--- title: AFS_UI_Notifications product: Advanced Framework Pro version: 1.0 engine: Unreal Engine 5.8 updated: 2026-10-05 canonical: https://docs.human-codeable.com/plugins/afs-ui-notifications.html --- System # AFS_UI_Notifications Transient notifications shown in a stacking container, with a default styled variant and a one-call library. #### What it gives you - Fire-and-forget notifications from anywhere - Automatic stacking and expiry - Themed styling with icon, colour and sound #### Requires None #### Required by None 6 assets20 API members ## Description Notifications are the framework's answer to "tell the player something happened without interrupting them". `BFL_Notifications.Notification_ShowDefaultNotification` takes a pawn, an icon, text, a colour, a duration and a sound, and handles everything else — creating the notification object, placing it in the container, stacking it with any others and removing it when it expires. Because it resolves the container through the pawn, the same call works in VR where notifications appear in spatial UI, and on desktop where they appear on the HUD. ## Setup 1. Enable `AFS_UI_Notifications`. 2. Confirm the pawn has the spatial UI or HUD ability the container needs. 3. Call the library function from anywhere with a pawn reference. ## Usage ### Showing a notification Call `Notification_ShowDefaultNotification` with the pawn, an icon texture, the text, a `PDA_Color` and a duration. Six seconds is the default and works for most messages. ### Custom notifications Derive from `BP_Notification` and `WBP_Notification` for a different layout, then spawn it through `SpawnInsideNotificationContainer`. [![Three notifications stacked in the corner](../images/AFS_UI_Notifications_result-1600.webp?v=71c7064f)](../images/AFS_UI_Notifications_result-1600.webp?v=71c7064f) Three notifications stacked in the corner ## Key properties | Property | When to change | |---|---| | `Duration` | Time on screen; raise for longer messages | | `Color` | Use the colour data assets so notifications match the theme | ## Extending Derive from `BP_Notification` and `WBP_Notification` together — the object holds the data, the widget draws it. ## Example map `Map_Examples_Notifications` shows several notification types. ## Troubleshooting **Nothing appears.** The pawn lacks the UI ability that hosts the notification container. ## API reference Every blueprint asset in this plugin. Expand an asset to see its members. ### Blueprints **BP_Notification**5 members extends `Object` Object describing one notification: which pawn sees it, the widget class that draws it, how long it lasts and the sound it plays. Spawn Inside Notification Container adds the container to the pawn's HUD ability and hands itself over to be built into a widget. Subclass it when a notification needs content of its own, as the default one does; it is created in code rather than placed. | Kind | Name | Signature | Description | |---|---|---|---| | var | `Pawn`Info | `Pawn` | Owning pawn whose HUD this notification is shown on, normally set as the object is created. The notification container is added to that pawn's HUD component, so nothing appears when the pawn is empty or has no such component. | | var | `Widget Class`Info | `class` | Widget design the container creates for this notification, which is the default notification widget on the shipped subclass. Not exposed on spawn, so set it on the notification object before calling Spawn Inside Notification Container if you have written a design of your own. | | var | `Duration`Info | `float` | How long the notification is meant to stay on screen, in seconds: six when spawned through Show Default Notification, ten by default on the notification object itself. Neither the container nor the widget reads it, so a notification stays up until Despawn Notification is called for it. | | var | `Sound`Sound | `SoundBase` | Cue carried with the notification for its appearance. Leave it empty and Spawn Inside Notification Container writes the shipped notification cue in, rather than passing the widget an unset sound. | | fn | `Spawn Inside Notification Container` | `(out Witget: WBP_Notification)` | Puts this notification on screen and returns the widget created for it. Falls back to the shipped notification cue when no sound is set, adds the notification container to the pawn's HUD at Z-order 10 unless it is already open, then asks that container to spawn the widget. Does nothing at all when the pawn has no HUD component. | **BP_Notification_Default**3 members extends `BP_Notification` Ready-made notification carrying an icon, a line of text and a colour data asset, paired with the default notification widget and a ten second duration. Created for you by Show Default Notification, so reach for the library first and copy this class only when you want a notification with different content. | Kind | Name | Signature | Description | |---|---|---|---| | var | `Icon`Content | `Texture2D` | Texture the default notification design shows in its icon image, applied when Update Icon is called on the widget with it. The image collapses while no texture is set. | | var | `Text`Content | `text` | Message the default notification design displays, applied when Update Body is called on the widget with it. The text block collapses while the message is empty. | | var | `Color`Style | `PDA_Color` | Colour asset the default notification design outlines itself with, applied when Update Colour is called on the widget with it. Leave it empty and the outline falls back to the theme's background colour. | ### Libraries **BFL_Notifications**1 members extends `BlueprintFunctionLibrary` Function library reducing the notification flow to one static call. Show Default Notification builds a default notification for a pawn from an icon, a line of text, a colour and a duration, shows it and returns the widget. Call this rather than creating the notification object yourself. | Kind | Name | Signature | Description | |---|---|---|---| | fn | `Notification_ShowDefaultNotification`Notifications | `(Pawn: Pawn, Icon: Texture2D, Text: text, Color: PDA_Color, Duration: float, Sound: SoundBase, __WorldContext: Object, out Witget: WBP_Notification)` | Builds a default notification from the icon, text, colour, duration and sound given, puts it on the pawn's HUD and returns the widget created for it. The pawn needs a HUD component; without one nothing is shown and the widget comes back empty. Duration is six seconds on this pin, where the notification object's own default is ten. | ### Widgets **WBP_Notification**4 members extends `WBP_Base` Root class for every notification widget: a named slot for the content, the slide-and-fade in and out animations, and Despawn Notification, which plays the fade, tells the container it has gone and removes itself. Inherit from this for a notification look of your own and point a notification object's Widget Class at it. | Kind | Name | Signature | Description | |---|---|---|---| | var | `Notification`Content | `BP_Notification` | The notification object this widget was spawned for, handed over by the container as it creates the widget. The container matches on it to find the right widget when Despawn Notification is called with an object, and a design of your own takes its content from here. | | fn | `WidgetElement_getNamedSlots`Slots | `(out Slots: NamedSlot[])` | Returns the named slots this element exposes so that the tree walk can descend into their children. Return an empty list and the element is treated as a leaf, which means anything parented into a slot you do not list is never initiated or themed. | | event | `DespawnNotification` | `()` | Fades the notification out and removes it from the screen. Its Z-order drops to zero first, so it passes behind the notifications still standing, and On Despawn is broadcast once the animation finishes, which is what takes it out of the container's list. | | event | `WidgetElement_PostInitiate`Style | `()` | Called on every element once the entire tree has been initiated and themed. Implement it for set-up that needs the finished tree, such as measuring or reading the state of a sibling. | **WBP_Notification_Default**4 members extends `WBP_Notification` The shipped notification look, an icon beside a line of text behind a rounded outline whose colour comes from the colour data asset on the notification. Paired with the default notification; copy it when you want a different arrangement of the same parts. | Kind | Name | Signature | Description | |---|---|---|---| | event | `UpdateColor` | `(SideColor: PDA_Color)` | Recolours the rounded outline around the notification, wrapping the colour asset given as a custom colour at high intensity. Pass nothing and the outline reverts to the theme's background colour at that same intensity. | | event | `UpdateBody` | `(Text: text)` | Replaces the notification's message text, which collapses when the text is empty. Call it once the widget exists, since the text held on the notification object is not read for you. | | event | `UpdateIcon` | `(Icon: Texture2D)` | Replaces the texture in the notification's icon, which collapses when no texture is passed. Call it once the widget exists; the icon held on the notification object is not read for you. | | event | `WidgetElement_PostInitiate`Style | `()` | Called on every element once the entire tree has been initiated and themed. Implement it for set-up that needs the finished tree, such as measuring or reading the state of a sibling. | ### Widgets/Container **WBP_NotificationContainer**3 members extends `WBP_Base` Stack that holds the notifications currently on screen. It builds each widget from a notification object, keeps the pile interpolating upwards as sizes change, and closes itself once the last one has despawned. Added to the pawn's HUD by the notification itself, so it is not a widget to add by hand. | Kind | Name | Signature | Description | |---|---|---|---| | fn | `DespawnNotification`Notifications | `(Notification: BP_Notification)` | Fades out every widget in this container showing the given notification object, by calling Despawn Notification on each of them. Passing an object the container is not showing does nothing. | | fn | `SpawnNotification`Notifications | `(Notification: BP_Notification, out Widget: WBP_Notification)` | Creates the widget named by the notification's Widget Class, subscribes to its On Despawn and adds it to the canvas, auto-sized and anchored to the bottom centre directly above the notifications already showing, so the stack grows upwards. Called for you by Spawn Inside Notification Container. | | event | `DespawnMessage_Event` | `(Notification: WBP_Notification)` | Internal handler bound to each notification widget's On Despawn delegate. Takes that widget out of the list and closes the container itself once the last notification has gone. |