3

We can create a notification using simple commands.

ex:notify-send 'SUPER IMPORTANT!' 'This is an urgent message!' -u critical

Can we make it clickable and run a script while clicking on it? Like

When we click on a notification send by Nautilus file manager like this one enter image description here

It directly opens a new window. But our custom notification doesn't do anything. How to make our custom notification do an activity when we click it.

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  • Is it meant for general use or in a specific situation? Notify-send is notify-send, but custom-made stuff is not much work and anything is possible. Oct 9, 2019 at 16:33
  • Then is there any other way to make a notification without notify-send. Oct 9, 2019 at 16:37
  • Sure! We can just create a tiny Gtk window, , appearing in any corner you choose, doing anything you want. Oct 9, 2019 at 16:40
  • If you are interested, can make you an example clickable, undecorated notfication window, but need to know how you are going to use it. Oct 9, 2019 at 17:11
  • obviously, I am interested in custom notifications. I want it for my own software that I coded. can we use qml for making it? Oct 11, 2019 at 14:21

1 Answer 1

3

Interesting question!

enter image description here

...Which was the trigger for the exploration below on the subject on the UB experimental repo. The result is a notification/message popup which has the following options:

Example of a notification with (optional) click-functionality

  • set the corner to appear
  • set a command to run when clicked
  • set a title (bold)
  • set a message text
  • set an icon
  • set a life length (seconds) <- set in the snippet

The first four options only apply if you set the argument, the corner defaults to bottom-right (on primary), unless set differently.

The life length is -as it is- hardcoded, defaults to 10 seconds, unless set differently.

Notes

  • Note that these notifications -as it is- are not passed through dbus, so they cannot be "listened" to. Further development could be to make it a daemon-like background process -keeping the Gtk loop alive-, only calling the window on dbus hint.
  • Many of the values/preferences could be moved to gsettings

How to setup

  • Copy the snippet into an empty file, save it as alternotify.py, make it executable
  • Run it with any combination of the following options, just pick what you need:

    • click command: command="command_to_run"
    • title: title="Title to show"
    • message text (body): body="Text body of the notification message, text, text, text"
    • icon (from icon name): icon="icon-name"
    • the corner to appear, 1 = NE, 2 = NW, 3 = SE, 4 = SW: position=1

A complete command could look like:

/path/to/alternotify.py title="Missing applet" body="To use this functionality, you need to run previews. Click this notification to switch it on." icon="budgie-hotcorners-symbolic" command="gedit /home/jacob/Bureaublad/Kap" position=4

enter image description here

The code

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import gi
gi.require_version("Gtk", "3.0")
from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk, GLib
import sys
import subprocess

class NotifyWindow(Gtk.Window):

    def __init__(self):
        Gtk.Window.__init__(self)
        self.set_decorated(False)
        distance = 80 # gsettings
        winwidth = 300 # gsettings
        winheight = 80 # gsettings
        self.set_default_size(winwidth, winheight)
        self.maingrid = Gtk.Grid()
        self.add(self.maingrid)  
        self.set_space()
        self.winpos = 4 # gsettings? default = SE
        self.get_args()
        self.currage = 0
        self.targetage = 10 # gsettings,life seconds
        GLib.timeout_add_seconds(1, self.limit_windowlife) 
        self.maingrid.show_all()
        self.position_popup(self.winpos, winwidth, winheight, distance)
        self.show_all()
        Gtk.main()

    def get_winpos(self, arg):
        self.winpos = int(arg)

    def limit_windowlife(self):
        if self.currage >= self.targetage:
            Gtk.main_quit()
        self.currage = self.currage + 1;
        return True        

    def position_popup(self, winpos, winwidth, winheight, distance):
        monitordata = self.get_primarymonitor()
        winsize = self.get_size()
        winwidth, winheight = winsize.width, winsize.height
        monitor_xpos = monitordata[2]
        monitor_ypos = monitordata[3]
        monitor_width = monitordata[0]
        monitor_height = monitordata[1]

        if winpos == 1:
            wintargetx = monitor_xpos + distance
            wintargety = monitor_ypos + distance
        elif winpos == 2:
            wintargetx = monitor_width + monitor_xpos - winwidth - distance
            wintargety = monitor_ypos + distance
        elif winpos == 3:
            wintargetx = monitor_xpos + distance
            wintargety = monitor_ypos + monitor_height - (
                distance + winheight
            )
        elif winpos == 4:
            wintargetx = monitor_width + monitor_xpos - winwidth - distance
            wintargety = monitor_ypos + monitor_height - (
                distance + winheight
            )
        self.move(wintargetx, wintargety)

    def get_primarymonitor(self):
        # see what is the resolution on the primary monitor
        prim = Gdk.Display.get_default().get_primary_monitor()
        geo = prim.get_geometry()
        [width, height, screen_xpos, screen_ypos] = [
            geo.width, geo.height, geo.x, geo.y
        ]
        height = geo.height
        return width, height, screen_xpos, screen_ypos

    def show_title(self, title):
        title_label = Gtk.Label(label=title)
        self.maingrid.attach(title_label, 3, 1, 1, 1)
        title_label.set_xalign(0)
        # set title bold
        self.noti_css = ".title {font-weight: bold; padding-bottom: 5px;}"
        self.provider = Gtk.CssProvider.new()
        self.provider.load_from_data(self.noti_css.encode())
        self.set_textstyle(title_label, "title")

    def set_body(self, body):
        body_label = Gtk.Label(
            label=body
        )
        self.maingrid.attach(body_label, 3, 2, 1, 1)
        body_label.set_xalign(0)
        body_label.set_size_request(250, -1)
        body_label.set_line_wrap(True)

    def set_icon(self, icon):
        self.maingrid.attach(Gtk.Label(label="\t"), 2, 0, 1, 1)
        if not "/" in icon:
            newicon = Gtk.Image.new_from_icon_name(
                icon, Gtk.IconSize.DIALOG
            )
            self.maingrid.attach(newicon, 1, 1, 1, 2)
            self.maingrid.show_all()

    def get_args(self):
        args = sys.argv[1:]
        funcs = [
            self.show_title, self.set_body, self.set_icon,
            self.connect_action, self.get_winpos,
        ]
        argnames = ["title", "body", "icon", "command", "position"]
        for arg in args:
            argdata = arg.split("=")
            argname = argdata[0]
            arg = argdata[1]
            try:
                i = argnames.index(argname)
                funcs[i](arg)
            except ValueError:
                print("invalid argument:", arg)             

    def connect_action(self, arg):
        self.connect("button_press_event", self.run_command, arg)
        pass

    def set_textstyle(self, widget, style):
        widget_cont = widget.get_style_context()
        widget_cont.add_class(style)
        Gtk.StyleContext.add_provider(
            widget_cont,
            self.provider,
            Gtk.STYLE_PROVIDER_PRIORITY_APPLICATION,
        )               

    def run_command(self, event, key, command):
        if key.get_button()[1] == 1:
            subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", command])

    def set_space(self):
        for cell in [[0, 0], [100, 0], [0, 100], [100, 100]]:
            self.maingrid.attach(
                Gtk.Label(label="\t"), cell[0], cell[1], 1, 1
            )

NotifyWindow()
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  • Thanks, Jacob. I wasn't a GTK lover. But your comment inspired me to learn GTK designing. Oct 12, 2019 at 2:48

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