification (the Trigger), 2. Choosing how the notification is delivered (the Carrier), and optionally, 3. Specifying when to send the notification (the Conditions).
If you’ve ever thought to yourself – “I’d like to be notified if/when,” “I’d love to notify Listing owners if/when,” and so on…this solution is for you.
Core Setup
Plugin Install
- WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Click ‘Add New.’
- Enter ‘Notification’ in the search box.
- Notification – Custom Notifications and Alerts for WordPress > Install and activate.
Settings
General
WordPress Dashboard > Notifications > Settings > General
There’s not much to concern yourself with here, but reviewing what settings are available is always good.
Triggers
WordPress Dashboard > Notifications > Settings > Triggers
In this area, specify the Triggers you want to be available as you configure your notifications. It’s not just about what you want to enable but also what you want to disable to keep the Triggers focused on what’s important to you.
The Notifications plugin has many Triggers. As it relates to MyListing websites, I’ve listed some that stand out.
- Post Published: Educate Visitors/Listing Owners, Increase Website Traffic, etc.
- Page Published: Educate Visitors/Listing Owners, Increase Website Traffic, etc.
- Category Created: Keep Listing Owners in the Loop.
- Tag Created: Keep Listing Owners in the Loop.
- WordPress Updates: If your website is on autopilot and you don’t have MyListing Website Care, this will alert you when you need to log in and apply updates to your theme, plugins, etc.
- Plugin Status: Get alerts when plugins are installed, deactivated, etc.
- Theme Status: Get alerts when themes are switched, updated, etc.
- And more!
Pro Feature – Scheduled Triggers
With the ‘Scheduled Triggers’ extension, you can define notifications based on time rather than actions. This allows you to send notifications a few days after registration, after a purchase, or as a reminder before a date.
Carriers
WordPress Dashboard > Notifications > Settings > Carriers
In this area, you can configure the different Carriers you have enabled within the Notification plugin. By default, notifications are sent out via email, but you can choose to use Carriers instead or not to use email at all.
While most of the Carriers are paid extensions, ‘Webhook’ and ‘Webhook JSON’ are included for free and don’t require a separate extension to be installed.
- Webhook / Webhook JSON
- Discord
- Slack
- Push Notifications
- Twilio SMS
- BuddyPress
- File Log
- Mailgun
- Pushbullet Push or SMS
- Pushover Push
- SendGrid
Add a New Carrier
- Download the Carrier extension (i.e., plugin) from the list above, install it, and activate it.
- Notifications > Extensions > Carrier Extension > Add your license key.
- Still working from our ‘Post Published’ notification, click ‘Add New Carrier.’
- Click on the carrier to configure it.
Integration
WordPress Dashboard > Notifications > Settings > Integration
While Notification is focused on sending out notifications, a nice little bonus is found in this area, which allows you to disable default emails WordPress sends out to help you eliminate some of the noise.
- New User
- Welcome Email
- New Comment
- Comment Awaiting Moderation
- Password Reset
- Admin Password Changed
- User Password Changed
- Email Address Changed
- User Email Address Change Request
- Admin Email Address Change Request
- Automatic WordPress Core Update
Import / Export
WordPress Dashboard > Notifications > Settings > Import/Export
As the title suggests, this area is for backing up your notifications, so you can import them into other websites or keep them offline for safekeeping.
Debugging
WordPress Dashboard > Notifications > Settings > Debugging
Hopefully, you will never have to access this area, but this is where you can go if you need to troubleshoot issues with the Notification plugin. Just be sure to turn OFF logging when you are not actively troubleshooting.
Notifications
WordPress Dashboard > Notifications
Out of the box, several ‘Common’ notifications (Post Published, Welcome Email, etc.) and ‘WordPress’ notifications (New User, Password Reset, etc.) are ready for you to customize with a built-in wizard. In all, you can access 59 different notifications simply by activating the plugin.
Later in this guide, we’ll discuss the many notification options available once we explore the Notification extensions, but before we do that, let’s look at one of the default notifications: ‘Post Published.’
Post Published Notification
This notification sends an email to all Subscribers when a post is published. Let’s look at how this notification setup looks when using the built-in wizard.
- Click on the ‘Post Published’ notification card.
- With this notification selected, click the ‘Create 1 notification’ button that appears.
- Toggle OFF the notification until it’s configured to your liking.
- Hover over the notification and click ‘Edit.’
- If desired, adjust the Subject and Body of the email using the available Merge Tags to automate the included data.
- Recipients Type > Choose between Role, User ID, User, Administrator, or Email/Merge Tag.
- Recipient > Choose from various options depending on what you choose for the ‘Recipients Type.’
- Additional Carriers > Optionally send via other carriers as outlined in the ‘Pro Features’ section below.
- Conditional > Optionally set conditions as outlined in the ‘Pro Features’ section below.
- Review Queue > You can optionally catch the notification in the review queue, as outlined in the ‘Pro Features’ section below.
- Enable the notification.
- Thoroughly test.
Note: The “Review Queue’ feature is a great way to thoroughly test notifications, allowing you to see the rendered content that recipients would see. Once you’re happy with everything, you can turn off the queue to enable full automation or leave it on if you like having the ability to review everything at all times.
Pro Features
Carriers
By default, notifications are sent out via email, but you can choose to use Carriers instead or not to use email at all.
- Webhook / Webhook JSON
- Discord
- Slack
- Push Notifications
- Twilio SMS
- BuddyPress
- File Log
- Mailgun
- Pushbullet Push or SMS
- Pushover Push
- SendGrid
Add a New Carrier
- Download the Carrier extension (i.e., plugin) from the list above, install it, and activate it.
- Notifications > Extensions > Carrier Extension > Add your license key.
- Still working from our ‘Post Published’ notification, click ‘Add New Carrier.’
- Click on the carrier to configure it.
Conditionals
This notification is always triggered to send by default. You’ll need the ‘Conditions’ extension to set up further conditions.
- Always process this trigger
- Process this trigger IF
- Don’t process this trigger IF
Enable Conditions
- Download the Conditionals extension (i.e., plugin), install it, and activate it.
- Notifications > Extensions > Conditionals Extension > Add your license key.
- Still working from our ‘Post Published’ notification, click the ‘Conditionals’ dropdown.
- Choose the desired trigger and configure it.
Review Queue
By default, notifications are sent out immediately or after certain conditions are met. The ‘Review Queue’ allows you to send notifications to a queue and review them before approving them to go out.
- Always process this trigger
- Process this trigger IF
- Don’t process this trigger IF
Enable Review Queue
- Download the Review Queue extension (i.e., plugin), install it, and activate it.
- Notifications > Extensions > Review Queue Extension > Add your license key.
- Still working from our ‘Post Published’ notification, toggle ‘Catch in review queue’ ON.
- Notifications > Review Queue > Review future queued notifications and manage accordingly.
Taxonomy Published Notification
What if we wanted to let people know when a particular taxonomy was added to a MyListing website? For this example, we’ll email all subscribers when a new custom taxonomy (gym amenities) is published and made available for Listing owners to add to their Listings.
Let’s look at this notification setup when not using the built-in wizard.
- Notifications > Settings > Taxonomy
- Click the ‘Taxonomies’ field and add your custom taxonomy (Gym Amenities).
- Notifications > Click ‘Add New Notification.’
- Title > ‘Custom Taxonomy Published’ or similar.
- Trigger > Gym Amenities > Gym Amenities term created
- Carriers > Add New Carrier > Email
- Subject> ‘Custom Taxonomy Published’ or similar.
- Body > Using a combination of text and Merge Tags, customize the body of your email as desired.
- Recipient > Manually enter the desired email address(es) and use Merge Tags to populate the recipients dynamically.
Notification Extensions
Free Extensions
These extensions are available by default.
- bbPress: bbPress Triggers for forums, topics, and replies.
- BuddyPress: BuddyPress Triggers
- LH Multipart Email: Provides a text alternative for HTML emails.
- Signature: Allows to add a signature to all emails.
Pro Extensions
These extensions are available in the various Pro bundles (Essential, Standard, or All-in) or as a one-off purchase. Club members get a discount on the Pro bundles.
- AppPresser: Send Push messages to all your App users or selected ones.
- Conditionals: Send based on certain criteria.
- Custom Fields (ACF): Include any meta values.
- Discord: Send notifications over this popular platform.
- Email Attachments: Easily add attachments to your notifications.
- File Log: Save notifications as log files on your server.
- Mailgun: Connect with the powerful Mailgun service to increase the deliverability of your emails.
- Push: Allow your website visitors to subscribe to browser notifications.
- Pushbullet: Send Push and SMS notifications with ease.
- Pushover: Send Push notifications to any of your devices registered in Pushover.
- Review Queue: Manually review notifications before authorizing sending.
- Scheduled Triggers: Control the precise time when notifications are sent.
- SendGrid: Connect with the SendGrid service to increase the deliverability of your emails.
- Slack: Integrate with one of the most popular communication platforms in the industry.
- Twilio: Send notifications to mobile phones.
- WooCommerce: Change boring WooCommerce emails to something completely customizable!
WooCommerce Extension
Given how vital WooCommerce is to our MyListing websites, let’s look at this extension to see how feature-rich these pro extensions are.
WooCommerce Triggers
Below is a list of the available Triggers with the WooCommerce extension. At first, you might think some of these are already built into WooCommerce. While that’s true, the key here is what I’ll cover shortly: how you can deliver the notifications (i.e., Carriers).
- New Product Created
- Product Updated
- Product Added to Cart
- Product Removed from Cart
- New Order Created
- Order Updated
- Order Completed
- Order Processing
- Customer Login
- Custom Logout
- Customer Update
- Review Added
- Review Approved
- Review Unapproved
Scenario – Send an Email When an Order is Completed
We’ll configure a notification that emails the website owner when a product (e.g., Listing Subscription) has been purchased. This requires installing the Slack notification extension.
The idea is that your highest-priced Listing Subscription package has been purchased, and you’ll need all hands on deck to give the new customer special attention.
- Download, install, and activate the WooCommerce extension from your Brackspace account.
- Notifications > Click ‘Add New Notification.’
- Title > ‘Listing Subscription XYZ Purchased’ or similar.
- Trigger > WooCommerce > Order Completed
- Carriers > Add New Carrier > Email
- Subject> ‘Listing Subscription XYZ Purchased’ or similar.
- Body > Using a combination of text and Merge Tags, customize the body of your email as desired.
- Recipient > Manually enter the desired email address(es) and use Merge Tags to populate the recipients dynamically.
Note: The WooCommerce extension unlocks additional Merge Tags, allowing you to dynamically populate the emails with data (Order Number, Customer ID, and more) from your store.
- Optionally add any Conditionals (e.g., Process Trigger IF).
- Optionally choose if you want the notification to catch in the Review Queue.
- Save and test your notification.
One-off Extensions
Notification Pro has a ton of extensions available as a one-off purchase.
Video Tutorial
