README

Live Activity shows small notification cards on the storefront that describe recent customer activity: purchases, cart additions, wishlist additions, a live viewer count, a trending view count and a low stock alert. Each card can show a product thumbnail and an activity icon, and clicking or tapping it opens the product page.

The numbers come from two sources that can be used together. Real purchase, cart and wishlist events are recorded by event observers and read back from a database table. Simulated notifications are generated on every request with random names, locations, timestamps and counts. The live viewer count and the trending view count are always random; the low stock quantity uses the real stock quantity when it is between 1 and 10 and a random value otherwise. The module is used by store owners who want social proof messages on their storefront, and it ships one template with separate CSS rules for Hyva and Luma themes.

Product page: kishansavaliya.com/magento-2-live-activity.html

Features

Six notification types: recent purchases, cart additions, wishlist additions, live viewers count, trending products and low stock alerts, each of which can be switched on or off.
Real activity tracking through observers on the sales_order_place_after, checkout_cart_product_add_after and wishlist_add_product events, stored in the panth_live_activity table with the store ID and a created timestamp.
Simulated activity generated per request from a configurable list of fake customer names and fake customer locations, with a random product from the catalogue or from a list of featured products.
Activity time range for real data: last 1, 6, 12 or 24 hours, last 2 days or last 7 days.
Real customer names shortened to first name plus last initial; no email address, surname or address is shown.
Featured product picker in the admin configuration, with AJAX search by ID, SKU or name.
Category exclusion for simulated notifications.
Four positions (bottom left, bottom right, top left, top right) and four animation styles (slide, fade, bounce, scale). Bottom positions follow the shared floating stack: the toast adds --panth-bottom-bar-offset, the floating button slots of its side and --panth-float-edge, and below 1024 px it leaves room for the floating buttons on the other side (--panth-float-reserve-right / -left).
Display delay, notification duration, interval between notifications and a maximum number of notifications per page view.
Product image and activity icon can each be hidden.
Custom CSS field, plus CSS variables registered with Panth_Core through etc/theme-config.json.
Mobile display can be switched off; the template includes responsive rules, safe-area insets, a dark colour scheme block and a prefers-reduced-motion block.
Notifications are loaded with a single fetch() call to a JSON endpoint after the page has loaded; no jQuery, Knockout or RequireJS is used on the storefront.

Compatibility

Platform	Versions
Magento Open Source	2.4.4 to 2.4.8 (as published on the product page)
Adobe Commerce	2.4.4 to 2.4.8 (as published on the product page)
PHP	8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 (from `composer.json`)
Themes	Hyva and Luma

Composer constraints on Magento packages: magento/framework ^103.0, magento/module-catalog ^104.0, magento/module-sales ^103.0, magento/module-checkout ^100.4, magento/module-wishlist ^101.0, magento/module-store ^101.1, magento/module-backend ^102.0, magento/module-config ^101.2, magento/module-catalog-inventory ^100.4.

Requirements

Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 to 2.4.8.
PHP 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 or 8.4.
mage2kishan/module-core ^1.0 (module Panth_Core), which provides the "Panth Extensions" admin menu group and the theme configuration view model this module registers with.
The Magento modules listed above; composer.json declares no suggested packages.

Installation

composer require mage2kishan/module-live-activity
bin/magento module:enable Panth_Core Panth_LiveActivity
bin/magento setup:upgrade
bin/magento setup:di:compile
bin/magento setup:static-content:deploy -f
bin/magento cache:flush

setup:di:compile is only needed in production mode. setup:static-content:deploy is listed because the module ships an admin JavaScript file under view/adminhtml/web/js/.

Check the result with:

bin/magento module:status Panth_LiveActivity

Configuration

Go to Stores > Configuration > Panth Extensions > Live Activity & Social Proof. The tab label in etc/adminhtml/system.xml is "Panth Extensions" with a rocket emoji in front of it, which is omitted here. The section is also reachable from the admin menu under Panth Extensions > Live Activity > Configuration. All fields can be set at default, website and store view scope.

General Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
Enable Live Activity	Yes	Master switch. When set to No the block renders nothing, the AJAX endpoint returns a "disabled" response and observers stop recording activity.
Notification Position	Bottom Left	Corner of the viewport where cards appear. Shown when the module is enabled.
Display Delay (seconds)	5	Wait before the first notification (0 to 60).
Notification Duration (seconds)	5	How long each card stays on screen (3 to 30).
Interval Between Notifications (seconds)	8	Pause between one card closing and the next opening (5 to 120).
Maximum Notifications Per Page	10	Cap per page view; 0 means unlimited.

Activity Types to Display

Setting	Default	What it does
Show Recent Purchases	Yes	Shows " from purchased ". Real entries have no location, so " from " is left out.
Show Cart Additions	Yes	Shows " from added to cart ". Real entries have no location, so " from " is left out.
Show Wishlist Additions	Yes	Shows " from added to wishlist ". Real entries have no location, so " from " is left out.
Show Live Viewers Count	Yes	Shows " people are viewing this right now". Simulated only.
Show Trending Products	Yes	Shows "Trending: views in the last hour". Simulated only.
Show Low Stock Alerts	Yes	Shows "Stock Alert: Only items left!". Simulated only, with the real stock quantity substituted when it is between 1 and 10.

Data Source Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
Use Real Activity Data	Yes	Records purchase, cart and wishlist events and includes them in the feed.
Use Simulated Activity	Yes	Adds 3 to 7 generated notifications to every feed response.
Activity Time Range	Last 24 Hours	How far back real events are read. Shown when Use Real Activity Data is Yes.
Anonymize Customer Names	Yes	No longer changes the output. Logged-in customers are always stored and shown as first name plus last initial (for example "John D."), whatever this setting is.
Featured Product IDs	empty	Comma-separated product IDs chosen with the product picker. When set, simulated notifications use only these products; when empty, up to 50 enabled, visible products are used.
Fake Customer Names	15 sample names	JSON list of names used for simulated notifications. Shown when Use Simulated Activity is Yes.
Fake Customer Locations	15 sample cities	JSON list of locations used for simulated notifications only. Shown when Use Simulated Activity is Yes.

Appearance Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
Animation Style	Slide In	Entrance animation: Slide In, Fade In, Bounce In or Scale Up.
Show Product Image	Yes	Shows a 90x90 product thumbnail when the product has an image.
Show Activity Icon	Yes	Shows an SVG icon for the activity type.
Custom CSS	empty	Appended to the inline style block of the template. Any `<` character is written as the CSS escape `\3C` so the value cannot close the style tag.

Advanced Settings

Setting	Default	What it does
Exclude Categories	empty	Products in these categories are left out of the simulated product pool. Real events are not filtered.
Enable on Mobile	Yes	When No, the script exits on viewports narrower than 768px and on touch devices with a mobile user agent.

Config paths:

live_activity/general/enabled, live_activity/general/position, live_activity/general/display_delay, live_activity/general/notification_duration, live_activity/general/interval, live_activity/general/max_notifications
live_activity/activity_types/show_purchases, live_activity/activity_types/show_cart_adds, live_activity/activity_types/show_wishlist_adds, live_activity/activity_types/show_live_viewers, live_activity/activity_types/show_trending, live_activity/activity_types/show_low_stock
live_activity/data_source/use_real_data, live_activity/data_source/use_simulated_data, live_activity/data_source/time_range, live_activity/data_source/anonymize_names, live_activity/data_source/featured_products, live_activity/data_source/fake_names, live_activity/data_source/fake_locations
live_activity/appearance/animation_style, live_activity/appearance/show_product_image, live_activity/appearance/show_icon, live_activity/appearance/custom_css
live_activity/advanced/exclude_categories, live_activity/advanced/mobile_enabled

Default behaviour after installation: the module is enabled, all six types are on, real and simulated data are both on, and notifications appear bottom left on every storefront page after 5 seconds.

Usage

Where notifications appear

The block live.activity.notifications is added to the after.body.start container by view/frontend/layout/default.xml, so the container is present on every storefront page. On a product page the block reads the id request parameter and passes it to the endpoint, so real events are limited to that product (plus events with no product); on other pages all real events for the current store are used.

Notification types and data sources

Type	Real data	Simulated data
Purchase	One row per visible order item on `sales_order_place_after`.	Random name, location and time 5 to 180 minutes ago.
Cart addition	Recorded on `checkout_cart_product_add_after`.	Same as above.
Wishlist addition	Recorded on `wishlist_add_product`.	Same as above.
Live viewers	Not recorded.	Random count between 3 and 25.
Trending	Not recorded.	Random count between 30 and 150 views "in the last hour".
Low stock	Not recorded.	Random quantity 1 to 5, replaced by the real stock quantity when that is between 1 and 10.

For real events the stored customer name is the logged-in customer's first name plus last initial or, for guests, a random first name from a fixed list plus a random initial. No location is stored for real events; the module does not read the customer's address. Names already stored in full by earlier versions are shortened to first name plus last initial when the feed is built, but locations already stored with older real events are returned as stored until those events fall outside the time range.

What is simulated: every entry with "is_real": false in the feed is invented, including its name, location, time and product choice. The live viewer count, the trending view count and the stats numbers (current_viewers, views_today, cart_adds_today, purchases_today) are always random. The low stock quantity is random unless the real stock quantity is between 1 and 10. Only entries with "is_real": true come from real purchases, cart additions and wishlist additions.

Feed and refresh interval

The endpoint liveactivity/ajax/getactivity (GET, optional product_id) returns up to 10 real events within the configured time range (the cutoff and the age of each event are calculated by the database, so PHP and database time zones cannot drift apart) plus 3 to 7 simulated entries, sorted by timestamp and cut to 20 entries. The storefront script fetches this feed once per page view (after requestIdleCallback, or 500 ms after DOM ready), waits for the display delay, then shows one card at a time for the configured duration, pauses for the configured interval and moves to the next entry. When it reaches the end of the list it starts again from the beginning until the maximum per page is reached. There is no polling; new data is only fetched on the next page load. Each card has a close button and a progress bar that runs for the duration.

Caching

The module does not store the feed in any Magento cache. The JSON endpoint returns a plain JSON result without layout, so it is not served from the full page cache. The product collection used for simulated notifications is fetched once per request. Product thumbnails are requested through the standard catalogue image helper at 90x90 pixels.

Templates and styling

Storefront template: view/frontend/templates/notifications.phtml, referenced as Panth_LiveActivity::notifications.phtml. It contains the container, the inline CSS and the JavaScript. Override it in your theme at Panth_LiveActivity/templates/notifications.phtml.
Admin templates: view/adminhtml/templates/system/config/product_picker.phtml, fake_names.phtml and fake_locations.phtml. These use Alpine.js from view/adminhtml/web/js/alpine.min.js.
CSS variables from etc/theme-config.json: live-activity-bg, live-activity-shadow, live-activity-highlight, live-activity-text, live-activity-text-secondary, live-activity-text-muted, live-activity-border. The template also reads --live-activity-icon-bg, --live-activity-progress, --live-activity-close and dark-scheme variants with built-in fallbacks.
Rules prefixed with body:not([class*="hyva"]) apply the Luma layout; the base rules apply on Hyva.
Message text is assembled in JavaScript in English and the "x minutes ago" strings are built in PHP; neither passes through Magento translation.

Developer Notes

Module name: Panth_LiveActivity
Composer package: mage2kishan/module-live-activity (version 1.0.8)
Namespace: Panth\LiveActivity
Load sequence: after Panth_Core, Magento_Catalog, Magento_Sales, Magento_Checkout and Magento_Wishlist.

Key classes:

Panth\LiveActivity\Model\ActivityProvider: getRecentActivity(?int $productId): array builds the feed; getViewerStats(int $productId): array returns random counts that are included in the JSON response as stats but not used by the storefront script.
Panth\LiveActivity\Model\ActivityTracker: track(string $activityType, array $data): void saves a real event.
Panth\LiveActivity\Observer\TrackOrderPlacement, TrackCartAdd, TrackWishlistAdd: observers declared in etc/events.xml (global scope).
Panth\LiveActivity\Controller\Ajax\GetActivity: frontend JSON endpoint, route liveactivity.
Panth\LiveActivity\Controller\Adminhtml\Product\Search and GetByIds: admin endpoints liveactivity/product/search and liveactivity/product/getbyids for the product picker, protected by the ACL resource below.
Panth\LiveActivity\Block\Activity: isEnabled(), getConfigJson(), getAjaxUrl(), getCurrentProductId(), getCustomCss().
Panth\LiveActivity\Helper\Config: config path constants, getFrontendConfig(), getFeaturedProductIds(), getExcludedCategoryIds(), getEnabledFakeNames(), getFakeLocations().
Panth\LiveActivity\Model\Activity with type constants purchase, cart_add, wishlist_add, live_viewers, trending, low_stock (and an unused view).
Source models: Model\Config\Source\Position, Animation, TimeRange, Category.

Dependency injection: etc/di.xml is empty. etc/frontend/di.xml adds Panth_LiveActivity to the registeredModules argument of Panth\Core\ViewModel\ThemeConfig. No plugins or preferences are declared.

ACL resource: Panth_LiveActivity::config ("Panth Live Activity Configuration") under Magento_Config::config.

Database tables from etc/db_schema.xml:

panth_live_activity: activity_id, activity_type, product_id, product_name, customer_name, customer_location, created_at, store_id, is_real. Written by the tracker and read by the provider.
panth_live_activity_stats: stat_id, product_id, current_viewers, views_today, cart_adds_today, wishlist_adds_today, purchases_today, last_view, updated_at. Declared but not read or written by any class in this version.

Uninstallation

bin/magento module:disable Panth_LiveActivity
composer remove mage2kishan/module-live-activity
bin/magento setup:upgrade
bin/magento setup:di:compile
bin/magento cache:flush

The tables panth_live_activity and panth_live_activity_stats and the live_activity/* rows in core_config_data are not removed by these commands; drop or delete them manually if you no longer need them. mage2kishan/module-core stays installed if other modules depend on it.

Support

Product page: kishansavaliya.com/magento-2-live-activity.html
Contact form: kishansavaliya.com/contact
Email: kishansavaliyakb@gmail.com
GitHub issues: github.com/mage2sk/module-live-activity/issues

Documentation

USER_GUIDE.md walks an administrator through installation, verifying the extension is active, each configuration group, the featured product picker, fake names and locations, how notifications work and troubleshooting.

License

Commercial software license. See LICENSE.txt in this repository.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md.

mage2kishan / module-live-activity

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