Further Ideas: Using Notifications

  • Article

This topic lists additional ideas to help you use notifications in your Pinned sites.

Examples

The following table provides examples of notifications that have been customized for various types of websites:

Site Type Usage
Financial Site
  • Notify the user that a payment is due or that the user's balance is low
  • Indicate when the user session has been or is about to be logged out
Social Gaming Site
  • Notify the user that a friend has sent a gift or a request for help
  • Display the number of friends that are also online
  • Notify the user of chat requests
Blog
  • Notify the user that someone has commented on his or her post
Sports Site
  • Notify the user when a favorite team wins
Photo Sharing Site
  • Display the number of messages or comments that have been received
  • Notify the user when a friend leaves a comment
Music Site
  • Flash the taskbar button when the end of the playlist is reached

 

Using Notifications for a Sports-based Pinned site

A developer for a sports-based Pinned site might want to create a site that keeps its users updated on the latest games, players, or news. For example, the user wants a notification to appear when one of the user's favorite basketball teams wins. It is easy to create a basketball icon overlay using the window.external.msSiteModeSetIconOverlay method discussed in Working with Custom Icon Overlays. Different icons can be created for different sports and the developer can customize them using a tool like X-Icon Editor.

Using Notifications for a Photo Sharing Site

A developer for a photo sharing Pinned site might want to create a site that notifies its users when their friends send photos to each other.

Using Notifications for a Music Pinned site

A developer for a music-based Pinned site might want to flash the Taskbar button when the user reaches the end (or near the end) of a playlist. This can be done with the window.external.msSiteModeActivate method discussed in Flashing the Pinned Site Taskbar Button. Getting attention to keep an ongoing task running (like a playlist) is one of the few reasons why you would want to flash a Taskbar button.

Tasks

Further Ideas: Using Dynamic Jump Lists

Further Ideas: Using Thumbnail Toolbars

Conceptual

How to Build a Pinned Site in Less than a Day

How to Provide Notifications

Introduction to Pinned Sites