Notifications

Notifications are used to inform one or a given set of users about a specific event in your network as the liking of a post or mentioning of a user over multiple channels (e.g. web and mail).

Custom notification classes are derived from humhub\modules\notification\components\BaseNotification. A humhub\modules\notification\components\BaseNotification|BaseNotification usually is assigned with an $originator user instance and a $source instance, which connects the Notification with a Content or any other kind of yii\db\ActiveRecord.

A Notification can be sent to a user by calling the send() or sendBulk() function. This will persist an humhub\modules\notification\models\Notification instance for each user and send out a notification to all allowed NotificationTargets.

Since HumHub v1.3 Notifications are sent by means of a queued job.

Examples for core notifications are:

• humhub\modules\like\notifications\NewLike: is sent if an user likes a post or comment.
• humhub\modules\user\notifications\Followed: is sent if an user follows another user.
• humhub\modules\user\notifications\Mentioned: is sent if an user is mentioned within an post or comment.
• humhub\modules\content\notifications\ContentCreated: is sent when content (e.g. a post) was created.

Note: Unlike Activities which are targeted for multiple users e.g. all Users of a Space, a Notification is always targeted to a single user.

Custom Notifications

Notification Class

Custom Notifications are derived from humhub\modules\notification\components\BaseNotification|BaseNotification]] and should reside in the notifications` directory of your module.

The notification class at least has to overwrite the $moduleId variable with the id of your module and the.

<?php

namespace johndoe\example\notifications;

use humhub\modules\notification\components\BaseNotification;

use yii\helpers\Html;

/**
 * Notifies a user about something happend
 */
class SomethingHappend extends BaseNotification
{
    // Module Id (required)
    public $moduleId = "example";

    // Viewname (optional)
    public $viewName = "somethingHappend";
    
    // Content
    public function html()
    {
        return Yii::t('SomethingHappend.views_notifications_somethingHappened', "%someUser% did something cool.", [
            '%someUser%' => '<strong>' . Html::encode($originator->displayName) . '</strong>'
        ]);
    }
}

Notification View (optional)

By default, the view of a notification should be located inside notifications/views. The view of the example above should therefore be located in mymodule/notifications/views/somethingHappened.php.

Info: If you require a different notification view for mails, you have to add an extra view file to notifications/views/mail.

Send Notifications

After an event was triggered, you'll have to instantiate your custom BaseNotification and call its send() or sendBulk() function.

A notification can optionally be assigned with a $source model instance (e.g. a post or comment related to the notification) which has to be derived from yii\db\ActiveRecord.

// Sending to a single user
SomethingHappend::instance()->from($user)->about($source)->send($targetUser);

// Sending to multiple users
SomethingHappend::instance()->from($user)->about($source)->sendBulk($users);

Since HumHub v1.3 you have to overwrite BaseNotification::requireOriginator or BaseNotification::requireSource in case your notification does not require an originator or source, otherwise they won't be sent out.

Info: The send and sendBulk will create and persist a humhub\modules\notification\models\Notification instance for each user.

Tip: Notifications are often created and sent within the afterSave hook of the related source instance. This should be prefered over the instantiation within a controller.

Note: Notifications are only sent to a specific NotificationTarget depending on the user's account settings.

Clear Notifications

Sometimes you want to remove or replace notifications of a specific type. You can delete notifications similary to its creation syntax:

// Will remove all SomethingHappened notification with the given source for the given $user
SomethingHappend::instance()->about($this)->delete($user);