feat(notifications): in-app, email and push notifications

[Clupai8o0]

What this is

Adds one notification system to the API. Code raises an event by calling NotificationService.notify once, and the user gets it in the app, by email and by Web Push, based on their settings. Students hear about feedback, status changes, due dates, new tasks and group changes. Tutors hear about submissions, help requests and extension requests.

What is in it

• app/services/notification_service.rb is the single entry point and NOTIFICATIONS.md explains how to use it. notification_delivery_policy.rb limits how many people one event reaches and how many emails and pushes one person gets in an hour.
• Notification and PushSubscription models, with notifications_api.rb and push_subscriptions_api.rb for the bell and the browser opt-in.
• push_notification_service.rb and push_notification_delivery_job.rb send Web Push when VAPID keys are set.
• Event emails in notifications_mailer.rb, with HTML and text views, queued by notification_email_job.rb. In production the existing mailers now send from a configured sender (application_mailer.rb).
• Scheduled jobs for due soon reminders, new tasks becoming available and due date changes, listed in config/schedule.yml.
• A verified extra notification email per user: model, service, two APIs, mailer and jobs.
• Hooks in task.rb, group.rb, extension_comment.rb and task_definitions_api.rb raise the events. task.rb also carries the submission processing state, campus time zone deadlines and the resubmission extension rule, because that file is shared with the submissions work.
• Eight migrations, docs under docs/notifications/ (one page per event, a runbook, push setup and load test results), and tests under test/models, test/services, test/sidekiq, test/mailers and test/api.
• Update, 28 Sep 2026: one more commit. Brings feat(notifications): land notification links, Unit Hub alerts and the digest email ontrack-features-t2-2026/doubtfire-api#178. It carries the shared notification mail layout, the scheduled student digest, and the Unit Hub notification events with their docs and tests.

How this set of PRs works

This is one of 24 PRs from the Thoth Tech T2 2026 Features team (9 api, 14 web, 1 deploy), one per feature per repo. Each one carries that feature's files, taken from our team org's 11.0.x branch, and applied straight onto thoth-tech 11.0.x. Every file is in exactly one PR. Some files are shared between features, so a PR on its own may not build. The demo PR in each repo (api #127, web doubtfire-lms#544) is imported by earlier PRs too, so it has to go in with the rest, not be dropped. Merged in the order below, the set equals our org 11.0.x minus team docs, evidence files, org-only CI and dev setup files. No app code or tests are left out.

On 28 Sep 2026 the set was brought up to our org's latest merges (api ontrack-features-t2-2026#178, web ontrack-features-t2-2026/doubtfire-web#281 and ontrack-features-t2-2026/doubtfire-web#282, deploy ontrack-features-t2-2026/doubtfire-deploy#41). Most PRs got one more commit for that. Two web PRs are new, panels (thoth-tech/doubtfire-web#546) and celebrate (thoth-tech/doubtfire-web#547), for files that were in no PR before.

Merge order, api first, then web, then deploy. In web, panels goes before the pages that use it, and celebrate goes after a11y, whose confetti service it needs.

• api: chore: T2 2026 platform, CI and dependency updates #119 platform, fix(security): T2 2026 permission and security fixes #120 security, fix: T2 2026 task, comment and user fixes #121 core, feat(notifications): in-app, email and push notifications #122 notifications, feat(submissions): submission processing, DOCX feedback and upload rules #123 submissions, feat(unit-hub): unit hub and Teams sync #124 unit-hub, feat(calendar): unit calendar and iCal feeds #125 calendar, feat(ppi): peer progress and cross-unit dashboard #126 ppi-cpd, feat(demo): demo scenarios and sample data tasks #127 demo
• web: chore: T2 2026 platform, CI and dependency updates doubtfire-web#534 platform, fix(security): T2 2026 permission and security fixes doubtfire-web#535 security, feat(panels): shared collapsible and resizable panel layout doubtfire-web#546 panels, feat(theme): theme foundation and dark mode doubtfire-web#536 theme, fix(a11y): accessibility fixes doubtfire-web#543 a11y, feat(celebrate): submission, sign-off and portfolio confirmations doubtfire-web#547 celebrate, feat(ui): shared UI wiring, layout fixes and Angular moves doubtfire-web#537 ui, feat(notifications): in-app, email and push notifications doubtfire-web#538 notifications, feat(submissions): submission processing, DOCX feedback and upload rules doubtfire-web#539 submissions, feat(unit-hub): unit hub and Teams sync doubtfire-web#540 unit-hub, feat(calendar): unit calendar and iCal feeds doubtfire-web#541 calendar, feat(ppi): peer progress and cross-unit dashboard doubtfire-web#542 ppi-cpd, feat(demo): demo mode and demo tools doubtfire-web#544 demo, feat(theme): page redesign and dark mode for every page doubtfire-web#545 redesign
• deploy: chore(deploy): T2 2026 deploy and dev stack updates doubtfire-deploy#43 deploy

Built against

• api: thoth-tech 11.0.x @ dc76a5a0e, taken from org 11.0.x @ a9589b302
• web: thoth-tech 11.0.x @ 20d1f380c, taken from org 11.0.x @ 0b8a20344
• deploy: thoth-tech 11.0.x @ 58905969e, taken from org 11.0.x @ 8e560f7e0

Testing

Checked on 28 Sep 2026 with all the branches merged together. This PR was not tested on its own, see above.

• web: with all 14 web branches merged onto thoth-tech 11.0.x, npm run test:ci runs 2603 tests in 290 files, all passing, and npm run lint and ng build pass. The merged set's app code is the same as our org 11.0.x after fix(profile): save a changed summary email cadence ontrack-features-t2-2026/doubtfire-web#282, where CI passed test, lint (22) and build (22).
• api: the full Minitest suite passes on the nine api PRs merged onto thoth-tech 11.0.x. 1799 tests, 20182 assertions, 0 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips. It ran through our CI on branch check/upstream-combined-28sep (run), and the database schema check and RuboCop pass there too. The set differs from our org 11.0.x only by the left-out docs, evidence, CI and dev setup files, none of them app code.
• deploy: production/tests/validate_test.sh, verify_pwa_test.py, publish_release_test.py and nginx_upload_test.py pass. The production compose file loads with docker compose config against .env.production.example, and the development and .devcontainer ones load as they are.

Contributors

Samridh Limbu, Maple Fox, Swyam Khare, Leeon Gourav Rangey, Kimsreng, Ronit Khokhar, Tan Tai, shalitha99, Joshua Erickson, Freddy, blankb0t