Changelog widget
A bell on your page, and a panel of your updates behind it.
What it is for
Telling people who come back what has changed, without sending an email about it. Posts are written in Kestero and marked as new, improved or fixed. The bell carries a count, so somebody returning after a month sees how much they missed and somebody who is up to date sees nothing at all.
Why the count matters
It is the whole of the difference between a link people might press and a number telling them that pressing it is worth something. What counts as unread is worked out from dates held in the visitor's own browser, so it is right for each person without us keeping a record of who read what.
When not to use one
On a site nobody returns to. An unread count means nothing on a first visit, and a bell with no history behind it opens onto an empty panel — which is a worse first impression than no bell. Write three or four updates before you put it up.
Questions
- Where do the updates come from?
- You write them in Kestero. Each one has a title, a body and a category, and the widget shows them newest first.
- How does it know what somebody has read?
- By comparing the dates of your posts against a timestamp kept in that visitor's browser. There is no visitor table on our side and nothing to join a person to.
- Does the panel have to open from the bell?
- No. It can sit open on the page, or be bound to a link of your own, or wait until there is something unread to show.