chore: Add notification tray how-to #1360

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-12-16T12:38:29Z

Description

The PR adds the instruction to configure and enable the notification tray and notification feature.

Useful information to include:

This is contingent on our publishing https://github.com/openedx/tutor-contrib-notifications on PyPI and changing the name to tutor-contrib-platform-notifications

Supporting information

Testing instructions

Pull this branch
make requirements
make serve_docs

Deadline

Before Thursday (18/12/2025)

Other information

Private Ref: https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/BB-10380

openedx-webhooks · 2025-12-16T12:38:34Z

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source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notification_tray.rst

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notification_tray.rst

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

sarina · 2025-12-16T22:12:12Z

As part of this PR, could you link this how-to article at line 143 in https://github.com/openedx/docs.openedx.org/blob/main/source/community/release_notes/ulmo/ulmo_notifications.rst (where it currently says to look at the Operator release notes)

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

xitij2000 · 2025-12-17T11:14:07Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notification_tray.rst

+- Type: Boolean
+- Default: ``True``
+
+When enabled, learners can opt in or out of receiving email notifications.


For this and the next option I'd want to know a bit more. Does disabling these mean that users can't get email or that they can't disable email pushes.

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notification_tray.rst

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-12-17T12:58:33Z

@sarina @xitij2000 Please have a look I have made the changes here.

sarina

Left two more comments but overall looks great. Will wait for @xitij2000 to give a 👍🏻 before I merge.

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:55:15Z

@farhaanbukhsh apologies for last minute suggestions on this PR. I was out sick for the last 2 days.

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-12-18T13:53:15Z

@farhaanbukhsh apologies for last minute suggestions on this PR. I was out sick for the last 2 days.

@ayub02 I hope you are doing better. I don't see any suggestions on the PR.

ayub02

Apologies! I forgot to submit the review. Here it is.

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:40:16Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+They span activities such as Discussions updates, Course updates, and Grading updates.
+
+The **notification tray** allows learners to access platform notifications from
+the top-right corner of the Open edX interface.


Suggested change

the top-right corner of the Open edX interface.

the top-right corner of the Open edX interface. **Notification emails** keep them updated when they are away from the platform. We do not have support for push notifications for Open edX mobile app at the moment.

Always use "Open edX", not "edX". Thanks!

Corrected. Thanks.

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:42:36Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+
+- Sets the required environment variables for the notifications service
+
+  - ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL``


Suggested change

- ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL``

- ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL`` (defaults to TRUE)

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:42:48Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+- Sets the required environment variables for the notifications service
+
+  - ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL``
+  - ``SHOW_PUSH_CHANNEL``


Suggested change

- ``SHOW_PUSH_CHANNEL``

- ``SHOW_PUSH_CHANNEL`` (defaults to FALSE)

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:43:33Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+**********************************
+
+The notifications plugin exposes several configuration options that can be
+customized through the `Tutor configuration <https://docs.tutor.edly.io/configuration.html#configuration>`_.


Suggested change

customized through the `Tutor configuration <https://docs.tutor.edly.io/configuration.html#configuration>`_.

customized through the `Tutor configuration <https://docs.tutor.edly.io/configuration.html#configuration>`_. These options are as follows:

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:47:50Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+- Default: ``False``
+
+When enabled, learners get toggle to opt in or out of push notifications.
+


Suggested change

.. important::

The Open edX platform does not currently support push notifications for mobile apps. This toggle is added as part of ground work for when that support will be built.

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:51:12Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+The notifications Tutor plugin does **not** provide built-in configuration for
+cron jobs needed for email digests. However, the Open edX platform supports **daily and weekly
+notification digests** through management commands.
+


Suggested change

.. important::

Default preference for email notifications for all users is ``Daily``. Therefore, by default, users will not receive any notification emails unless this cron job is is configured.

ayub02 · 2025-12-18T09:53:17Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   0 22 * * SUN tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Weekly


Suggested change

0 22 * * SUN tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Weekly

0 22 * * FRI tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Weekly

I fear most operators will just copy paste this line. And Sunday is not optimal for weekly emails.

but Friday at 10pm is? That doesn't make sense to me.

@ayub02, this is just documentation, hence the optimisation of the sending email will highly depend on the operator, so let's keep it as is. This also reflects what the message is shown by default on the account app

which reminds me that we should probably remove this

cc: @sarina

@farhaanbukhsh i agree that since defaults match the msg on accounts page, let's leave it as is.

I'm not sure about removing the message on accounts page because we don't have a a better alternate until Verawood.

@sarina you are right. The day is just my guess. 22:00 UTC had the highest activity on average on the 2U instance. That's where it came from. Open edX's user base is global and therefore we can't select an idea time. This is in phase 3, i'm proposing that we send these emails based on the user's timezone. But that needs some discovery which Ahtisham will do in the next few days.

ayub02 · 2025-12-19T07:17:12Z

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

+   You can change the delivery time by modifying the cron schedule according to
+   your operational requirements. For example, `0 22 * * *` schedules the command to run everyday at **10:00 PM**
+   this can be modified to run at the hours/days of choice.
+


@farhaanbukhsh do you think we should add something on the deletion cron job? Or is this something instance operators are familiar with and can add on their own.

The blog link that is added covers a lot of information, so we can skip this

Signed-off-by: Farhaan Bukhsh <farhaan@opencraft.com>

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-12-20T19:18:15Z

@sarina @ayub02 I have addressed all the comments

openedx-webhooks added open-source-contribution PR author is not from Axim or 2U core contributor PR author is a Core Contributor (who may or may not have write access to this repo). labels Dec 16, 2025

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farhaanbukhsh force-pushed the farhaan/how-to-enable-notification-tray branch from 09edf1b to f04d634 Compare December 16, 2025 12:49

farhaanbukhsh requested review from ayub02, sarina and xitij2000 December 16, 2025 12:49

sarina reviewed Dec 16, 2025

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sarina mentioned this pull request Dec 16, 2025

Add Notifications release note #1358

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chore: Add notification tray how-to

617bf72

Signed-off-by: Farhaan Bukhsh <farhaan@opencraft.com>

farhaanbukhsh force-pushed the farhaan/how-to-enable-notification-tray branch from 44b2819 to 617bf72 Compare December 20, 2025 18:56

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	the top-right corner of the Open edX interface.
	the top-right corner of the Open edX interface. Notification emails keep them updated when they are away from the platform. We do not have support for push notifications for Open edX mobile app at the moment.


		- Sets the required environment variables for the notifications service

		- ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL``

	- ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL``
	- ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL`` (defaults to TRUE)

	- ``SHOW_PUSH_CHANNEL``
	- ``SHOW_PUSH_CHANNEL`` (defaults to FALSE)

	customized through the `Tutor configuration <https://docs.tutor.edly.io/configuration.html#configuration>`_.
	customized through the `Tutor configuration <https://docs.tutor.edly.io/configuration.html#configuration>`_. These options are as follows:

		- Default: ``False``

		When enabled, learners get toggle to opt in or out of push notifications.



	.. important::

	The Open edX platform does not currently support push notifications for mobile apps. This toggle is added as part of ground work for when that support will be built.


	.. important::
	Default preference for email notifications for all users is ``Daily``. Therefore, by default, users will not receive any notification emails unless this cron job is is configured.


		.. code-block:: bash

		0 22 * * SUN tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Weekly

	0 22 * * SUN tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Weekly
	0 22 * * FRI tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Weekly

chore: Add notification tray how-to #1360

chore: Add notification tray how-to #1360

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farhaanbukhsh commented Dec 16, 2025

Description

Supporting information

Testing instructions

Deadline

Other information

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