[nodebb-plugin-pushbullet] Push Notifications for NodeBB

[julian]

Pushbullet Integration for NodeBB

After much anticipated demand, I'm proud to say that Push Notifications have landed in NodeBB!

We've been in touch with PushBullet, a Y Combinator-funded startup in San Francisco, and they granted us early access to their OAuth based integration, allowing me to bring this to you guys. We're going into full testing mode with this now that the plugin is more or less complete, so you can try it out here on this forum (by clicking the "Pushbullet" menu option in your user settings), or by clicking here

Pushbullet released their OAuth interface yesterday, and so now's the perfect time to unveil our integration with it too!

This plugin is a premium plugin. What this means is that upon release, it is available exclusively to members of our hosted community and select partners. After a short period, it will be released publically and published on npm like other plugins.

Tentatively, the release date is scheduled for: When NodeBB v0.5.0 lands

EDIT: The plugin is now available to the general public! Install it via

npm install nodebb-plugin-pushbullet

[julian]

This is how NodeBB notifications look in Pushbullet and on the notifications drawer

Pushbullet is supported on Android (via the Play Store), and on iOS (via the App Store).

The really cool thing about Pushbullet is that it's free right now, when other push notification services are "pay per push", which can be cost-prohibitive to many smaller community owners. So kudos to the Pushbullet team!

[a_5mith]

@julian

Looking gooood buddy, looking goooooood. Oh and a tip for anyone that wants to use this, don't link your phone, your iPad, both your browsers and your desktop to this. Duplicate notifications gets a whole new meaning.

[meetdilip]

NodeBB is getting more and more irresistible .

[julian]

I'm waiting to win "one internet" from @zenkamal (or was it from you? )

[a_5mith]

@julian My internets come in increments of hundreds, they're like a really poor value Bitcoin.

[julian]

Guys, you blew up my phone

• Lock screen
• Notifications Drawer

---

Some Thoughts

• As mentioned in another thread, there's the tendency to get lots of notifications at once, especially if you get upvoted, mentioned, and happen to watch the topic in question. gh#1375 addresses this, and will make it into v0.5.0
• The screenshots so far show the generic title "New Notification from {site title}", with the notification text as the body. This can be improved, so that relevant post content can actually be shown in the post itself, allowing you to decide in the notification drawer whether to dismiss or act on the push. Right now, it's impossible to tell (especially with a notification like "@baris has upvoted your post"... but which post?! )

julianlam created this issue in NodeBB/NodeBB

closed Notification duplicate removal should favour the longer notification #1375

[zenkamal]

@julian

My internets are in a retirement account sry

[Schamper]

Very cool In theory you should be able to easily extend this to support other push services, right? (depending on how easy other push services are to implement, that is)

[julian]

@Schamper The main reason I only went ahead with this now is because other push services cost money. It is a business, after all. There's simply no incentive for me to create a plugin to talk to a third-party push messaging service when the forum owner would have to pay per push.

Pushbullet is free (for now, anyway), so I'm not one to turn down an opportunity In the future they may monetise their service, and I imagine we'll adjust accordingly when that happens. Think "Askimet" for WordPress.

In short, theoretically, yes, but you'd have to adapt the code to their own API, that's all

Edit: In hindsight, I should've launched a plugin weekend this weekend... I would've won ALL THE UPVOTES

[Schamper]

@julian said:

@Schamper The main reason I only went ahead with this now is because other push services cost money. It is a business, after all. There's simply no incentive for me to create a plugin to talk to a third-party push messaging service when the forum owner would have to pay per push.

Good point.

Edit: In hindsight, I should've launched a plugin weekend this weekend... I would've won ALL THE UPVOTES

Are premium plugins allowed to enter though

[a_5mith]

@julian Not sure if it was just a one off, but long topic titles expand over the "Dismiss" button in the top right of the desktop notification. And they definitely don't time out when left without dismissing or clicking on it.

[julian]

Not for me

Actually, 0 for 2... they dismiss for me after 5-10 seconds... perhaps update Chrome?

Edit: God, I love the new notifications... I can see the post text too.

[a_5mith]

@julian I'll uninstall and reinstall. Or move over to Linux.

EDIT: This is the windows desktop version of pushbullet.

[julian]

@a_5mith This windows client? Perhaps you can report it as a bug on their NodeBB forum.

Oh wait, they don't have one yet (tweet them at @pushbullet maybe)

[a_5mith]

@julian I don't use twitter. #missingout#worldcup2014#2manytags4twttr

I'll write them a letter.

[julian]

Maybe they accept carrier pigeon

[julian]

Just for @a_5mith, the plugin has been updated so you can select which device to receive notifications to:

No easy way to select more than 1 device to send pushes to (e.g. send to chrome and my phone, but not to firefox), but perhaps in a future version

[a_5mith]

@julian Loovely, will have a play with the settings on the Desktop app,as I've just found the timeout bit. No carrier pigeons needed. (It was under Device Mirroring)

[julian]

Fixed a crash caused by the plugin

Thanks @a_5mith