Notification bars are unobtrusive status bars, usually spanning over the whole width of the website, stuck to the top of the browser window, with (hopefully) a simple way to get rid of. They are quite useful when it comes to, as their name suggests, notifying the visitor of something or displaying some quick (and hopefully useful) information without getting in the face of the visitor.
One such plugin that we’ve come across this week is named Foobar Notification Bars or simply Foobar. However, as unintricate as the name may sound, the functionality this WordPress plugin packs is very near impressive. First of all if you’re uninspired by its name, have no fear, the author of the plugin, Brad Vincent (@themergency), has made it possible to rename/rebrand the plugin name into anything you would ever want, so it makes more sense to clients or content editors.
Foobar Notification Bars is fairly simple both conceptually and usability-wise. Foobars (or whatever you may rename them to) are managed from the Foobars menu. Each Foobar that you create has its own subset of settings and options like bar styling, height, positioning (sticky or not), message styling, bar and message animation (fade outs, movement speed and easing, etc.) and message content. Foobar allows for a set of messages to be displayed one after another, and if a message is too wide to show in full-width glory, it will be scrolled once before switching to the next message in queue. Messages can also be pulled in via RSS and twitter which is quite handy.
A Foobar can also host custom HTML code on the left and on the right of the allotted message space. Social profile bookmarks are quite a great idea to place up there, which is urged by the inclusion of (at the time of writing) 91(!) social icons and a whole section dedicated to placing them on the bar in an orderly fashion.
Foobar allows an unlimited amount of bars to be created and managed. A default Foobar will displayed on all posts and pages unless setup otherwise. Each individual post or page can have a specific Foobar attached to it. And to end it all Foobar has a hefty debug feature to let you sort out any issues while extending the plugin.
As Foobar Notification Bars is still very young, there’s much to be eagerly looking forward to. Here are some things that we think are worth expecting:
- Duplication of foobars – it may turn into a night-long frustration trying to populate your WordPress blog with individual Foobars, which are created with default style and settings, for all your 419 posts (at least the social profile bookmarks can be shared between bars).
- More control over the bar CSS – I, for one, have found no intuitive way of texturing my Foobar with a repeating image, even though Custom CSS is supported to some extent.
- Built-in popups for simple navigation, sign-in, contact us forms
- A “display at the bottom” feature
There is of course a handful notification bar plugins for WordPress to choose from, like attentionGrabber, Heads Up Bar, ViperBar and Hello Bar, and Foobar is surely one to look at when choosing, and we sure do wish Brad Vincent and Foobar luck and will be on the lookout for updates.
Be sure to check out the Themergency Foobar Notification Bars home page.
The Competition
…ah, of course, the competition (“Didn’t think you could get away with forgetting, did you?”). For those of you who have read this far (thanks) here are the competition rules:
- Follow @themefm and @themergency on Twitter
- Tweet this post to your followers
- Leave a comment with the link to your tweet and tell us how you would use Foobar
Follow these rules to have a chance of becoming one of the three lucky winners to get hold of a Foobar license for free. The winners will be announced tomorrow (Tuesday, August 16th) at 18:00 Moscow time as an update to this post. Winners will be e-mailed their licenses so double-check your e-mail address when commenting.
Also, don’t forget to let us know what you think about Foobar and about notification bars in general. How do you put them to good use, or do you consider them to be quite useless? Thanks!
Update: Winners Announced!
Drumroll!! The random chosen ones were:
- Paul de Wouters
- Ali 360
- Luigi Greco
And here are their tweets:
Foobar Notifications Bar Plugin + Competition! http://t.co/T71xXi2 #wordpress
@napoli081
Foobar Notifications Bar Plugin + Competition! http://t.co/mUnPxur #wordpress
@ali360
Foobar Notifications Bar Plugin + Competition! http://t.co/OIa418i #wordpress
@PauldeWouters
Congratulations guys, you’ve got yourselves a free copy of the Foobar Notification Bars plugin. Hope you enjoy your plugins and put them to good use. We will get Themergency to e-mail you your brand new licenses and make sure to come back here and send us a link to your newly Foobar’d website after you have implemented it.
Thank you everyone for participating!
https://twitter.com/#!/PauldeWouters/status/103136519719616512
I’d use it to replace the Hellobar that I currently have on my site.
You win! Expect an e-mail :)
yay! thanks Konstantin :)
https://twitter.com/#!/WPandMe/status/103173734948544512
Will use it for social sharing and tweeter feed on my website…
On client sites, in the admin area to show our rss and our tweeter feed…
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Following and tweeted.
Tweet: http://twitter.com/smseleem/status/103206320378884097
I’ll use it on my blog to get more users to connect with my social profiles and to let them know the special announcements.
http://twitter.com/#!/DavidC803/status/103210791645356032
Add social media links and latest news on our local junior football club site we’ve just moved to wordpress.
Cheers!
All the steps are done. I will use it as a social header widget on my blog.
http://twitter.com/aahoban/status/103212603114926080
Slick Plugin. Too bad its license is not GPL-compatible.
Hmm… I may have spoken too soon:
I can’t actually tell, from either the Plugin’s page or its CodeCanyon listing.
I have the plugin already, and the plugin file (foobar.php) says in its header that it’s GPL2. – Don’t know how that goes with CodeCanyon licensing model, though… Any advice on this?
David, GPL doesn’t mean it’s free of charge ;)
I know this, of course! Sorry, what I meant, if there’s any conflict with both licenses? In usage or what is allowed for buyers/users and so on? When a plugin on CodeCanyon is GPL2, is that a “higher priority” than the original CodeCanyon license, or what is than valid? Any advise on this? Couldn’t find anything after searching for CodeCanyon+GPL… Thanx, Dave :)
As far as I can tell from the CodeCanyon license, yes: it’s GPL2. The Plugin’s self-proclaimed GPL2 license supersedes CodeCanyon’s terms, as per the clause I quoted above.
Count me in for the contest. Here is my tweet: http://twitter.com/shakilofbd/status/103213909669982208
I will use it highlight the featured post of my site. Thanks.
I would use it to promote my eBook
https://twitter.com/#!/scottwyden/status/103247817589522432
https://twitter.com/#!/soletheand/status/103413609492779009
I would like to use this to our NPO website.
Thank you very much to both of you!
Here’s a link to my tweet. I hope to win.
http://twitter.com/#!/AymanAboulnasr/status/103419120887934976
https://twitter.com/#!/napoli081/status/103419934742290432
I would replace hellobar!
Congratulations, you win! :)
nice comprehensive review i’d definitely use if i win :)
http://twitter.com/#!/ali360/status/103446812056227840
And you win as well Ali, congrats!
thanks dude:)
Sorry guys but I’ve already purchased the plugin 4 hours ago on codecanyon because I really needed it. 9$ ever spent better
thanks anyway.
Congrats to all the winners! And hope you enjoy the plugin :)
p.s. the license is GPL2 – even though you pay for the plugin, it’s license is still the same as any other plugin in the WordPress.org plugin repo. You are paying (once off) for the time and effort that has gone into developing the plugin. And probably a bit for support too :)
Thanx for clarifying! I already bought it some days ago and it’s really good – well worth its price! Keep up the good work! :-) Greetinx, Dave from Germany :)