In this article I will demonstrate how to implement a cool notification technique using Pines Notify.  This small (7k min) js library provides a wealth of flexibility and a feature set second to none. It can use multiple different CSS libraries (bootstrap, jQueryUI and others) so integration into your site is quick and simple.

Introduction

Pines Notify is a notification popup capability which is easily integrated into a website. Like most jQuery plugins there is a methods to instantiate the capability and the ability to pass in multiple parameters.  There are certainly other popup style plugins but this is easy to grasp and the examples are very good.

We are going to look at how to make some complex function popups like these…

Demonstration

There are two demonstration pages this week

The first demonstration is a basic port of the Pines Notify buttons from the original example into an XPage.

The second demonstration shows how the Pines Notify could be used in a real application

Download 

Click on the link to download the complete jQuery in XPages demonstration database (including Pines Notify).

Pines Notify

Pines Notify provides a basic shell for popup creation and the capability for multiple custom configurations. A “popup” by default is created on the top right of the screen and disappears after a fixed period of time. The the position, CSS, length of time shown, transparency, contents, callbacks and other features can be controlled through the use of parameters. There are too many to mention in one article but they can all be seen at the example website.

Adding Pines Notify to an XPage

The Pines Notify download contains the .js files (readable and minified) and a basic css file. These are easily added to our database as files in the WebContent folder.

Once we have added the js and css files to the database they can be added to our XPage as a resource(s)

	<xp:this.resources>
		<xp:script src="js/jquery.pnotify.min.js" clientSide="true"></xp:script>
		<xp:styleSheet href="css/jquery.pnotify.default.css"></xp:styleSheet>
	</xp:this.resources>

jQuery UI and jQuery

Pines Notify uses the jQuery library and jQuery UI CSS for display. These are added to the XPage as additional resources

	<xp:this.resources>
		<xp:script src="js/jquery-1.7.1.min.js" clientSide="true"></xp:script>
		<xp:styleSheet href="css/jquery.custom-theme/images/jquery-ui-1.8.18.custom.css"></xp:styleSheet>
	</xp:this.resources>

Using Pines Notify

Pines Notify has a basic format for activating. Here is a sample button from the website:

<button class="btn source" onclick="$.pnotify({
 	pnotify_title: 'Regular Notice',
 	pnotify_text: 'Check me out! I\'m a notice.'
});">Regular Notice</button>

In this format the button does not work correctly when added to an XPage as it causes a page refresh when clicked. To turn this into an functioning button we must use an <xp:button> like this one

<xp:button value="xPages Lower Timer" id="button1" styleClass="btn source">
<xp:eventHandler event="onclick" submit="false">
	<xp:this.script>
		<![CDATA[$.pnotify({
			pnotify_title: 'Regular Notice',
		 	pnotify_text: 'Check me out! I\'m a notice.'
		});]]>
	</xp:this.script>
</xp:eventHandler>
</xp:button>

The Pines Notify examples website gives us the code we need to create each button

And to convert this to our XPages button we just need to copy and paste this code and insert it into the <![CDATA[ code section above. Using this we can quickly and easily convert the examples into functioning XPages buttons.

Pinning Notifications

By default all Notifications have the ability to “pin” them to the screen. Should they contain information the user wishes to retain, they can do so

Closing Notifications

By default all notifications can be closed before they fade out using the X in the notification

Stacking notifications

Pines Notify notifications always stack on top of each other, so you never have to worry about position or overlaying issues, they will organize themselves nicely.

Showing all notifications

By default there is a bar added to the screen which allows user to see the last and/or all previous notifications.

Working this into XPages functionality

Javascript alert boxes have been used since the start of the web but they require a user click and an unnecessary interaction from the user if the point of the notification is just that – to notify the user of something.

In our XPages applications we could potentially notify the user after:

• Successful REST update from the server
• partialRefresh completion
• form submission
• Pager completion
• General application workflow progress
• Validation failure

really the possibilities are endless and really up to you the developer.

Examples

My demonstration site examples page has illustrated a number of buttons taken directly from the website and I have also added some notifications to the other jQuery in XPages examples (linked in through the menu).

On my second Demonstration page There are 4 simple examples of real application uses for Pines Notify

Dojo Toaster Widget

On the XPages server without the need for jQuery you can use the dojo toaster widget to provide a notification capability. You should take a look at Chris Toohey’s well written article on Mastering the Dojo Toaster for XPages to get a comparison.

Thanks

To Alan Hurt for pointing me in the direction of this plugin 🙂