iNotify provides the means to display live notifications based on custom events.
# HOW IT WORKS
The module provides a custom Notification entity that admins with permissions can customize its fields and display. Notifications can be created using a Custom Rules Action that is provided, you can trigger the action on any system event, and fill the fields with custom data. The module uses NodeJS to automatically refresh the notifications view whenever it's available on display. The module also provides a notifications block to place within any region you want.
***The module does not contain styles, only yhe basics. You will have to style the block and write CSS according to your design.***
1. Download the module to your DRUPAL_ROOT/modules directory,
or where ever you install contrib modules on your site.
2. Go to Admin > Extend and enable the module.
# CONFIGURATION
- ### Enabling Node.js Integration
1. Install Node.js on your server, if not installed yet. Download the installer and follow the instructions on the Node.js website: https://nodejs.org/en/download/
2. Install the drupal-node.js server application and ensure that the application is running. Follow the instruction on GitHub:
https://github.com/beejeebus/drupal-nodejs
3. Install and enable the Node.js integration Drupal module on your site.
4. Visit the Node.js configuration page under the Configuration menu, and enter the connection information for your Node.js server application. The protocol, port, and service key settings should match the settings you entered in the config file of the Node.js server application. The host should be set to the hostname of the server on which you installed the Node.js server application. This host needs to be publicly accessible (i.e. "localhost" will not work).
5. Visit the status page of your Drupal site and ensure that there are no errors. Node.js should report that it has successfully connected to the Node.js server.
Note: The Drupal module and Node.js server application are sensitive to version numbers. The Drupal status page will show an error if the versions are not compatible.
For more information about the module, you can visit the[ Node.js Integration Modules Documentation.](https://www.drupal.org/node/1713530 " Node.js Integration Modules Documentation.")
#GETTING IT TO WORK
1. After installation, make sure you do a ll the required configurations.
2. Go to **admin/config/workflow/rules** and create a new reaction rule based on whatever event you want.
3. After configuring your reaction rule, make sure to add **Create Notification** to your actions list. you can add the title and description values within the action. When you are done, save you rule.
4. Go to your theme block layout and place the **Notifications Block** within the intended region (usually the header), then save.
5. Now you should see the block displayed in the region.To test it out, you can trigger you reaction rule and see the notification block automatically refreshing and displaying the new notification.
#ADVANCED USAGE & CUSOMIZATION
- ### Customizing the Notification Entity
The Notification entity provided is basically like any other content entity within Drupal. You can visit **admin/structure/inotify_notification_settings** and add or customize fields, alongside changing form display and content display modes, just do with it what you do with nodes.
- ### Customizing the Notification View
TODO
- ### Creating a Custom Rules Action
TODO
- ### Creating notification programmatically
Just create the inotify_notification entity programmatically
to your custome theme or custom module. You can modify the structure of the block display, just make sure to put your HTML within the {% block content %} tags, and never forget to use {{ content }} to render the actual view.
- ### Overriding Notifications Entity Template
For modifing the Notification template, copy the template file
**templates/inotify-notification.html.twig**
to your custome theme or custom module. You can modify the structure of the notification display based on the variable **view_mode** in case you created a view mode for the entity, you can also use the **content** variable just like any other content entity. You can always add more variables to the template using the hook **template_preprocess_inotify_notification**, go to **inotify.module** file to see how it's implemented.
- ### Custom CSS Styling
The included CSS file only provides a basic style to make it possible to you to see how the module works. You should have your own CSS file within your theme or custom module, just style the block like any other element within your theme.
