Looking for someone to help me build an alert system

[Infernette]

Currently the only way my users receive alerts is through private messages, and what I am trying to design is a tab that a user can click at the top of the sidebar that switches over to the alerts "sidebar" when clicked(much like profile tabs work), and shows a display of the most recent alerts that the user has received(I know how to set this system up and make it process alerts for certain actions :3) My biggest problem is designing the tab and also show the count of "unread" alerts at the top by the name of the tab, and having the current(undismissed) alerts, with x's by them that the user can click to remove and dismiss them as read( I have no clue how to set the x to change the alert to read).

Any help would be appreciated and I can pay back in minor(and maybe a little messy) coding/art favors. :3

I can give more info and I am using 1.3.3, and would prefer if the code was posted in this thread for use for others. :3

 

[squiggler]

This? It's .4 but it might be adaptable: http://www.mysidiaadoptables.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4392

 

[Infernette]

No, its more of a design kinda like what subeta has got going, and is individual to a person's own actions (i.e. A creature grows a level and they receive an alert for such/someone buys one of their sales/ect)

The only real help i need is getting the 'tab' type style up that someone can click in the side bar to view these (in sidebar) and having the close x register them as read :3

 

[Kyttias]

For design's sake(?) I'd check out Noty and its examples, but you seem to already have something in mind (something that very sweetly reminds me of Flight Rising).

You'll want the x's to dismiss the alerts/mark them as read on the backend in real time, and you're right that it's probably the largest struggle. Ah, beauty and functionality, why dost thou have to be worlds apart?

My mind is telling me "okay so jQuery/Javascript function attached to the X next to an alert that modifies the database with pseudo-form 'post' via ajax when clicked so the database knows it has been dismissed, and then runs a function on a success that removes/greys out the alert from sight"! So, thankfully, the logic is there, but it's easier said than done. I'm not much of an expert at running ajax. In fact, I've yet to do anything of the sort with Mysidia.

It can, of course, be done with regular Javascript rather than jQuery, but the shorthand and added functionality... that's how I tend to operate.

I'd like to wait a little bit and see if that gave you any insight, and see what IntoRain might have to say on it.

 

[Infernette]

Yes, kinda like flight rising but a little bit more 'accessable' to the user and ever just a teensy bit more readable. I'll look into noty to see if it can give me some insight and I'll inspect some more Jquery things to see what works and what doesn't.

And functionality and beauty hating each other is always my problem.