Customize WordPress Emails and Alerts – Better Notifications for WP

July 01, 2024

Customize WordPress Emails and Alerts – Better Notifications for WP Plugin

Supercharge your WordPress email notifications using a WYSIWYG editor and shortcodes. Default and new notifications available. Add-ons available.

Better Notifications for WP is a simple but powerful plugin for that allows you to customise the email notifications that WordPress sends using a WYSIWYG editor and shortcodes. All of the default WordPress email notifications are available to customise as well as lots of new ones. You can choose to send notifications to individual users, multiple users, all users in a user role, multiple roles – you name it! You can also power-up your notifications with Premium Add-ons. Emails are sent out via your WordPress website (using wp_mail) but can be sent via SMTP using a 3rd party plugin should you wish.
If you want to let users create their own email notifications/subscriptions/alerts, check out my other plugin: Content Notify.

Here’s a quick walkthrough of the plugin in action:

An Example:

You want all the users in the Editor role to be notified via email when a new post is published and you’d like to customise it to include your logo along with the author’s name and date / time it was published – with this plugin, that’s easy.

A handy list of shortcodes you can use is available here.

Premium Add-ons

Power-up your notifications using add-ons:

Notification Add-on Bundles – Everything you need for your WordPress notifications. Save big when you buy an add-on bundle. Instant access.

Subscriptions (GDPR) – Allow users to manage their subscriptions for BNFW notifications.
If you want to let users create their own email notifications/subscriptions/alerts, check out my other plugin: Content Notify.

Conditional Notifications – Limit certain notifications depending on which categories, tags, post formats, or terms you choose.

Custom Fields – Provides a number of new shortcodes allowing you to include data from custom fields and custom user fields created using ACF.

Send to Any Email – Send notifications to non-WordPress Users.

Digest – Group multiple notifications into a single digest notification.

Global Override – Override some of the settings of notifications directly when editing a post, page, or custom post type.

Reminders – Send a reminder to your users and/or user roles when a post, page, or custom post type hasn’t been updated after a set amount of time. Also send a notification when a user hasn’t logged in for a set amount of time.

Multisite – Adds new notifications and shortcodes for WordPress Multisite to Better Notifications for WP.

Profile Builder – Adds compatibility and new notifications and shortcodes for Profile Builder Free, Hobbyist, and Pro plugins to Better Notifications for WP.

…and more coming soon!

Notifications

The notifications that are currently available to use are:

Admin

New User Registration – For Admin
User Lost Password – For Admin
Password Changed – For Admin
User Email Changed – For Admin
User Role Changed – For Admin
User Logged In – For Admin
WordPress Core Automatic Background Updates
Privacy – Confirm Action: Export Data Request – For Admin
Privacy – Confirm Action: Erase Data Request – For Admin

Transactional

New User Registration – For User
New User – Post-registration Email
User Lost Password – For User
Password Changed – For User
User Email Changed Confirmation – For User
User Email Changed – For User
User Role Changed – For User
User Logged In – For User
Comment Reply
Privacy – Confirm Action: Export Data Request – For User
Privacy – Confirm Action: Erase Data Request – For User
Privacy – Data Export – For User
Privacy – Data Erased – For User
Profile Builder – Approval Request for Admin (Profile Builder Add-on)
Profile Builder – Email Confirmation (Profile Builder Add-on)
Profile Builder – Account Approved (Profile Builder Add-on)
Profile Builder – Account Unapproved (Profile Builder Add-on)
User Login Reminder (Reminders Add-on)

Posts / Custom Post Types

New Post Published
Post Updated
Post Pending Review
New Private Post
Post Scheduled
Published Post Moved to Trash
New Comment
New Comment Awaiting Moderation
Post – Comment Approved
Post – Custom Field Updated (Custom Fields Add-on)
Post – Update Reminder (Reminders Add-on)
New Trackback
New Pingback

Pages

New Page Published
Page Updated
Page Pending Review
New Private Page
Page Scheduled
Page – New Comment
Page – New Comment Awaiting Moderation
Page – Comment Approved
Page – Comment Reply
Page – Custom Field Updated (Custom Fields Add-on)
Page – Update Reminder (Reminders Add-on)

Media

New Media Published
Media Updated
Media – New Comment
Media – New Comment Awaiting Moderation
Media – Comment Approved
Media – Comment Reply

Posts

New Category
New Tag

Custom Post Types

New Term

Multisite (Multisite Add-on)

New Site Activated or Created – For Network Admin
New User Created – For Network Admin
Network Admin Email Change Attempted – For New Network Admin
Network Admin Email Changed – For Old Network Admin
New Site Activated or Created – For Site Admin
Site Deleted – For Site Admin
Site Admin Email Change Attempted – For New Site Admin
Site Admin Email Changed – For Old Site Admin
New Site Activated – For User
New User Created – For User
New User Invited to Site – For User

If you’d like to see a notification in the list above, please drop me a line in the forum and I’ll see what I can do to add it.

If you want to let users create their own email notifications/subscriptions/alerts, check out my other plugin: Content Notify.

Like this plugin? Please leave it a great review! Don’t think the plugin is worthy of 5 stars? Having problems? Let me know in the forum and I’ll do my best to help.
DISCLAIMER
This is an incredibly useful and highly rated plugin however, it’s possible that overuse or abuse of this plugin could upset your users by sending them too many notifications. By downloading / installing / using this plugin, you take full responsibility of the management / quantity / types of notifications that are sent out from it including abiding by any SPAM laws in your country / operating areas, dealing with / responding to subscription / unsubscription requests, complaints, and so on. I accept no liability or responsibility for SPAM or abuse of this plugin from the user(s) of or anyone that may receive notifications as a result of the use of this plugin. I’m trusting you, please don’t abuse your users.

Installation

Upload the ‘bnfw’ plugin folder to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory or install it via your WordPress Admin.
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
Use the settings in the new ‘Notifications’ Menu item in the sidebar to configure the plugin.
(Optional) Read our article on how to improve email delivery in WordPress.
Test by creating a notification with some shortcodes.

Screenshots

All Notifications
Add New / Edit Notification

FAQ

Full Documentation for BNFW can be found here.

Is this plugin compatible with the new Block Editor (Gutenberg) in WordPress 5?

Yes and no. Most notifications work but full support can’t be guaranteed for all notifications at the moment. Full support is on the roadmap but for the time being, I’d recommend using the Classic Editor plugin with BNFW.

What are shortcodes? Where can I use them in this plugin?

Shortcodes are text in square brackets that output content of some kind. For example, if you want to add the content of a post to a notification for ‘New Post Published’, you can use the [post_content] shortcode to display this in the email that is sent out.

Shortcodes can be used in the ‘Subject’ and ‘Message Body’ of your notifications, except for a select few (due to a restriction in WordPress).

A handy list of shortcodes you can use is available here.

What are some scenarios this plugin could be used for?

Outreach: A blog/news site with hundreds of subscribers and want to use it to alert them of new blog posts.
Communication: A small, internal WordPress site and use it to alert staff of new posts or comments.
Monitor: A website for an awesome new product or service and use it for notifications of pingbacks and trackbacks.
Security: To receive alerts of password reset requests and their corresponding user.

The possibilities are endless!

Does this plugin work with anti-spam plugins, such as Akismet?

Yes! There is an option for suppressing comments marked as SPAM in the plugin settings.

Does this plugin and the add-ons work with Multisite?

Yes! Full support for WordPress Multisite was added in 1.6.13, alongside the release of the Multisite Add-on.

Can users create their own email notifications?

Not using BNFW. If you want to let users create their own email notifications/subscriptions/alerts, check out my other plugin: Content Notify.

Notifications aren’t coming through!

First of all, follow this article about how to find out what might be causing the problem. Additionally, please take a look at this help document to see how you might improve email delivery when using Better Notifications for WP.

Many hosts place a limit on the number of emails that can be sent out within an hour so this may also cause some delay in emails arriving. This article has a fairly extensive list of hosts and their corresponding email rate limits that’s worth checking out. Alternatively, please check with your host directly to find out what your limit is.

If you’re still having problems, please drop me a line in the Free Support Forums and I’ll do my best to help.

Some of my shortcodes aren’t working!

It’s possible you’re inserting a shortcode into a notification that cannot use it. For example: the ‘New Category’ email notification cannot use any of the author or time shortcodes as WordPress only stores the category name, category slug and category description in the database by default. It’s also worth checking the spelling and underscores in any shortcodes as well as if they are wrapped in square brackets [].

Other emails from WordPress / other plugins are being messed up!

WordPress, by default, sends all emails in Plain Text. If you’d like to include code or use the WYSIWYG editor as part of Better Notifications for WP in your emails, you can change this to HTML using the global setting in Better Notification for WordPress. This can be found under the ‘Notifications > Settings’ screen. Changing this global email format setting will affect how all emails are sent out from WordPress however, so you may experience formatting issues with emails sent out from other plugins if you change the email format setting in this way. If you do, change this setting to Plain Text. You can also set the email format on a per-notification basis when setting-up a new Notification. The caveat is that WordPress will only either allow setting the email format globally (for all emails) or individually for anything that’s non-transactional.

Custom Post Type ‘X’ isn’t showing in the list of available custom post types

This is most likely because it’s public setting is set to false. Try changing this and see if it shows up in the list. If the custom post type has been created by a plugin and is set to private (such as TablePress), you’ll need to get in touch with the plugin author to see if they’ll consider changing it to public instead so that BNFW can send out notifications for it.

Can I translate this plugin?

Yes, of course! The plugin is completely translation-friendly and if you send me your .po file, I’ll make sure to include it in the plugin and credit you in the changelog.

Where do I report security bugs found in this plugin?

Please report security bugs found in the source code of the Better Notification for WP plugin through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team will assist you with verification, CVE assignment, and notify the developers of this plugin.

Changelog

1.9.6 – 1st July 2024

Added: You can now use [user_ip_address] and [email_user_ip_address] in notifications that can use the User shortcodes.
Fixed: An issue with the Global Override add-on where notifications couldn’t be overridden when using the Classic Editor.

1.9.5 – 13th June 2024

Fixed: An issue with the Global Override add-on where notifications couldn’t be overridden when using the Block Editor.

1.9.4 – 17th April 2024

This is a large release containing lots of bug fixes (both big and small), compatibility fixes, and updates with the most recent versions of WordPress. This includes:
PHP 8.0, 8.1, and 8.2 compatibility.
BNFW now requires at least PHP 8.0.
Various performance improvements.
Added: Some post notifications, such as Post Updated, can now be triggered via a Quick Action.
Fixed: Subject of Email Changed notification when triggered using WooCommerce.
Fixed: Some notifications weren’t using the correct subjects.
Fixed: BNFW was stripping some additional HTML from the notification than what WordPress allows.
Various fixes for the Custom Fields add-on.
Various fixes for the Conditional Notifications add-on.
Various fixes for the Subscriptions add-on.
Various fixes for the Global Override add-on.
Various fixes for the Digest add-on.
Various fixes for the Multisite add-on.

1.9.3 – 16th May 2023

IMPORTANT! It is recommended that you update this plugin to the latest version.
Fixed: A minor security issue relating to enabling/disabling notifications.

1.9.2 – 30th January 2023

Fixed: An issue where the plugin was using the site language but not the user’s language for translations

1.9.1 – 20th September 2022

Fixed: A fatal error was shown when using PHP 7 and sending admin notifications.
Fixed: Notifications weren’t being sent out when using a shortcode in the Send To field when using the Send to Any Email add-on.

1.9 – 6th September 2022

This is large bug fix and minor feature release.
New: Notifications – You can now send notification when posts/pages/custom post types/media items are sent to the Trash.
New: Shortcodes – You can now use [password_url_raw] and [login_url_raw] in the ‘New User Registration – For User’ notification to output these URLs as plain text (without the link wrapped around them).
New: Shortcode – [user_ip_address] can be used in any notification that supports the [user_] shortcode group and will show the IP address of the user who triggered the notification.
Added: The email_user and user_ shortcodes are now available to use in the ‘User Email Changed Confirmation – For User’ notification.
Added: Support for the ‘Send To’ field in the ‘User Login Reminder’ notification (part of the Reminders add-on and Conditional Notifications).
Improved: Full PHP 8.0 compatibility.
Improved: The ‘New Comment’ notifications now work with the wp_new_comment, wp_insert_comment, and rest_insert_comment hooks.
Fixed: All BNFW screens are now translated using the language the user has set as opposed to the site language.
Fixed: The ‘New Private Post’ notification wasn’t being triggered.
Fixed: ‘Email Changed’ notifications were sending in plain text instead of HTML, where set.
Fixed: PHP Fatal Error when sending notifications to new users who are assigned multiple user roles (props to @intuitart for the fix).
Fixed: PHP Fatal Error when disabling multiple notifications at the same time.
Fixed: PHP Notice showing on the User Profile screen when the Subscriptions add-on was enabled.
Fixed: Notifications weren’t always showing their ‘Notification Type’ on the ‘All Notifications’ screen.

The rest of the changelog can be found here.