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Version: v9 (Current)

How WordPress Notification Plugin Works

WordPress Notification plugin is an automation system that connects WordPress events with external services through triggers, carriers, and merge tags. Originally designed for email notifications, it now supports webhooks, Slack integration, SMS, and countless third-party service connections.

The plugin leverages WordPress's built-in action system to monitor site activity and automatically send notifications when specific events occur. This makes it possible to create sophisticated notification workflows without custom coding.

The plugin is built on top of WordPress' actions system which means it can listen to any action defined in WordPress. And it has a thousand of them. Also, every properly created plugin should use them as well.

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Examples:

  • Send an email to WordPress administrator when user logs in
  • Send a webhook to your accounting software when someone purchases a product

WordPress Notification System Components​

The Notification plugin architecture consists of three core components that work together to create automated WordPress notifications. Understanding these components helps you build effective notification workflows.

WordPress Event Triggers​

The Trigger is a WordPress action(s) which are observed by the plugin. Examples:

  • User registration
  • Post publication
  • Plugin update

It allows the plugin to listen to what is happening in the background.

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The Notification is highly extensible. Developers can register own Triggers based on any WordPress actions.

Notification Carriers​

The Carrier is the delivery method that sends your WordPress notifications. Available notification carriers include:

  • Email
  • Webhook
  • Slack message
  • File Logger

All the Carriers works with all the Triggers out of the box, even the custom ones.

Dynamic Merge Tags​

Merge tags are dynamic placeholders that insert real-time data into your WordPress notifications. Common merge tag examples:

  • {user_email}
  • {plugin_name}
  • {post_title}

You can compose the Notification out of them when you don't really know what's going to be rendered. For example when you create the "User registered" Notification and use the {user_email} Merge Tag it's going to be rendered to [email protected] when you register and to [email protected] when I register.

How WordPress Notification Components Work Together​

WordPress notification triggers, carriers, and merge tags combine to create powerful automated communication workflows.

A WordPress notification follows a simple "when this, then that" logic: when a specific trigger event occurs, the system executes the configured carriers using dynamic merge tag data. For example, when a user registers (trigger), send a welcome email and webhook notification (carriers) with the user's details (merge tags).

Each Trigger has a set of it's Merge Tags. Having the {plugin_name} Tag in context of a User registration would be rather silly 😉

You can use these Marge Tags in any Carrier. Ie. use the {user_email} as the Email recipient but also send it in a user.email field in the Webhook.

The rule of thumb is - if you cannot see the Merge Tag in the sidebar, you cannot use it.