[DEPR]: deprecation of notifications panel's plugin slots, pluginProps and Id

[awais-ansari]

Per OEP-21, this ticket proposes the removal of the deprecated identifiers introduced by the rename of the Notifications sidebar widget to the Upgrade widget (PR #1899 / ADR 0010).

RFC Start Date

2026-04-17

Target Plan Accepted Date

2026-05-01

Target Transition Unblocked Date

Estimated Q3 2026, once operators have had time to update env.config.jsx configs, plugin slot IDs, and pluginProps references.

---

Rational

PR #1899 and PR #1885, the sidebar "Notifications" widget to "Upgrade" and introduced backward-compatibility shims so existing plugin configs and operator overrides would continue to work without changes. Those shims are now deprecated:

• The old plugin slot IDs (notification_tray, notifications_discussions_sidebar, notifications_discussions_sidebar_trigger) were misnomers that implied general notification functionality. They are aliased to the correct new IDs but should not persist indefinitely.
• The old pluginProps keys (notificationCurrentState, setNotificationCurrentState) duplicate the renamed props and create a maintenance burden.
• WIDGETS.NOTIFICATIONS (whose value was changed from 'NOTIFICATIONS' to 'UPGRADE' as a shim) is an undocumented constant that external code should not depend on; the widget owns its own ID.
• upgradeWidgetConfig being in DEFAULT_WIDGETS is a temporary accommodation; commercial widgets should not be opt-out by default in an open-source MFE.

Keeping these shims indefinitely means future renames or extractions cannot clean up without archaeology.

---

Removal

The following items are deprecated and will be removed:

Deprecated	Location
Plugin slot ID org.openedx.frontend.learning.notification_tray.v1 and short alias notification_tray_slot	src/widgets/upgrade/src/UpgradePanel.jsx - idAliases
Plugin slot ID org.openedx.frontend.learning.notifications_discussions_sidebar.v1 and short alias notifications_discussions_sidebar_slot	src/plugin-slots/RightSidebarSlot/index.tsx - idAliases
Plugin slot ID org.openedx.frontend.learning.notifications_discussions_sidebar_trigger.v1 and short alias notifications_discussions_sidebar_trigger_slot	src/plugin-slots/RightSidebarTriggerSlot/index.tsx - idAliases
pluginProps keys notificationCurrentState and setNotificationCurrentState on the upgrade panel slot	src/widgets/upgrade/src/UpgradePanel.jsx - pluginProps
WIDGETS.NOTIFICATIONS constant (value 'UPGRADE')	src/constants.ts
upgradeWidgetConfig in DEFAULT_WIDGETS (default-on behavior)	src/courseware/course/sidebar/defaultWidgets.js

Full inventory with replacement mappings: ADR 0010: Migration & Backward Compatibility

---

Replacement

Deprecated	Replacement
Slot notification_tray.v1 / notification_tray_slot	org.openedx.frontend.learning.upgrade_panel.v1
Slot notifications_discussions_sidebar.v1 / notifications_discussions_sidebar_slot	org.openedx.frontend.learning.right_sidebar.v1 / right_sidebar_slot
Slot notifications_discussions_sidebar_trigger.v1 / notifications_discussions_sidebar_trigger_slot	org.openedx.frontend.learning.right_sidebar_trigger.v1 / right_sidebar_trigger_slot
pluginProps.notificationCurrentState	pluginProps.upgradeCurrentState
pluginProps.setNotificationCurrentState	pluginProps.setUpgradeCurrentState
WIDGETS.NOTIFICATIONS	ID exported from src/widgets/upgrade/src
upgradeWidgetConfig in DEFAULT_WIDGETS	Operators must add upgradeWidgetConfig explicitly to SIDEBAR_WIDGETS in env.config.jsx

---

Deprecation

All shim sites are already annotated with // @deprecated — aliased for backward compat; remove after one deprecation cycle (ADR 0010) comments. WIDGETS.NOTIFICATIONS in src/constants.ts carries a @deprecated JSDoc block. Running grep -R '@deprecated' in the repo enumerates all five code sites without requiring ADR archaeology.

---

Additional Info

• Migration guide and complete renamed-identifier inventory: ADR 0010
• Backward-compat shims were introduced in PR feat: make widget registry to backward compatible #1899.
• localStorage keys were also renamed but are not shimmed (no server-side migration possible). Learner browsers will reset the "have I seen this" indicator on first load after upgrading. This is cosmetic only.
• No database migrations required.

---

Transition Unblocked Tasks

• Announce this DEPR ticket on discuss.openedx.org and link it here
• Add to the Open edX DEPR project board
• Confirm no Tutor plugins or known downstream repos still reference the deprecated slot IDs (search notification_tray and notifications_discussions_sidebar across the openedx GitHub org)
• Confirm no downstream repos reference WIDGETS.NOTIFICATIONS or the old pluginProps keys
• Document the Upgrade panel's env.config.jsx opt-in in the official operator docs before removing the default

---

Feature Removal Tasks

• Remove deprecated idAliases entries from src/widgets/upgrade/src/UpgradePanel.jsx
• Remove deprecated idAliases entries from src/plugin-slots/RightSidebarSlot/index.tsx
• Remove deprecated idAliases entries from src/plugin-slots/RightSidebarTriggerSlot/index.tsx
• Remove notificationCurrentState / setNotificationCurrentState from pluginProps in UpgradePanel.jsx
• Remove WIDGETS.NOTIFICATIONS from src/constants.ts
• Remove upgradeWidgetConfig from DEFAULT_WIDGETS in src/courseware/course/sidebar/defaultWidgets.js
• Update src/plugin-slots/README.md to remove the strikethrough entry for notification_tray.v1
• Update ADR 0010 to record the actual removal release