feat: Adds notification tray slot #638

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-09-30T17:34:27Z

This PR is turned obsolete with #644, we have kept this PR up for sandbox provisioning and will close this soon

Addition of the NotificationTray slot, this slot is used to add a notification tray to the learner dashboard, studio, and learning MFE. This in turn helps to add the same slot to other MFEs as well since all of them use the same header.

Private Refs:
https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/BB-10062
https://tasks.opencraft.com/browse/BB-10060

Discussions: Link to any public dicussions about this PR or the design/architecture. Otherwise omit this.

Dependencies: None

Screenshots:

Sandbox URL: TBD - sandbox is being provisioned.

Merge deadline: "None" if there's no rush, "ASAP" if it's critical, or provide a specific date if there is one.

Testing instructions:

Clone this repo and change to this branch. Run npm ci && npm run build
Let's checkout the learner dashboard to have the notification tray slot.
If you have a tutor devstack already running, stop the learner dashboard, tutor dev stop learner-dashboard
Make sure learner-dashboard is already mounted you can check tutor mount lists if is is not mounted you can add tutor mounts add /path_to/edx-devstack/frontend-app-learner-dashboard and build the image tutor images build openedx-dev
Now we need to copy the dist/ folder under frontend-component-header. cp -r /path_to/edx-devstack/frontend-component-header/dist /path_to/edx-devstack/frontend-app-learner-dashboard/node_modules/@edx/frontend-component-header. This copies the built codebase to the frontend-component-header
Add env.config.jsx in /path_to/edx-devstack/frontend-app-learner-dashboard with the content,

import { PLUGIN_OPERATIONS, DIRECT_PLUGIN } from '@openedx/frontend-plugin-framework';
import { NotificationsTray, useAppNotifications, Notifications } from '@edx/frontend-plugin-notifications';
// Load environment variables from .env file
const config = {
  pluginSlots: {
    "org.openedx.frontend.layout.notification_tray.v1": {
      keepDefault: false,
      plugins: [
        {
          op: PLUGIN_OPERATIONS.Insert,
          widget: {
            id: 'custom_notification_tray',
            type: DIRECT_PLUGIN,
            RenderWidget: () => (
              <NotificationsTray />
            ),
          },
        },
      ],
    },
  },
};

export default config;

We need to install the notification plugin in learner dashboard i.e /path_to/edx-devstack/frontend-app-learner-dashboard npm i @edx/frontend-plugin-notifications
Now we can run npm run dev, after this if we see learner dashboard we should see notification icon button.

openedx-webhooks · 2025-09-30T17:34:32Z

Thanks for the pull request, @farhaanbukhsh!

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arbrandes

Looks like this might still be a draft. There are a couple of CI failures, and there's no documentation for the slot.

arbrandes · 2025-10-01T12:34:24Z

src/desktop-header/DesktopHeader.jsx

      <div className={`container-fluid ${logoClasses}`}>
        <div className="nav-container position-relative d-flex align-items-center">
-          <LogoSlot {...logoProps} />
+          {/* <LogoSlot {...logoProps} /> */}


We're not actually removing the LogoSlot, right?

I was just testing few things

Signed-off-by: Farhaan Bukhsh <farhaan@opencraft.com>

codecov · 2025-10-02T11:59:45Z

Codecov Report

✅ All modified and coverable lines are covered by tests.
✅ Project coverage is 73.59%. Comparing base (dbec796) to head (505fa43).
⚠️ Report is 17 commits behind head on master.

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##           master     #638      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   73.01%   73.59%   +0.57%     
==========================================
  Files          55       56       +1     
  Lines         504      515      +11     
  Branches      100      100              
==========================================
+ Hits          368      379      +11     
  Misses        133      133              
  Partials        3        3

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farhaanbukhsh · 2025-10-02T12:12:55Z

@xitij2000 @arbrandes, you both can review this while I update testing instructions for it.

xitij2000 · 2025-10-03T07:14:17Z

@farhaanbukhsh My concern here is that this slot is just not needed. I don't think it's adding anything.

If notifications were a core feature, wrapping it in a slot would make sense since you could then override a platform feature, however it's part of a plugin, so you can simply not install it.

Any component that needs to be added can simply be added to the LearningHelpSlot and it will end up in exactly the same space.

So here is my suggestion, if we have to add this slot, we should not call this the NotificationTraySlot but name it after its location, i.e. LearningHeaderToolbarSlot or similar. Naming it after something that doesn't even exist in core doesn't make sense to me.

Additionally, the slot for mobile and studio should have a different name.

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-10-03T10:06:48Z

@farhaanbukhsh My concern here is that this slot is just not needed. I don't think it's adding anything.

If notifications were a core feature, wrapping it in a slot would make sense since you could then override a platform feature, however it's part of a plugin, so you can simply not install it.

Any component that needs to be added can simply be added to the LearningHelpSlot and it will end up in exactly the same space.

So here is my suggestion, if we have to add this slot, we should not call this the NotificationTraySlot but name it after its location, i.e. LearningHeaderToolbarSlot or similar. Naming it after something that doesn't even exist in core doesn't make sense to me.

Additionally, the slot for mobile and studio should have a different name.

Thanks a lot for the comment @xitij2000 , FWIW, the discussion is to make notifications a core plugin and going forward, it would have an even more permanent addition to the platform in terms of thinking, product proposal or code.

We have had a discussion about the slots, and since the notification tray was implemented as a plugin slot widget, this is the path of least resistance to integrate with the platform; hence, we are keeping the slot in. Hope it is clearer to you now. :)

xitij2000 · 2025-10-03T12:08:55Z

@farhaanbukhsh Adding a plugin slot for it is okay; however, it shouldn't be called NotificationTraySlot, but something like HeaderActionItemSlot or similar.

Maybe there can be some conventions around this, but from what I see a slot should either be about after the component its wrapping, or its location on the page.

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-10-04T03:02:12Z

@farhaanbukhsh Adding a plugin slot for it is okay; however, it shouldn't be called NotificationTraySlot, but something like HeaderActionItemSlot or similar.

Maybe there can be some conventions around this, but from what I see a slot should either be about after the component its wrapping, or its location on the page.

If you see this slot it is being added with an intention to be used @xitij2000 so I feel for now it's okay to go with NotificationTraySlot and if we get use it in a more generic sense then we can rename it later. Hence, I think have a specific name makes more sense, what do you think?

xitij2000 · 2025-10-06T09:01:28Z

@farhaanbukhsh Adding a plugin slot for it is okay; however, it shouldn't be called NotificationTraySlot, but something like HeaderActionItemSlot or similar.
Maybe there can be some conventions around this, but from what I see a slot should either be about after the component its wrapping, or its location on the page.

If you see this slot it is being added with an intention to be used @xitij2000 so I feel for now it's okay to go with NotificationTraySlot and if we get use it in a more generic sense then we can rename it later. Hence, I think have a specific name makes more sense, what do you think?

I don't feel intention is a good reason. Because then you can end up with a dozen slots in the same place by different people because they all want different features in the same place, whereas they could all put what they want in the same slot. Also because the whole point of slots is that they allow control over the UI. So someone might want to put the notification icon in a different place, which is the benefit that slots provide.

Additionally, as I mentioned above, you should create separate slots for mobile, studio, learner, etc., instead of using the same slot in each place.

CC: @bradenmacdonald Could you give your input here as well? The TLDR is, the we're adding a new slot called NotificationTraySlot to the header. I'm opposed to this since I feel that a black slot should not be named after the feature it's for but for the location it exists in so that any compatible plugin can be added there. With NotificationTraySlot it sounds like it's only for the notification tray whereas you can add anything. A generic name sounds more appropriate.

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-10-08T14:36:26Z

@xitij2000, now that I think about it, it does make more sense to rename the plugin so that we have a clear distinction and generic names of slots. Let me rename them, and then you can have a look. Thank you for your patience.

xitij2000 · 2025-10-06T08:56:56Z

src/plugin-slots/NotificationSlot/index.jsx

+const NotificationTraySlot = () => (
+  <PluginSlot
+    id="org.openedx.frontend.layout.notification_tray.v1"
+    idAliases={['notification_tray_plugin']}


This is not needed for a new slot.

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-10-12T15:41:02Z

@arbrandes @xitij2000 you can have a look at #644 and please provide your review on it.

farhaanbukhsh · 2025-10-15T11:09:37Z

closing this in favour of #644

openedx-webhooks added open-source-contribution PR author is not from Axim or 2U core contributor PR author is a Core Contributor (who may or may not have write access to this repo). labels Sep 30, 2025

openedx-webhooks added this to Contributions Sep 30, 2025

github-project-automation bot moved this to Needs Triage in Contributions Sep 30, 2025

arbrandes self-requested a review October 1, 2025 12:33

arbrandes requested changes Oct 1, 2025

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feat: Adds notification tray slot

87faedc

Signed-off-by: Farhaan Bukhsh <farhaan@opencraft.com>

farhaanbukhsh force-pushed the farhaan/adding-more-slots branch from 5de8cd5 to 87faedc Compare October 2, 2025 11:21

fixup! feat: Adds notification tray slot

9a2964f

fixup! feat: Adds notification tray slot

8fabcd1

farhaanbukhsh requested review from arbrandes and xitij2000 October 2, 2025 12:12

mphilbrick211 moved this from Needs Triage to Ready for Review in Contributions Oct 2, 2025

farhaanbukhsh added 2 commits October 4, 2025 12:07

fixup! feat: Adds notification tray slot

7e2ae6f

fixup! feat: Adds notification tray slot

505fa43

farhaanbukhsh mentioned this pull request Oct 5, 2025

Adding and upstreaming NotificationSlot openedx/frontend-plugin-notifications#50

Closed

xitij2000 reviewed Oct 9, 2025

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farhaanbukhsh closed this Oct 15, 2025

github-project-automation bot moved this from Ready for Review to Done in Contributions Oct 15, 2025

farhaanbukhsh deleted the farhaan/adding-more-slots branch October 15, 2025 11:10

feat: Adds notification tray slot #638

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