Notification Center
Give logged-in users of your app an inbox for comments, mentions and workflow notifications, and customize what it says.
The notification center is an inbox inside your published app. Logged-in users open it from the navigation menu to catch up on what needs their attention: comments and mentions on records they follow, and custom notifications that you send from a workflow.
Notifications wait in the inbox until the user reads them, so nothing is lost if they weren’t online when it was sent. Unlike push notifications, the inbox needs no browser permission from the user.
What appears in the inbox
The inbox collects two kinds of notifications:
- Comments and mentions. When someone comments on a thread a user follows, or mentions them in a Comments block, the user gets a notification in the inbox.
- Custom notifications from workflows. Any workflow can send a notification to one or more users with the Send Notification action — for example, when a task is assigned to them, an invoice is due or a request needs approval.
Notifications only go to logged-in users of your app. Visitors who aren’t signed in never see the inbox.
Turn on the notification center
Open the Notifications settings
In Softr Studio, open your app and go to Users in the top bar, then select the Notifications tab.
Switch on In-app notifications
Under Other channels, turn on the In-app notifications toggle (1). This adds a Notifications link to your app’s navigation menu. Use Notification inbox (2) to customize the inbox — see Customize the inbox below.
Publish your app
Changes to notification settings take effect once you publish your app. Notifications are only delivered from a published app.
Customize the inbox
Click Notification inbox next to the toggle to open Notification inbox settings. Every text your users see in the inbox can be changed here, so you can rename it or translate it into your app’s language.
General
- Link label and icon — the name and icon of the link in your navigation menu. It’s Notifications with a bell icon by default.
- All notifications tab — the Tab name of the tab that lists every notification (All by default) and the Empty state message shown when there are none.
- Unread notifications tab — the Tab name of the tab that lists only unread notifications (Unread by default) and its Empty state message.
Actions
- Filters — the labels of the two filter options: All notifications and Comments only.
- Mark as read — the labels (and icons) of the Mark as read and Mark as unread actions on a single notification, and the label of Mark all as read.
Click Save to keep your changes, then publish your app so users see them.
Send notifications from a workflow
To send your own notifications to the inbox, add the Send Notification action to a workflow.
Add the action
In a workflow, add a step, choose Softr Apps, then Send Notification.
Choose the In-app channel
Under Channels (1), keep In-app selected. Remove Push if you only want the notification to go to the inbox.
Pick the recipient
In User email (2), enter the email of the user to notify, or map it from an earlier step with @ — for example, the email of the user who triggered the workflow. The recipient must be a user of the selected app.
Write the message
Fill in the Notification title and, optionally, the Notification body (3). Both accept values from earlier steps, so you can include a record name, a due date or a status.
Optionally, set Open URL on click to the page the user should land on when they click the notification. It must start with your app’s domain. If you leave it empty, clicking the notification opens your app’s home page.
For every setting of the action, see Send Notification.
What your users see
Once the notification center is on, logged-in users see a Notifications link at the top of your app’s navigation menu (1). Clicking it opens the inbox as a panel next to the menu.
In the inbox, users can:
- Switch between All notifications and Unread ones.
- Use the filter icon (2) to show All notifications or Comments only.
- Mark a single notification as read or unread, or use the ⋯ menu to Mark all as read.
- Click a notification to open the page it links to.