How to Build an Internal Notification System with JetEngine & JetFormBuilder?

Are your crucial company updates getting buried in chaotic Slack channels or lost in an endless flood of emails? A disorganized Internal Notification System can cost businesses time, reduce engagement, and even compromise safety when critical messages are missed.

Imagine a single, dedicated location for company alerts, a simple notification bell right inside your team’s WordPress dashboard.

This centralized notification system solves the communication chaos by delivering real-time updates where your employees already work.

This guide provides a comprehensive, no-code tutorial on how to create your own professional-grade notification system using the powerful Crocoblock tools: JetEngine and JetFormBuilder.

You will learn to implement a reliable, customized solution that goes far beyond the limited capabilities of standard WordPress.

Why Your Business Needs a Custom Internal Notification System?

Relying solely on traditional communication methods, such as email, for critical updates is no longer sufficient.

Important messages get buried in overflowing inboxes, and third-party apps add another layer of complexity, forcing employees to switch between platforms constantly.

This fragmentation of internal communication creates information silos, which in turn slow down your entire operation. An internal notification system built into WordPress overcomes these limits.

The Limits of Traditional Communication Methods

Relying solely on email or third-party apps for critical information like emergency procedures or policy changes presents several problems:

• Information Overload: Key updates are easily overlooked among marketing emails and personal correspondence.

• Context Switching: Employees must constantly switch between applications, which breaks focus and reduces productivity.

• Lack of Control: You have no way to confirm that a user has actually viewed a message, a crucial gap during emergency communications.

Key Benefits of an Integrated WordPress Notification System

Building your notification system directly into your WordPress platform offers immediate, tangible benefits:

• Enhances Productivity: Employees stay informed within their primary work environment, streamlining workflows and reducing the need for switching between applications.

• Ensures Timely Delivery: It guarantees the immediate delivery of critical information and emergency alerts to the logged-in user.

• Boosts Employee Engagement: An efficient system keeps employees connected to the company’s activities and culture, making them feel valued and informed.

• Enables Accountability: You can easily track read receipts, offering valuable, detailed reports on engagement.

Learn how to set up a powerful internal notification system directly inside WordPress using JetEngine, JetFormBuilder, and Elementor.

This step-by-step Crocoblock tutorial covers everything from creating content types and forms to enabling live AJAX updates and designing dynamic fields.

The Essential Plugins for Your WordPress Notification Toolkit

To create a sophisticated, dynamic Internal Notification System in WordPress, you’ll combine the functionality of two key plugins from the Crocoblock suite.

JetEngine: The Core of Your System

JetEngine is the foundational tool. It provides the robust database management and dynamic content capabilities needed for a professional notification system.

• Custom Content Types (CCTs): We’ll use these to structure and save all notification data outside of the standard WordPress posts table, ensuring speed and organization.

• Query Builder: This feature enables you to retrieve only the messages relevant to a specific logged-in user, based on their user role or other specified criteria.

• Listing Grids: This displays your notifications on the front end in a clean, professional format.

• Data Store: The key to tracking which notifications a user has read, enabling read receipts, and managing unlimited messages efficiently.

JetFormBuilder: The Creation Interface

JetFormBuilder is an intuitive front-end form builder that enables administrators and managers to submit new notifications easily.

• Post-Submit Actions: This essential feature, part of the JetFormBuilder plugin, enables the automatic creation of a new item in your JetEngine CCT upon form submission, thereby connecting the admin interface to the backend data.

• JetFormBuilder Forms: We’ll use this to design a user-friendly input interface.

Step-by-Step: Building Internal Notification System with JetEngine & JetFormBuilder

This section is the core of the tutorial. Follow these steps to implement your internal notification system in WordPress without writing a single line of code.

Step 1: Create a “Notification” Custom Content Type (CCT) to Store Messages

First, we need a dedicated space in the database to save our notification data. Using a JetEngine custom content type is faster and more flexible than using traditional Custom Post Types.

Define the CCT: Go to JetEngine → Custom Content Types and click “Add New.” Name it “Notifications.”

Define Necessary Meta Fields: These fields will store the content and settings for each alert. Use the following fields:

• notification_title: Text field. For the headline of the message.

• notification_details: WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). For the full message details.

• notification_level: Select field. Options: ‘Standard’, ‘Important’, ‘Urgent’. This lets you define the severity of the alert.

• target_user_role: Select or Checkbox field. This is crucial for role-based notifications. Set the field source to “User Roles” to target specific groups of employees.

Step 2: Build a Frontend Form with JetFormBuilder for Easy Notification Creation

Next, we’ll build the admin interface to easily submit new notifications.

Create a New Form: Go to JetFormBuilder → Add New.

Add Form Fields: Add fields that correspond to your CCT meta fields:

• Include a Text field labeled notification_title.
• Add a Textarea or WYSIWYG field called notification_details.
• Create a Select field notification_level, using the same options defined in your CCT.
• Implement a Checkbox field, target_user_role, to choose which user groups should receive the alert.

Configure Post-Submit Action: This is where the JetFormBuilder post-submit actions magic happens.

• In the “Post Submit Actions” section, click “Add New Action” and select “Insert/Update Post.”

• Configure the action: Set the Post Type to your “Notification” Content Type.

• Map Fields: Map the form fields to your CCT fields: notification_title to the CCT Title, and all other form fields (details, level, role) to their corresponding meta fields.

Step 3: Configure a JetEngine Data Store to Manage “Read” Notifications

We need a way to track which notifications a specific user has viewed so they don’t see the same alert repeatedly. This allows you to implement read receipts.

Create a Data Store: Go to JetEngine → Data Stores and click “Add New.”

• Name: “Read Notifications.”
• Store Type: Set it to “User metadata.” This ensures the data is explicitly tied to the logged-in user.
• Store Content: Set to “Posts.” The system will save the ID of the “Notification” CCT item that the user has read.

Step 4: Construct a JetEngine Query to Fetch Relevant Notifications

The JetEngine Query Builder is the brain of the system. It determines what notifications a user sees. The goal is to show alerts that are: 1) Targeted to the user’s role, and 2) Not already in the user’s “Read Notifications” store.

Create a New Query: Go to JetEngine → Query Builder and click “Add New.” Set the source to “Content Type Query” and select your “Notification” CCT.

Add Query Clauses (Filtering): This is how you target the logged-in user.

Crucial Clause 1 (Role Targeting):

• Field: target_user_role (your CCT meta field).

• Operator: IN (or LIKE if using a text field).

• Value: Use the dynamic tag’ get_current_user_data’ and set the Field to’ roles’ (or’ user_role’). This compares the notification’s target roles with the current post’s user role, ensuring only notifications for the user’s groups are fetched.

Crucial Clause 2 (Exclude Read Messages):

• Field: ID (The CCT item ID).

• Operator: NOT IN.

• Value: Use the dynamic tag for JetEngine Data Store and select your “Read Notifications” store. This excludes any related items that the user has already marked as read.

Step 5: Design a Dynamic Notification Item with a Listing Template

Now, design the look and feel of a single notification.

Create a Listing: Go to JetEngine → Listings and click “Add New.” Set the source to “Content Type” and select your “Notification” CCT.

Design the Item: Use the Gutenberg block editor or your preferred page builder.

• Use the Dynamic Field widget to display the notification_title.
• Use the Dynamic Meta widget to display the notification_details.
• Style the item based on the notification_level meta field (e.g., a red border for Urgent alerts).

Add the “Mark as Read” Functionality:

Add a Button or Link widget. Set the URL to a Dynamic Tag → JetEngine → Data Store → Add to store.

Select your “Read Notifications” store.

When the user clicks this, the notification’s ID is instantly added to their personal “Read” data store.

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Step 6: Display Your Internal Notification System on the Frontend

The final step is to display the system to the user.

Add a Notification Bell: In your site header template, add a Bell Icon or other clickable block.

Display the Listing Grid: Use a Listing Grid widget (or a dropdown from a tool like JetElements).

• Set the Listing to the one you created in Step 5.

• Crucially, set the Query to the one you built in Step 4. This ensures the grid only shows the current user’s unread, targeted notifications.

Include an Unread Counter: To display the number of new messages to the user, add a counter next to the bell icon. Use the Dynamic Tag → JetEngine → Queried Posts Count and connect it to the Query from Step 4.

Key Features and Customizations for Your Notification System

The base system is powerful, but you can extend it with advanced features.

Implementing User-Specific and Role-Based Notifications

The core strength of the JetEngine notification system is its granularity. Beyond simple role-based targeting in the JetEngine Query Builder, you can:

• Target Specific Users: Add a clause to the Query Builder to compare a CCT meta field (e.g., target_user_id) with the Current User ID to send alerts only to one person.

• Target Departments/Locations: If you have custom fields for user profiles (e.g., user_department), you can add a Query clause to target employees based on the location or department data.

Creating “Read Receipts” and Tracking Engagement

The Data Store provides a simple way to confirm a message has been seen, which is a key functionality of an effective internal communication strategy.

Detailed Reports: For even more granular reporting, you can use JetFormBuilder to create a simple form with a hidden field to pass the CCT item ID. Set the post submit actions to “Insert Post” into a separate “Log” CCT, creating a timestamped record every time a user clicks “Mark as Read.”

Setting Up Email or SMS Alerts for Critical Notifications

For true emergency communications, you need multichannel delivery to multiple devices.

• Twilio/Zapier Integration: In Step 2, when you configure the JetFormBuilder post-submit actions, add a “Call Webhook” action. You can send the notification data to an external service, such as Twilio, to trigger SMS or voice calls to employees’ devices.

• Microsoft Teams/Slack Integration: Use the same “Call Webhook” action to send the content of an urgent alert to Microsoft Teams or Slack channels for immediate desktop alerts.

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Best Practices for Managing Internal Communications in WordPress

A powerful tool requires a thoughtful strategy to be effective. The goal of your new internal notification system is to enhance communication, not introduce unnecessary noise.

Establish Clear Communication Protocols

Clearly define what constitutes an “Urgent” notification (e.g., system downtime, safety alerts) versus a “Standard” one (e.g., company newsletter link).

Send notifications only for important information. Use email for less time-sensitive, non-critical updates.

Keep Your Messages Clear, Concise, and Actionable

When writing notifications:

• Use Strong Headlines: The notification_title must be clear and grab attention.
• Get to the Point: Ensure the message is short and includes the next step (e.g., “Click here to read the new rules”).
• Focus on Safety: For emergency alerts, ensure that instructions are clear and concise, helping employees stay safe.

Regularly Solicit Feedback to Measure Success

The best internal notification system is one that employees actually use.

• Ask for Input: Use a JetFormBuilder form to solicit feedback on the system’s effectiveness, the frequency of alerts, and the clarity of the messages.

• Analyze Data: Review your read receipts and other engagement data to see which types of notifications are being missed.

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JetEngine vs. Other WordPress Notification Plugins: A Quick Comparison

When choosing a solution for your notification system, it’s helpful to understand the core differences between a custom build and pre-packaged plugins.

Feature	Custom JetEngine System	Push Notification Plugins (e.g., OneSignal)	Email Notification Plugins
Control & Customization	100% Control: You define the data structure, the display logic, and the front-end interface. Highly flexible.	Limited to browser UI/UX. No control over the database.	Only controls the email format and trigger.
Targeting	Extremely granular. Targets based on user roles, user meta fields, departments, etc.	Generally, basic segmentation based on device/browser.	Targets based on user email address or subscription list.
Delivery Method	On-site desktop alerts within the WordPress platform. Best for real-time internal alerts.	Browser-based “push” to the device’s screen (even if the site is closed).	Standard email delivery.
Data Tracking	Using JetEngine Data Store, it monitors read receipts associated with the logged-in user.	Tracks clicks/opens, not necessarily that the user read the message.	Tracks email open and click rates.
Use Case	Ideal for secure, logged-in user environments (Intranets, membership sites).	Best for driving external visitors back to your site.	Best for non-urgent communication and marketing.

The JetEngine method gives you the ultimate ability to customize every aspect of the system, making it the superior solution for a professional-grade internal notification system.

Conclusion: Maximize Your New Internal Notification System

You have successfully navigated the process of designing and building a highly effective, custom internal notification system for your WordPress platform.

By leveraging the power of JetEngine custom content types and the post-submit actions of the JetFormBuilder plugin, you have created a reliable, professional-grade communication channel without touching a single line of code.

This system is not just a feature; it’s a strategic upgrade to your internal communication strategy.

It ensures that critical information is delivered on time, reduces application switching for employees, and provides crucial confirmation of message delivery through read receipts.

Don’t let your vital information get lost again. Transform your internal communication strategy today and give your employees the tools they need to complete their work efficiently.

Get started with JetEngine and JetFormBuilder and deploy your custom notification system!

FAQs on Internal Notification System