Contributions > Plugins, tips, and tricks
How to create a looping notification sound
Dmitriy Simushev:
--- Quote ---But going further: Personal opinion: I think you are aren't aware enough that people install MIBEW from easy-installers provided by hosters. "Rebuild from sources" or other doesn't make any sense to those people. For me, even though I might understand such things, I don't have time to fiddle with that anyway.
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If you want to use patched Mibew core you have to rebuild it from sources. If you cannot use basic version with plugins.
--- Quote ---Regarding the looping alert thing: I think you completely misunderstood what I said. It's not a technical problem at all, it's an oversight on the software meeting normal usual human needs, which is the ultimate goal of all software in the first place.
I'm kind of stunned that you think that continual notifications are a reflection on "poor" (I'm assuming) operator workflow. I can think of many reasons why an even an excellent customer service person would might miss an initial alert. Since I don't think you are aware of these arguments, let me go down a couple strong arguments for it.
(I consider an alert being both the alert that a Chat is being requested AND that the other side has replied and is waiting for your reply. Although I think I'm mostly arguing for the initial alert.)
All I was saying was that, as the developer, this is something you should STRONGLY consider.
1) Many people are listening to music as they work, an alert can get buried in that.
2) I can imagine most people doing Chat aren't doing it for the full 8 hours they are working, often they are doing something else. That means they could be in another room temporarily and miss it, or going to the bathroom. (Since when is peeing "poor" workflow???)
3) I'm a programmer and most of the time I'm programming, which as you know requires intense concentration. I've been doing this for many years. It's not uncommon that I'll be notified to do something (a single alert) and I say "I'll get to it" and then I forget under the concentration I'm under. Then I'm reminded in some way and I do it. This isn't "poor" workflow, it's human nature. Software is supposed to HELP people, not "reward people for good habits".
In fact, during chats, I've been guilty of waiting for the other side to reply - which sometimes takes awhile - and I go off doing something else. I use a KVM switch among 4 computers and often I'm looking at another computers feedback, not the Chat computers. Then I forget all about the Chat. Sure, that's a bad habit, but what I'm pointing out is that it's easy for ANYONE who is multitasking (who isn't nowadays) to forget an initial alert on ANYTHING.
4) I used WebSiteAlive for many years, this was the default, also unchangeable, and I never thought twice about it being annoying or non-intuitive. I don't know of other chat software but I would think that ALL OF THEM do continual alerts.
5) Simple logic: looping the alert at ANY interval (5 sec, 60sec, whatever) is BETTER in EVERY WAY than just a single alert with absolutely NO downsides to the idea. If you have a single alert, than it is assumed that the operator is going to pick it up right away. If he/she doesn't, WHY NOT notify them again on a consistent basis? Isn't that obvious?
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You don't get the main idea. I don't say that looping sound notifications are bad.
Here is the deal: there are the Core and Plugins. We try to keep the core as small as possible. All stuff that can be implemented as plugins must be implemented as plugins. The feature you are asking for can be easily implemented as a plugin thus it will never be included in the Core. That's it.
--- Quote ---6) C'mon, this would take you 30 minutes maximum to code. Get on it, dude. =)
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Personally I don't need looping sound notification, so I will not create a plugin for it. You can do it by yourself or hire somebody.
chickeneps:
I understand
However my reply was mostly based on your comment on your implication (I assume you mean it) that continuous notifications are making up for a somehow faulty workflow on the part of the user. Which is not true at all; hence my arguments.
My arguments were meant to persuade you that continual notifications are (IMHO by far) should be the default behavior, and thus SHOULD be included in the Core.
Perhaps you "personally" don't see the need, but as a programmer myself, I have to take into account the clients needs, not necessarily mine.
But even so, I also argued that this isn't a "either/or" thing, it only makes the software BETTER. The is no trade-off, it's only a positive, and it's easy to code. (If you don't like to be bugged by continual notifications, either answer the dang chat or refuse the chat. Remember, I'm speaking mostly on the initial chat request, although continual would be helpful for alerts during the chat.)
Of course, I know as a developer you can't put EVERYTHING into a program, but this is an extremely relevant improvement. I posted the arguments for at length to convince you of the relevancy. In my limited chat-software experience, they all do continual notifications. I was surprised yours didn't.
One other argument: I suppose many developers aren't taking Chat requests once every 10 minutes. For me, it's like 2 a day, if I'm lucky. Constantly toggling the Available switch on something that is infrequent is inefficient and open to lots of "oh, I forgot to switch it, oh well..."
Continual Notifications are, IMHO, an extremely natural part of any Chat system. Who WOULDN'T want to be notified at certain intervals that there is a Chat request waiting? There's a lot of comfort knowing that a Chat request is persistently ask you to acknowledge it. We're all busy people.
OK, upon knowing that I'm sure you are totally persuaded and that today you'll write new code into the Core and it'll be available in the next minor release, which I can download with the auto-installers provided by the hosts (in my case Softaculous), I can be grateful. =) But just in case you're not, being pragmatic, I'm not in a position to write a plugin for this. Are there people that are? Is there anyone I can contact that would be willing to do this?
Anyway, thanks for listening, just trying to be helpful.
Dmitriy Simushev:
@chickeneps I have good news for you. There is a third-party plugin for looping sound notification: https://mibew.org/plugins#aarinnovations-sound-notification
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