Pusher — live notification push
With Pusher the bell badge increments live in an open tab when a reminder or action notification arrives. Without it nothing breaks — the bell and email still work. Configured from the Pusher tab; one private channel per user.
Last updated: 2026-09-21
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What is broadcast?
Only two notifications: due-date reminders and cheque action notifications — on a private per-user channel private-App.Models.User.{id} with the framework event BroadcastNotificationCreated and payload {cheque_log_id, type, id}. No public or presence channels. On receipt the browser increments the bell badge by one; details are read from the notifications page as usual.
Settings
Settings → General settings → Pusher tab (visible with Manage integrations):
| Field | Note |
|---|---|
| Enable Pusher | off ⟹ broadcasting falls back to log (nothing is sent) |
| Broadcast connection | Pusher · Log · Null |
| Use TLS | recommended in production |
| App ID · App Key · App Secret · Cluster | from the Pusher dashboard — the secret is write-only after saving |
| Host (optional) · Port (optional) · Scheme | for a self-hosted Pusher-compatible server |

The settings table is the source (not .env), read at boot. Double guard: enable off or incomplete credentials ⟹ connection log. The channel status line in the Notifications tab says it: “In-app bell: always on · Live push: disabled (no broadcast server configured) · Email: …”.
What the server needs
Broadcasting goes through the queue. A standard installation runs the scheduler only, no queue worker; so without queue:work events pile up as rows and are never broadcast while the screen says “enabled”. When enabling Pusher on a production installation, run a queue worker as a service (or set the queue connection to sync) — coordinated by the installation team.
The browser loads pusher.min.js from a CDN and subscribes to the user channel — and requires Cluster to be set (a self-hosted server with a host and no cluster broadcasts to nobody).
Effect of absence
Nothing breaks: database notifications, the bell and email all work — broadcasting is added only when the driver is real. The only loss: the badge does not increment live in an open tab.
Common problems
- Saving is refused unless the secret is retyped — in releases before 1.8.0: retype App Secret on every save; from 1.8.0 an empty field keeps the stored secret.
- Enabled but nothing arrives — no queue worker, empty Cluster, or wrong credentials (check the Pusher dashboard).
- Works on one machine and not another — the channel is per user; the other user is not a target of the notification (visibility scope).
Related
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