As per our roadmap, we’ve started working on WebHooks in OpenBazaar that will enable event-notifications. This will support things like mobile notifications among other things. While we work on this, I came up with a quick little hack to start receiving mobile notifications.

Step 1. Enable Email Notifications

In OpenBazaar, go to ‘Settings — Advanced’ and fill in your SMTP settings. Most of you probably have a Gmail account, but you can create a Gmail account to receive these notifications to avoid spamming your regular inbox.

If you’re using something other than Gmail, check their SMTP settings

If you have 2-factor authentication for your Gmail (which you should), you will need to create an App password instead of your regular Gmail password.

If you’re like me, then you’ve probably disabled push notifications for emails due to the sheer volume that you receive every day. But, if you setup a dedicated email address to receive your OpenBazaar email, you can selectively enable push notifications for that account. If so, you can stop here!

Step 2. Signup to IFTTT

Create an account with IFTTT (If This Then That) and download their mobile app on your device. The app will be sending you push notifications from OpenBazaar emails.

Step 3. Add the ‘OpenBazaar Notifications’ Recipe

Add the OpenBazaar Notifications recipe to your IFTTT account. What this recipe will do is send you a notification via the IFTTT app when you receive an email sent via OpenBazaar.

If you’re using Gmail, you’ll need to connect your Gmail account by clicking ‘Connect’.

After connecting up your Gmail account, you’ll need to add the SMTP Sender Email Address to trigger notifications from the right email address.

Add the right email address

Use this address below:

^ this email address right here

Step 4. Profit

IFTTT will check recipes every 15 minutes or so. Notifications should look something like this:

And it looks even better if you have a smart watch like Pebble:

Best type of notification to get

Notification Events

You’ll receive notifications for the following events:

Someone has followed you Order received Payment for order received Purchase payment received Order confirmed and shipped New rating received Refund received Dispute opened Dispute closed

Happy Bazaaring!