Notify-osd looks are not customizable

Bug #420583 reported by Nathan
56
This bug affects 12 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
notify-osd (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: notify-osd

At the moment the notify-osd looks are not configurable (not with a GUI, and as far as I can see not with gconf and/or a configuration file).

THis should be possible to do: in the first place with gconf (or configuration file) and in the longer term a GUI (maybe not all aspects, but at least some of them).

Rationale:

Color settings: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/notify-osd/+bug/334310?comments=all (Mirco has confirmed the problem and seems to work on a solution)
Presentation settings: If notifications should be visible in fullscreen or not (and what priority should be shown) (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/notify-osd/+bug/402962)
Font settings: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/notify-osd/+bug/335383 (is already being worked on...)
Also things like blur and fade out settings should be configurable

Timeout settings: the time notifications stay should also be configurable: some people read faster than others, so the very-sensible default (of x time per n characters) can be good, but some people maybe like y time per n characters.

Placement settings (which is the real cause of the bug report: center-right is in my option very bad UI design (maybe it is just an experiment): Probably it is more noticeable than top-right but it is also more probable that it is in your way:
While reading (a big text) the part I'm reading is often more or less in the center, so I can do 2 things when such a notification happens: Scroll down so I can read the text again, or move my mouse so it appears above the notification so I can read the text under it...
It thought notify-osd was about "passive" notifications that didn't take your attention so you were not obliged to do anything, with the new (non-)sensible non-configurable default setting I have to react (sometimes) to a notification...

Mirco Müller (macslow)
Changed in notify-osd (Ubuntu):
milestone: none → later
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Roland Hieber (rohieb) wrote :

I support that.

Changed in notify-osd (Ubuntu):
milestone: later → none
Revision history for this message
quequotion (quequotion) wrote :

>Timeout settings: the time notifications stay should also be configurable: some people read faster than others, so the very-sensible default (of x time per n characters) can be good, but some people maybe like y time per n characters.

That would be wonderful. Implement that; put a high priority on it. Make it happen.

Revision history for this message
quequotion (quequotion) wrote :

Use case: Ubuntu derivative/rebranding diversity.

Derivatives might have different interest in notifications; ie some kind of kiosk distro could intentionally favor full screen, urgency=normal, as a default behavior while a multimedia desktop may want something like elementary's wingpanel-indicator-notifications-bzr (status notifier notification log) and no bubbles.

An adoptable notify-osd would win brownie points for Ayatana Design.

A lot of non-Unity derivatives have already opted for their own ad-hoc notification method.

Revision history for this message
quequotion (quequotion) wrote :

Just digging around indicator-applet-developers/notify-osd/trunk/src/display.c

/* if there is already one bubble on display
we don't have room for another one */
if (bubble_is_visible (bubble))
return NULL;

not great, but off topic.

on topic:
if (bubble_is_urgent (bubble))
{
/* pick-up the /first/ urgent bubble
in the queue (FIFO) */
return bubble;

}

We replace this, and excuse my bashism, with something like bubble_is_"$URGENCY" (and have no specification == urgent for your default behavior) and let it be set by an environment variable; then the hook is customizable like any other freedesktop feature.

Revision history for this message
quequotion (quequotion) wrote :

I don't understand this code really:
indicator-applet-developers/notify-osd/trunk/src/defaults.c

gint
defaults_get_on_screen_timeout (Defaults* self)
{
gint on_screen_timeout;

if (!self || !IS_DEFAULTS (self))
return 0;

g_object_get (self, "on-screen-timeout", &on_screen_timeout, NULL);

return on_screen_timeout;
}

x time for n characters?

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