Feature: Notification polling on the client

[filipac]

trafficstars

What?

This PR adds notification polling, currently based on the heartbeat API from WordPress.

Why?

This attempts to solve the following issue: https://github.com/WordPress/wp-feature-notifications/issues/306

How?

This PR adds a new Poller class that abstracts how/when/how often the notifications are polled. It makes sense to use the existing Heartbeat API from WordPress since it is reliable. The Heartbeat API is a simple server polling API built into WordPress, allowing near-real-time frontend updates. Heartbeat API Docs

The Poller class hooks into the heartbeat.tick event, which is triggered on a successful heartbeat (in case the user session expired or there is another error, we also skip useless polls to the API).

There is a parameter that is passed to the Poller class named shouldSkipFirstBeat which solves the following edge-case: we load all notifications on page load, but also on some pages, the heartbeat API runs very early on the page load (eg: on post edit/create screen, on post list). To avoid double, repeated polls to fetch notifications, the first Poller.SKIP_FIRST_INTERVAL milliseconds, any heartbeat tick events are ignored.

The Poller instance is added to the notifications (window.wp.notifications) object, so you can easily do:

• window.wp.notifications.poller.stop() - Stop polling
• window.wp.notifications.poller.start() - Start/resume polling

Testing Instructions

1. Visit any page on wp-admin
2. Wait for a heartbeat tick event
3. Notice the polling request.
4. Visit the posts page. Check that only one call is made on page load.

I am open to suggestions and ideas, also if you want to use a setInterval/setTimeout instead of the Heartbeats API, let pe know. I think it is appropriate though.

Closes #306

[Sephsekla]

@filipac my apologies for leaving this unreviewed for so long! Unfortunately things have been on hold a little bit due to team availability and illness, but I'm eager to get things rolling again so will give this a look shortly.

[EdithAllison]

Heartbeat may be turned off as it's got a reputation for slowing sites down, and if you google WP performance hacks, disabling or limiting Heartbeat often comes up.

Plugins that disable or limit Heartbeat (not a comprehensive list): https://perfmatters.io/ https://wordpress.org/plugins/heartbeat-control/ https://wordpress.org/plugins/sg-cachepress/ https://wordpress.org/plugins/litespeed-cache/ or search on WP plugin directory: https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/heartbeat/

Articles: https://perfmatters.io/docs/disable-wordpress-heartbeat-api/ https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-limit-heartbeat-api-in-wordpress/ https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/wordpress-heartbeat

If we rely on Heartbeat we may first need to check it's enabled, and runs often enough. Maybe add a notification / warning if it's turned off.