chore: Add notification tray how-to

source/community/release_notes/ulmo/ulmo_notifications.rst

@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ For instructions on using Notifications in courses, managing preferences,
 reviewing activity, and understanding delivery settings, please refer to the
 :ref:`Notifications & Preferences`.
 
-For site operators, configuration options are available in the :ref:`Operator release notes <Ulmo operators>`.
+For site operators, configuration options are available in the :ref:`Enable Notifications`.
 
 
 
@@ -158,4 +158,4 @@ For site operators, configuration options are available in the :ref:`Operator re
 | Review Date  | Working Group Reviewer        |   Release      |Test situation                  |
 +--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
 | 2025-12-05   | Product  WG                   | Ulmo           | Pass                           |
-+--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
++--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+

source/site_ops/how-tos/enable_notifications.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,154 @@
+.. _Enable Notifications:
+
+Enable Notifications
+####################
+
+.. tags:: site operator, how-to
+
+:ref:`Notifications <Notifications & Preferences>` keep you informed about activity in your
+courses, alerting you via one or both of in-platform notifications and email notifications.
+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. **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.
+
+The recommended way to enable notifications is by using the official Tutor
+plugin:
+`tutor-contrib-platform-notifications <https://github.com/openedx/tutor-contrib-notifications>`_.
+
+Install and enable the plugin
+*****************************
+
+Install the plugin:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   pip install tutor-contrib-platform-notifications
+
+Enable the plugin in your Tutor environment:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   tutor plugins enable notifications
+
+When enabled, the plugin automatically:
+
+- Enables the following waffle flags:
+
+  - ``notifications.enable_notifications``
+  - ``notifications.enable_email_notifications``
+
+- Sets the required environment variables for the notifications service
+
+  - ``SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL`` (defaults to TRUE)
+  - ``SHOW_PUSH_CHANNEL`` (defaults to FALSE)
+
+.. important::
+
+   After enabling the notifications plugin, site operators **must rebuild the
+   MFE image** for the notification tray to appear in the user interface.
+
+Rebuild the MFE image:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   tutor images build mfe
+
+
+Configure the notifications plugin
+**********************************
+
+The notifications plugin exposes several configuration options that can be
+customized through the `Tutor configuration <https://docs.tutor.edly.io/configuration.html#configuration>`_.
+These options are as follows:
+
+
+NOTIFICATIONS_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL
+================================
+
+Specifies the **From** email address used when sending notification emails.
+
+If not explicitly set, this value defaults to the platform contact email.
+
+
+NOTIFICATIONS_ENABLE_SHOW_EMAIL_CHANNEL
+=======================================
+
+Controls whether the **Email notifications** toggle is visible on the learner’s
+account settings page.
+
+- Type: Boolean
+- Default: ``True``
+
+When enabled, learners get toggle to opt in or out of receiving email 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.
+
+NOTIFICATIONS_ENABLE_SHOW_PUSH_CHANNEL
+======================================
+
+Controls whether the **Push notifications** toggle is visible on the learner’s
+account settings page.
+
+- Type: Boolean
+- Default: ``False``
+
+When enabled, learners get toggle to opt in or out of push notifications.
+
+Configure daily and weekly email digests
+****************************************
+
+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.
+
+.. 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 configured.
+
+To enable these digests, site operators must configure `cron jobs <https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/linux-cron-command>`_ on the host machine where tutor
+is being used to deploy the Open edX platform.
+
+On the Linux host machine site operators need to run `crontab -e` for adding the cron jobs. This command opens up 
+an editor where the below mentioned command needs to be written. Site operators can modify these command to customize the
+time to send the notification email. They need to change the command to `tutor local ...` or `tutor k8s ...` depending on
+if they are running the instance locally or using kubernetes.
+
+
+Daily email digest
+==================
+
+The following cron job sends the daily digest at **10:00 PM**:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   0 22 * * * tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Daily
+
+
+Weekly email digest
+===================
+
+The following cron job sends the weekly digest every **Sunday at 10:00 PM**:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+   0 22 * * SUN tutor local run lms ./manage.py lms send_email_digest Weekly
+
+.. note::
+
+   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.
+
+
+**Maintenance chart**
+
++--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
+| Review Date  | Working Group Reviewer        |   Release      |Test situation                  |
++--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
+|2025-12-18    | BTR WG                        | Ulmo           | Pass                           |
++--------------+-------------------------------+----------------+--------------------------------+
+