Multisite Support

[Sephsekla]

Do we have a plan in place for how notifications will be handled on a multisite installation? It would be great to be able to see notifications from multiple sites in a network in one place. Maybe on a multisite install we could add an extra indicator to each notification to show which site it refers to.

[raaaahman]

This is probably tied to the recipients. Only the super admin role should be notified about actions happening on every sites.

Maybe on a multisite install we could add an extra indicator to each notification to show which site it refers to.

Yes, probably.

Maybe there is also the severity to take into account: should we notify the super admin about any matter that is less than critical for other sites of the network?

In the end, if it is a matter of only warning the super admin about critical failures in the network, then this could be a feature we can add later rather than defining a characteristic of the system.

[Sephsekla]

In an ideal world it would be good to have an option to configure that - I'm not sure there's a right answer as opposed to just case by case preferences. It could be a dashboard setting, or even just a filter to start with.

[jonathanbossenger]

Is it possible that what we have currently is sufficient for a multisite network?

The notification originator (core, plugin, theme) can determine a) if this is a multisite network and b) who the super admin is, and create a notification for them. The notification originator can then include a) whether this notification pertains to the network, or a specific site, and b) if needed, the specific site it pertains to, either by adding this to the title or message for the notification.

Given this, are there any situations we can think of where what we have available in the notification schema would not be enough for a multisite-related notification?

[raaaahman]

The notification originator (core, plugin, theme) can determine a) if this is a multisite network and b) who the super admin is, and create a notification for them. The notification originator can then include a) whether this notification pertains to the network, or a specific site, and b) if needed, the specific site it pertains to, either by adding this to the title or message for the notification.

The origin site information could indeed pertain in the Sender model. But that would still need to be added to the current Sender model.

[Sephsekla]

It may be that it's mainly a frontend display consideration then. I think these are the key points to consider:

• Do we show notifications for all sites everywhere? Only on their own site? In network admin?
• How do we easily distinguish between notifications from different sites? Do we group them?
• How configurable are all these decisions by the end user (in a settings ui or to start with just filters or flags)?

[folletto]

Here's a basic idea that I think fits very well the model.

• The in-hub notifications are multi-site
• The in-page notifications are site-specific

Both are determined by the specific notification level on the originating site: if the site delivers a in-hum notification to a specific user role, then it will be delivered regardless of site.

I think this can be later be reviewed, but I think it's the baseline starting point we can ship, then refine.

One thing design wise that comes out of it is that on multi-site installation we might need to review how clear it is the site source. Might already work with what we have, but definitely something to check.

[Sephsekla]

This was raised again when I demoed the POC plugin last week. We discussed the possibility of a select/filter control for notification source, so this could tie together nicely #84