Notifications from the main process #9269

MarshallOfSound · 2017-04-23T14:25:21Z

This is a WIP of extracting the Notification logic that hooks into the Chromium notification model in the renderer process to a simpler API to use from the main process. It also adds a few extras like inline replies on macOS.

An example of what this API looks like (at least currently on macOS)

const n = new Notification({
  title: 'Hello World',
  body: 'This is the long and complicated body for this notification that just goes on and on and on and never really seems to stop',
  silent: true,
  icon: '/path/to/ninja.png',
  hasReply: true,
  replyPlaceholder: 'Type Here!!'
});

n.on('show', () => console.log('showed'));
n.on('click', () => console.info('clicked!!'));
n.on('reply', (e, reply) => console.log('Replied:', reply));

n.show();

Currently just supports macOS and Windows, this is just to get some early implementation feedback 👍

Platform Support Status:

TODO:

- Set NativeImage as the Toast icon on Windows
- ~~Explore Windows 10 inline reply possibility~~ Not required for the first merge
- Test code works on Windows 8
- Port the new Windows 7 code (maybe don't even port it, just include and see if we can get it working)
- Linux 😄 (Would be great if I could get some help with this though I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually)
- ~~Duration on platforms that support it~~ Not required for the first merge
- ~~Sticky (permanent) on platforms that support it~~ Not required for the first merge

Fixes #3359

Note: This API is marked as Experimental in the docs 👍

felixrieseberg · 2017-04-23T17:16:56Z

atom/browser/ui/win/toast_lib.cc

+
+    inline HRESULT initialize() {
+        HINSTANCE LibShell32 = LoadLibrary(L"SHELL32.DLL");
+        HRESULT hr = loadFunctionFromLibrary(LibShell32, "SetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID", SetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID);


This strikes me as potentially dangerous... is that something we really want to call?

@felixrieseberg Hmm, now that I think about it maybe not. app.setUserModelID probably handles this for us, will test on Windows 8 (where appUserModelID is strictly required)

felixrieseberg · 2017-04-23T17:20:50Z

👏 A+ effort, thanks a ton! We should make sure that the behavior between renderer and main process is identical - for Windows, that would mean that the notifications here use the brand new Windows 7 notifications.

MarshallOfSound · 2017-04-23T22:19:37Z

that would mean that the notifications here use the brand new Windows 7 notifications.

Ah yes, forgot about those 😆 Will add it to the list 😄

MarshallOfSound · 2017-04-23T23:48:41Z

Instead of reimplementing windows 7 notifications I just called the NotificationPresenter methods, I'm writing new code for the others though as we can write a lot nicer, expansible, notification API's if we aren't coupled to how Chromium manages notifications. (Case and point being the inline reply on macOS)

Also of note here, is if the Notification initialization fails on W8 or W10 we fall back to the W7 notification implementation so there will always be a Notification implementation ready to go 👍

MarshallOfSound · 2017-04-24T07:34:06Z

I pushed up core linux support, if I could get some assistance from someone getting the click event working (I couldn't make it play ball) that would be great.

/cc @electron/maintainers

MarshallOfSound · 2017-05-20T09:49:32Z

This is ready for 👀 @electron/maintainers

groundwater · 2017-05-23T00:27:32Z

Pinged MS folks who may also want to make notifications 👍 👍

zcbenz · 2017-05-29T06:45:02Z

@MarshallOfSound How about using brightray::NotificationPresenter and brightray::Notification directly to implement api::Notification? The notification interface is independent from Chromium, we can just reuse the code instead of reimplement everything.

A few features like Reply would require adding new methods to brightray::Notification but it can be done easily.

Or is there anything preventing you from reusing the code?

MarshallOfSound · 2017-05-29T06:52:28Z

@zcbenz That's what I initially tried to do, but something (and now I can't remember what) kept crashing 😢 I can go back to trying to use the NotificationPresenter logic if you want ❓

zcbenz · 2017-05-29T06:59:19Z

@MarshallOfSound I think we should try reusing NotificationPresenter logic, I can help solve the crashes.

MarshallOfSound · 2017-05-29T11:41:22Z

@zcbenz Implementation updated to use NotificationPresenter

YurySolovyov · 2017-05-29T20:21:15Z

docs/tutorial/notifications.md

@@ -5,7 +5,9 @@ to the user. Electron conveniently allows developers to send notifications with
 the [HTML5 Notification API](https://notifications.spec.whatwg.org/), using
 the currently running operating system's native notification APIs to display it.

-**Note:** Since this is an HTML5 API it is only available in the renderer process.
+**Note:** Since this is an HTML5 API it is only available in the renderer process. If
+you want to show Notifications in the main process please check out the


it is not really "show in main process", but more like "Invoke/create notification from main process" IMO, just my $0.02 😄

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:22:52Z

brightray/browser/notification.h

@@ -26,7 +26,9 @@ class Notification {
                    const std::string& tag,
                    const GURL& icon_url,
                    const SkBitmap& icon,
-                    const bool silent) = 0;
+                    const bool silent,
+                    const bool hasReply,


There is no need to add const, since bool is passed by value here, also in C++ we use snake_case for variable names:

bool silent, bool has_reply,

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:23:15Z

brightray/browser/notification.h

-                    const bool silent) = 0;
+                    const bool silent,
+                    const bool hasReply,
+                    const base::string16 replyPlaceholder) = 0;


Should pass const reference for strings:

const base::string16& reply_placeholder

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:23:36Z

brightray/browser/mac/notification_center_delegate.mm

@@ -21,15 +21,20 @@ - (instancetype)initWithPresenter:(brightray::NotificationPresenterMac*)presente
 - (void)userNotificationCenter:(NSUserNotificationCenter*)center
        didDeliverNotification:(NSUserNotification*)notif {
  auto notification = presenter_->GetNotification(notif);
-  if (notification)
+  if (notification) 


There is a trailing space.

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:26:18Z

brightray/browser/notification_delegate.h

@@ -16,6 +17,9 @@ class NotificationDelegate : public content::DesktopNotificationDelegate {

  // Failed to send the notification.
  virtual void NotificationFailed() {}
+
+  // Notification was replied to
+  virtual void NotificationReplied(std::string reply) {}


Should pass const reference here:

NotificationReplied(const std::string& reply)

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:26:54Z

brightray/browser/mac/cocoa_notification.h

  void Dismiss() override;

  void NotificationDisplayed();
+  void NotificationReplied(std::string reply);


Should pass const reference here:

NotificationReplied(const std::string& reply)

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:37:47Z

atom/browser/api/atom_api_notification.h

+  void NotifyPropsUpdated();
+
+ private:
+  base::string16 title_ = base::UTF8ToUTF16("");


Strings are initialized to "" by default, there is no need to explicitly initialize it here.

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:41:29Z

atom/browser/api/atom_api_notification.cc

+  Emit("close");
+}
+
+void Notification::NotifyPropsUpdated() {}


This method seems redundant.

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:50:40Z

atom/browser/api/atom_api_notification.cc

+
+// Showing notifications
+void Notification::Show() {
+  SkBitmap image = *(new SkBitmap);


This variable is redundant, we can pass icon_.AsBitmap() to Show(...), when icon is empty it will just return an empty bitmap.

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:51:29Z

atom/browser/api/atom_api_notification.cc

+  auto notif = presenter_->CreateNotification(adapter.get());
+  if (notif) {
+    ignore_result(adapter.release());  // it will release itself automatically.
+    GURL nullUrl = *(new GURL);


This is redundant:

notif->Show(..., GURL(), ...);

zcbenz · 2017-05-30T07:54:38Z

atom/browser/api/atom_api_notification.cc

+bool initialized_ = false;
+void Notification::OnInitialProps() {
+  if (!initialized_) {
+    presenter_ = brightray::NotificationPresenter::Create();


The presenter can be received by calling BrowserClient::GetNotificationPresenter().

Also it should be noticed that not every platform supports notifications, so it might return null and this case should be guarded. We also need to add a new API like Notification.isSupported() to indicate whether notification is supported on current platform.

MarshallOfSound · 2017-05-30T10:37:04Z

@zcbenz Updated as per feedback 😄

MarshallOfSound

Woops 😆 Didn't want to leave that in 🤣

black-snow · 2017-06-09T20:37:58Z

+1 interwebs for you sir if this works nicely
Finally I can trash my ipc-notification-framework and reduce the amount of black magic in my project.

alexanderepstein · 2017-06-10T01:30:48Z

Is there any way I can use this in any other process then main? It would get rid of a dependency in my project and I imagine this looks cleaner. Nice work by the way

black-snow · 2017-06-10T15:31:57Z

@alexanderepstein which process would that be? You can use it in any main process. And renderer had notifications all along.

alexanderepstein · 2017-06-11T13:41:55Z

@black-snow So from my index.html I include another javscript file that's not my main.js will I be able to call this by doing something like
const notification = require("electron").notification

And then try to use run the notification there?

Additionally do these notifications have buttons preferebly more then 1? I have it set up where one is a dismiss button and the other one performs an action

MarshallOfSound · 2017-06-11T16:10:18Z

@alexanderepstein In the renderer process you can use the HTML5 Notification API.

new Notification('Hello')

This API is purely for the main process

black-snow · 2017-06-11T17:07:36Z

@alexanderepstein also there usually ain't no buttons in notifications. If you need buttons a dialog is what you want. Of course you could also listen to click/dismiss on a notification.

JBarna · 2017-07-05T16:46:29Z

@MarshallOfSound Really fantastic work! I found an issue with the icon notifications on windows. It only shows the first icon passed to the Notification module , so concurrent notifications always show the same icon. I tried to look in the code and see if I could spot a simple gap in logic, but I was unable to.

naheller · 2017-07-17T22:32:21Z

Thanks for everyone's hard work!

What is the status on support for Sticky notifications on macOS?

felixrieseberg reviewed Apr 23, 2017

View reviewed changes

This was referenced Apr 25, 2017

requireInteraction parameter in Notification is not working #9283

Closed

Add patch to allow notification actions electron/libchromiumcontent#286

Closed

sumanvyj mentioned this pull request May 3, 2017

Actionable Notifications danielbuechele/goofy#370

Open

MarshallOfSound changed the title ~~[WIP] Notifications from the main process~~ Notifications from the main process May 20, 2017

MarshallOfSound force-pushed the main-notifications branch from c681233 to aecfa31 Compare May 20, 2017 11:12

MarshallOfSound added 10 commits May 23, 2017 02:05

macOS implementation of notifications in the main process

5dd4d6a

Initial semi-working windows implementation

7c38633

Fix string16 init on macOS

a4bd26f

Support Windows 7 notifications from brightray

6bbc4c3

Get image notifications working on Win7 + Win10

03688b9

Code cleanup

c619681

Basic linux impl

da31615

Remove shell link validation, users should do this themselves

e7569ed

Add Notification API docs

8815da3

Mark notification API as experimental

f5de57d

MarshallOfSound force-pushed the main-notifications branch from 4208b55 to d1fc832 Compare May 22, 2017 16:16

MarshallOfSound added 2 commits May 23, 2017 02:18

Update for the brightray move

d1fc832

Remove sample notification code

193c561

groundwater requested a review from alespergl May 23, 2017 00:27

sindresorhus mentioned this pull request May 18, 2017

Plugin proposal wulkano/Kap#181

Closed

MarshallOfSound and others added 4 commits May 29, 2017 20:02

Use NotificationPresenter - macOS

058bdfb

Remove OS specific implementations

c741b58

Fix compilation and click events on macOS

9aa6b83

Emit a close event

6cdfb43

YurySolovyov reviewed May 29, 2017

View reviewed changes

zcbenz suggested changes May 30, 2017

View reviewed changes

MarshallOfSound added 4 commits May 30, 2017 19:06

Update implementation as per feedback

5048425

Fix linting issues

686b138

Fix linting errors and add isSupported

3938373

Fix reference typed reply placeholder

227a2bd

zcbenz approved these changes May 31, 2017

View reviewed changes

zcbenz added 2 commits May 31, 2017 16:17

Coding style fixes

5fa2831

Remove test code

9d4588a

MarshallOfSound commented May 31, 2017

View reviewed changes

zcbenz merged commit e82af41 into master May 31, 2017

zcbenz deleted the main-notifications branch May 31, 2017 08:21

mfix22 mentioned this pull request Jun 10, 2017

Send desktop notification dawnlabs/alchemy#16

Closed

ramijarrar mentioned this pull request Oct 11, 2017

Update electron to latest (v1.7.9) wojtkowiak/meteor-desktop#126

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FeuRenard mentioned this pull request Dec 9, 2017

[Electron] [Feature] Direct Answer in Notifications signalapp/Signal-Desktop#1541

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Notifications from the main process #9269

Notifications from the main process #9269

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Notifications from the main process #9269

Notifications from the main process #9269

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