Real-time notification system tracking user mentions, replies, and forum interactions.

Notification Bell

Header Display

Notification bell icon appears in site header for logged-in users via extrachill_header_top_right action hook.

Unread Count Badge

Red badge displays unread notification count when notifications exist.

Notification Page

Click bell icon to navigate to /notifications page with full notification list.

Notification Types

Reply Notifications

Receive notifications when other users reply to your forum topics.

Mention Notifications

Receive notifications when users mention you with @username in forum content.

Additional Types

Topic subscriptions and festival or artist discussions also create notifications.

Notification Components

Actor Information

Each notification includes:

• Actor display name (user who triggered notification)
• Actor profile link
• Actor avatar

Event Context

• Notification type identifier
• Topic title or subject
• Direct link to relevant content
• Timestamp of notification creation

Read Status

Unread count is derived from extrachill_notifications entries where read is false.

Notification Management

Automatic Capture

Reply Capture

Topic authors automatically notified when new replies are posted to their topics.

Mention Capture

Mentioned users automatically notified when content containing @mentions is published.

Notification Cleanup

Old notifications automatically pruned via scheduled cleanup process.

Read State

Notifications are marked as read when the user loads the /notifications page.

Data Storage

Network Table

Notifications are stored in the network-wide notifications table owned by Extra Chill Users.

Notification Structure

[
    'actor_id'        => 123,
    'type'            => 'reply',
    'title'           => 'Topic Title',
    'link'            => 'https://community.extrachill.com/forums/topic/...',
    'item_id'         => 456,
    'producer'        => 'extrachill-community/replies',
    'idempotency_key' => 'reply:789',
]

The producer and idempotency key pair prevents duplicate rows when a bbPress hook is replayed.

Notification Service

Notification Trigger

ec_users_notify_with_receipts( $user_ids, $notification_data );

Parameters:

• $user_ids (int|array): Single user ID or array of user IDs to notify
• $notification_data (array): Notification data with required fields:
  • actor_id (int): User ID who triggered notification
  • type (string): Notification type identifier
  • link (string): URL to notification target
  • title (string): Title/subject of notification
  • item_id (int): Related topic, reply, or content ID
  • producer (string): Feature-owned producer namespace
  • idempotency_key (string): Stable key derived from the triggering content ID

The receipt reports inserted, existing, and failed deliveries per recipient. Entity-topic post-meta claims are released only when a receipt explicitly reports a failed delivery.

Performance Optimization

Unread Count Calculation

Unread counts are cached by Extra Chill Users and invalidated when rows are inserted.

Scheduled Cleanup

Old notifications are removed via cron to prevent table bloat.

Usage Patterns

Users receive notifications when:

• actor_id (int): User ID who triggered notification
• type (string): Notification type identifier
• link (string): URL to notification target
• title (string): Title/subject of notification
• item_id (int): Related topic, reply, or content ID
• producer (string): Feature-owned producer namespace
• idempotency_key (string): Stable key derived from the triggering content ID

Notification bell provides immediate feedback on community engagement without requiring email notifications.