Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0
Copyright 2024 Jamf LTDLicensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.
Notifier is a Swift app which can post alert or banner notifications on macOS 10.15+ clients.
Notifications are delivered via the UserNotifications Framework
OVERVIEW: Notifier 3.1: Posts alert or banner notifications.
USAGE: --type <alert/banner> --message <some message> <options>
--type <alert/banner> --remove prior <some message> <options>
--type <alert/banner> --remove all
--rebrand <path to image>
OPTIONS:
--type <type> alert or banner - REQUIRED.
--message <message> The notifications message.
--messageaction <messageaction>
The action to be performed under the users account
when the message is clicked.
• Passing 'logout' will prompt the user to logout.
• If passed a single item, this will be launched via:
/usr/bin/open
• More complex commands can be passed, but the 1st
argument needs to be a binaries path.
For example: "/usr/bin/open" will work, "open" will
not.
--messagebutton <messagebutton>
Adds a button to the message, with the label being
what is passed.
--messagebuttonaction <messagebuttonaction>
The action to be performed under the users account
when the optional message button is clicked.
• Passing 'logout' will prompt the user to logout.
• If passed a single item, this will be launched via:
/usr/bin/open
• More complex commands can be passed, but the 1st
argument needs to be a binaries path.
For example: "/usr/bin/open" will work, "open" will
not.
--rebrand <rebrand> Requires root privileges and that the calling process
needs either Full Disk Access (10.15+) or at a
minimum App Management (macOS 13+) permissions, as
well as the notifying applications being given
permission to post to Notification Center. Any of
these permissions can be granted manually, but
ideally via PPPCP's delivered via an MDM.
If successful and someone is logged in, Notification
Center is restarted.
--remove <remove> "prior" or "all". If passing "prior", the full
message will be required too. Including all passed
flags.
--sound <sound> The sound to play when notification is delivered.
Pass "default" for the default macOS sound, else the
name of a sound in /Library/Sounds or
/System/Library/Sounds.
If the sound cannot be found, macOS will use the
"default" sound.
--subtitle <subtitle> The notifications subtitle.
--title <title> The notifications title.
--verbose Enables logging of actions. Check console for
'Notifier' messages.
--help Show help information.
The below aim to give you an idea of what so the various notification options look like, across macOS versions as well as Light and Dark mode.
As you can see, some of the behaviour and appearence is OS dependent.
Example 1 This example shows a basic banner notification.
| macOS 10.15.7 - Light Mode | macOS 14.3 - Dark mode |
|---|---|
 |
 |
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type banner --message "message"
Example 2 This example shows a basic alert notification.
| macOS 10.15.7 - Light Mode | macOS 14.3 - Dark mode |
|---|---|
 |
 |
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message "message" --messagebutton "Logout" --messagebuttonaction "Logout"
Example 3 This example shows both alert & banner notifications, (sleep used for the example gif, not needed in use but below for completeness sake).
| macOS 10.15.7 - Light Mode | macOS 14.3 - Dark mode |
|---|---|
 |
 |
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message "Please Logout" --messagebutton "Logout" --messagebuttonaction "logout" --title "Logout";
/bin/sleep 2;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type banner --message "👋" --title "Notification"
Example 4 This example shows selective remove of a delivered notificaition via --remove prior. Where applicable this would also remove notifications from within Notification Center itself.
| macOS 10.15.7 - Light Mode | macOS 14.3 - Dark mode |
|---|---|
 |
 |
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message 'Look at me!!';
/bin/sleep 2;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message "message" --messagebutton "Logout";
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message 'Look at me!!' --remove prior
Example 5 This example shows removal of all alert notifications and also the differences of delivery of alert notifications across macOS versions, additionally this removes any prior delivered notificaions from Notification Center. Sleep used for the example gif, not needed in use but below for completeness sake.
| macOS 10.15.7 - Light Mode | macOS 14.3 - Dark mode |
|---|---|
 |
 |
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message message;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message message1;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message message2;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message message3;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message message4;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message message5;
/bin/sleep 5;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --remove all
Example 6 This example shows Notifier 3.0+'s --rebrand argument in use, this allows for rebranding of Notifier without having to venture into Xcode etc.
| macOS 10.15.7 - Light Mode | macOS 14.3 - Dark mode |
|---|---|
 |
 |
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type alert --message "message";
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type banner --message "message";
/bin/sleep 2;
/usr/bin/sudo /Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --rebrand /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/ErasingIcon.icns;
/bin/sleep 2;
/usr/bin/sudo /Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type banner --message "message";
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --rebrand /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/GenericFileServerIcon.icns;
/bin/sleep 2;
/usr/bin/sudo /Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type banner --message "message";
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --rebrand /Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/Resources/AppIcon.icns;
/bin/sleep 2;
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/MacOS/Notifier --type banner --message "message"
It's recommended that the below profile is recommended to be deployed before Notfier itself, to UAMDM devices. (https://github.com/dataJAR/Notifier/blob/master/profile/Allow%20Notifier%20Notifications.mobileconfig)
This will allow Notifier to post Notifications without prompting the user to allow.
Additionally, if you're looking to make use of the --rebrand flag the calling process needs either Full Disk Access/SystemPolicyAllFiles (10.15+) or at a
minimum App Management/SystemPolicyAppBundles (macOS 13+) permissions, as well as the notifying applications being given permission to post to Notification Center.
Any of these permissions can be granted manually, but ideally via PPPCP's delivered via an MDM.
PKG's will be supplied for every release, & can be found in the releases section.
The below is the advised deployment flow for Notifier.
- If rebranding - deploy a PPPC for your management tool of choice, granting either Full Disk Access/SystemPolicyAllFiles (10.15+) or App Management/SystemPolicyAppBundles (macOS 13+).
- Deploy the Notications PpPC to UAMDM devices
- Deploy the latest Notifier PKG
- If rebranding - deploy the image to use when rebranding.
- if rebranding - deploy a script or payload free package etc which rebrands Notifier via your management tool. This needs to be down with admin/root privileges.
The main Notifier.app parses arguments passed to it (via Argument Parser, and then posts the parsed argument to the two notifying applications included with the the /Contents/Helpers folder of Notifier.app:
/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/Helpers/
Notifier - Alerts.app
Notifier - Notifications.app
Additionally the Notifier.app also checks tha Notification Center is running, & runs the notifying apps in the user context.
The notifying apps (/Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/Helpers/Notifier - Alerts.app and /Applications/Utilities/Notifier.app/Contents/Helpers/Notifier - Notifications.app) both post notifications via the UserNotifications Framework.
The below should reset Notifications Center, but please test & submit a PR with a better method as applicable.
/bin/rm -rf $(getconf DARWIN_USER_DIR)/com.apple.notificationcenter/*- Logout & then log back in, or:
- For macOS 10.15+:
/usr/bin/killall "NotificationCenter"
- Test the Notifier once more
Q1: Why start at version 2?
A1: At dataJAR, we already had a v1 "Notifier" app deployed.
Q2: How can you post both banner & alert notifications?
A2: See How it works
Q3: The users are being prompted to allow.. help!
A3: This can be due to a few things:
- Was the notifications profile installed? If not, install.
- Is the device under UAMDM? If not, check with your MDM vendor on making the device UAMDM. Then try again & maybe reinstall the profile once under UAMDM.
- Did you change the Bundle ID of either the Alert or Banner applications? If so you'll need to amend the notifications profile accordingly.
Q4: Is that logo magen...
A4: No, it's a shade of pink...
Q5: Banner or Notifications?
A5: The temporary notifications are referred to as "banner" notifications in Apple's documentation, but it seems that most folks call them "Notifications" with the persistent notifications being referred to as alerts by folks as well as within Apple's documentation.
Q6: I'm seeing alerts when expecting banner notifications, & vice versa
A6: Check the Notification settings within System Preferences/System Settings, it's possible that the incorrect option has been selected or set via a profile.
Q7: --remove prior, didn't clear my last message.
A7: Make sure you pass EXACTLY the same message to be cleared.
Q8: I've rebranded, but the old icon is being shown..
A8: Please reset Notification Center as per the Resetting Notifications Center, then try again.
Q9: Does rebranding work when no one is logged in?
A9: Yep, and no restart of Notification Center is needed.
Q10 Why are notifcations all of a sudden showing a prohibted sign across the icon?
A10 This is a macOS issue that has goes back some years, to resolve either restart Notification Center or the Mac.
The below projects can be used instead of Notifier & were very much instrumental in Notifiers creation