Notifications and approvals

Manablox tells you about the things that need you: a document waiting for your approval, the answer to a request you made, a new role you were given. You decide where each kind reaches you: in the admin, by email, or as a notification from your web browser.

This page also explains approvals: a way to make sure that some documents are checked by a second person before they go live.

The bell

The bell at the top right of the admin shows a number when you have unread notifications.

1. Click the bell. A small list opens with your latest notifications.
2. Click a notification to open what it is about, for example the document waiting for you. It is marked as read.

Mark all read clears the number at once. See every notification at the bottom opens the full inbox.

New notifications arrive while you work: a short message pops up at the bottom right of the screen and the number on the bell goes up. You do not need to reload the page. Nothing gets lost while the admin is closed; the inbox keeps everything until you read or remove it.

The inbox

The inbox lists all your notifications, grouped by day. At the top:

• All and Unread switch between everything and only what you have not read yet.
• Mark all read marks everything as read.
• Remove read deletes everything you have already read, to tidy up.
• Preferences takes you to the settings described below.

The inbox is yours alone and the same in every space. Opening a notification about another space switches the admin to that space first.

What you are told about

Notification	Who gets it	Normally sent
A document awaits your approval	Everyone who may publish that kind of document, except the person asking	In the admin, by email, push
Your document was approved	The person who asked	In the admin, by email, push
Your document was sent back	The person who asked	In the admin, by email, push
A request for approval was withdrawn	Everyone who could have approved it	In the admin
You were added to a space, or your role changed	The member	In the admin, by email

Choose where notifications reach you

1. Click your name at the bottom of the sidebar. Your profile opens.
2. Open the Notifications tab.
3. In the table “What to be told about”, each row is a kind of notification and each column a channel: In the admin, By email and Push. Switch on what you want and off what you do not.
4. Click Save.

Switching a row off everywhere means you are not told about it at all.

A column marked “not set up here” cannot be used yet, because the installation is missing something (see below). Your choices are kept anyway and start working once it is set up.

Email

Emails go to the address on your profile (the Account tab). They need the installation to be able to send mail. In a project made with manablox create on your own computer, mails are caught by a test inbox at http://localhost:8025 instead of being sent. For real mail, a developer sets it up; see Sending email.

Push notifications

Push notifications pop up on your computer or phone from the web browser, even when the admin is not open. They need two things.

First, the installation needs a pair of push keys. This is a one-time job for the developer: in the project folder they run pnpm push-keys and copy the two printed values into PUSH_VAPID_PUBLIC_KEY and PUSH_VAPID_PRIVATE_KEY in the .env file, then restart the CMS. See The .env file.

Caution

The keys must not change once people use push. New keys make every browser that was switched on stop receiving notifications, and everyone has to switch them on again.

Second, each person switches push on in each browser where they want it:

1. Open your profile and the Notifications tab.
2. In the card This browser, click the switch Turn notifications on here.
3. Your browser asks whether this site may show notifications. Click Allow.

The switch now says “Notifications are on here”, and the browser appears in the list Browsers that get notified. Repeat this on your other devices. To stop notifications on a device, click the trash button next to it in the list.

If the switch is greyed out, the card says why:

• “Push is not configured on this instance”: the push keys are missing (see above). The card also names the command that makes them, pnpm push-keys in a created project.
• “This browser cannot receive push notifications here”: the admin must be opened over https:// (or on localhost on your own computer), in a browser that supports push.
• “Notifications are blocked for this site”: you once clicked “Block”. Allow notifications for the site in your browser’s settings, then come back.

Workflows can send push notifications too, with the Send a push notification node. They reach the same browsers. See Workflows.

Approvals: a second pair of eyes

Some content should be checked before it goes public, for example press releases or legal pages. For those, an admin can switch on approval for the content type. Then authors write, and someone who may publish checks and publishes.

Switch it on (admins)

1. Click Content types in the sidebar and open the type, for example “Press release”.
2. In the Behaviour card, tick Needs approval before publishing. It is only available when Publishable is ticked.
3. Click Save.

This does not change who may publish. That is still decided by the roles (see Users and roles): editors, admins and owners may publish; authors may not. What the switch adds is the request, the waiting list and the notifications.

As an author: ask for approval

1. Create a document of that type and save it. Because you cannot publish it yourself, Manablox opens a request for approval right away, and everyone who can publish it is notified.
2. In the editor’s sidebar, the Approval card now says “awaiting approval”.

You can also ask by hand: click Ask for approval in the Approval card, add a note for the reviewer if you like (for example “Please check the prices”), and confirm. While the request is open, Withdraw the request takes it back.

As a reviewer: approve or send back

You find open requests in three places: in the bell, on the Dashboard under Waiting for your approval, and in the Approval card of the document itself.

1. Open the document and read it.
2. In the Approval card, click Approve and publish to publish it right away. You can add a word for the author.
3. Or click Send back, and write what should change. The note is required.

The author is notified either way. A document that was sent back stays a draft and shows your note in its Approval card. After fixing it, the author clicks Ask again.

If a reviewer simply clicks Publish on a document with an open request, the request counts as approved. A document has at most one open request at a time, and earlier requests are listed under Earlier requests in the card.

Every step (asked, approved, sent back, withdrawn) is also recorded in the activity log, with the note.

For more about drafts and publishing, see Drafts, publishing and versions.