Notifications in OrbitalWP send email updates for important task activity, including assignment changes, completion changes, approval changes, bulk edit summaries, and due date reminders. The feature helps people stay aware of task changes without requiring everyone to keep a task screen open.
How This Fits In OrbitalWP
Notifications work with OrbitalWP tasks, permissions, assignments, task overrides, subtasks, due dates, and reports. A task change does not automatically mean every user receives an email. OrbitalWP checks the notification settings, the task, the recipient, mute settings, and task read access before task content is sent.
Notifications are email notifications. They are not an in-app inbox, Slack integration, or webhook system.
Where To Find It
Administrators can configure notification settings from the WordPress admin menu under Orbital, then Plugin Settings. On the settings page, open the Notifications tab. The notification settings panel is labeled Email Settings.
When email notifications are enabled, task screens and task detail panels can show a Notifications control with an Active or Muted button for the current task.
Administrators can review notification delivery from Orbital, then Reports. On the Task Reports page, use Select Report to choose Notification Activity, then select Generate Report. The report heading is Notification Activity Report.
Before You Start
- Email delivery starts with Enable Email Notifications. If this setting is off, task notification emails are not sent.
- Specific notification types can also be turned on or off in the Notification Types section.
- A recipient must have read access to the task before OrbitalWP sends task content in an email.
- The recipient must have a valid WordPress user email address.
- Users can mute all Orbital notifications for their own account, and they can mute individual tasks when the task mute control is available.
- Users who make a change do not receive their own notification unless Notify on Own Actions is enabled.
What You Can Do
- Turn email notifications on or off with Enable Email Notifications.
- Choose which task events send email: Task Assigned, Assignee Removed, Task Completed, Task Reset to Incomplete, Approval Status Changed, Bulk Edit Summary, Due Date Reminder, and Overdue Task.
- Use Notify on Own Actions to decide whether users receive email for changes they made themselves.
- Use Bulk Subtask Notifications to decide whether bulk subtask complete or reset actions are eligible for summary emails.
- Set when Due Date Reminder emails are considered due soon with the Send reminder field and the hours before due setting.
- Use Send Test Email to check whether the site can send notification email to the current administrator.
- Use Mute all notifications for my account to stop Orbital email notifications for your own admin account.
- Use a task’s Active or Muted control to mute or unmute notifications for one task.
- Use Retention Period and Clear Activity Log to manage stored notification activity records.
Basic Workflow
- Go to Orbital, then Plugin Settings.
- Open the Notifications tab.
- Turn on Enable Email Notifications.
- Choose the Notification Types that should send email.
- Review Bulk Operations, Notify on Own Actions, Due Date Reminder timing, and Activity Log settings.
- Select Save Settings.
- After notifications are enabled, use Send Test Email to confirm the current admin account can receive a test message.
Important Controls And Settings
Enable Email Notifications is the master switch. When it is off, the notification-dependent settings are disabled on the settings screen and email notifications are not delivered.
Notification Types controls the individual email categories. Turning off one type stops that type without changing the other notification type settings.
Due Date Reminder uses the Send reminder field to decide how many hours before a due date a task can be treated as due soon. Overdue Task covers tasks with a due date before today.
Bulk Edit Summary sends one summary email per eligible recipient for supported bulk edits instead of sending a separate email for every changed task.
Bulk Subtask Notifications applies to bulk subtask complete or reset actions. When it is off, those bulk subtask changes are skipped for bulk email. Single subtask checkbox changes can still send their normal Task Completed or Task Reset to Incomplete email when the related notification type is enabled.
Mute all notifications for my account affects only the current admin account. It does not mute notifications for other administrators or other users.
The task-level Active or Muted button affects only that task for the current user. Muting a task does not change the global notification settings.
What Affects What You See
Users can receive notification emails because they are connected to a task as the task author, current assignee, previous assignee, parent or ancestor task assignee, task override user, or a readable observer with the Receive Notifications permission.
Receive Notifications adds users as observers for tasks they can read. It does not replace task read access, and it is not required for direct task stakeholders such as authors and assignees.
Due Date Reminder and Overdue Task emails apply to published tasks that are not completed and not closed. Due Date Reminder looks at tasks due within the configured due-soon window. Overdue Task looks at tasks with a past due date.
Approval Status Changed applies to parent task approval status changes. Subtask approval changes are not treated as their own approval notification.
Creating a task does not send separate emails for each initial field value. When a task is published with an assignee, OrbitalWP can send the normal Task Assigned email if notification settings and recipient checks allow it.
Deeper Notes
Single-task change emails include the task title, the notification action, who made the change, a View Task link, and task details such as Start Date, Due Date, Completion, and Assignee.
Reminder emails use Task Due Soon or Overdue Task language and show the due date. Reminder checks are deduplicated for the day, so the same task is not repeatedly emailed every time scheduled checks run.
Bulk summary emails include only tasks the recipient is allowed to read. If a bulk edit touches tasks that a recipient cannot access, those unreadable tasks are left out of that recipient’s summary.
The Notification Activity report can help administrators understand delivery outcomes. It includes summary counts such as Total Events, Queued, Sent, Failed, Muted, No Permission, Self Excluded, No Email, Global Disabled, Type Disabled, Dropped, and Unique Tasks.
Common Problems
If you cannot see Plugin Settings or the Notifications tab, you may not have administrator access for OrbitalWP settings.
If Send Test Email is missing, check whether Enable Email Notifications has been enabled and saved. The test email control appears only when notifications are enabled.
If a task email did not send, check Enable Email Notifications, the matching Notification Types setting, Mute all notifications for my account, the task’s Active or Muted state, Notify on Own Actions, the recipient’s task read access, and the recipient’s WordPress email address.
If a due reminder did not send, check Due Date Reminder or Overdue Task, the task due date, whether the task is published, and whether the task is already completed or closed.
If a user expected an email for their own change, check Notify on Own Actions. When that setting is off, OrbitalWP excludes the person who made the change from their own task-change notification.
If a user expected one email per task after a bulk edit, check Bulk Edit Summary. Supported bulk edits are summarized into one email per eligible recipient instead of sending one email for every changed task.
If the Active or Muted task button is not visible, check whether email notifications are enabled. The task mute control is shown only when notifications are enabled.
If a test email fails, the site may need email configuration outside OrbitalWP. Use Send Test Email first, then review the Notification Activity report for task notification outcomes.