Problem with Notifications API of Add-on SDK

Add-ons Development
#1

I was testing notifications API of the sdk, and found that notification isn’t displayed the first time when I specify an icon to be used with it.

Here’s my sample index.js file:

var notifications = require("sdk/notifications"); var data = require("sdk/self").data; var myiconURL = "./success.png"; notifications.notify({ title: "Done!", text: "It worked.", iconURL: myiconURL });

The icon success.png is placed in data folder, and has dimensions 128x128.

No notification is displayed after I do jpm -b /usr/bin/firefox run. If I remove the iconURL line, it works.

What am I doing wrong here?

EDIT: Dimensions of the icon are irrelevant, since the same thing happens for a 32x32 icon.
Also, note that if I remove the icon specifier, it works as expected.

1 Like
#2

I tested your code in the scratchpad,

I hit Shift + F4 then set “Environment” to Browser from the menu toolbar then ran this code:

// Import SDK Stuff
var COMMONJS_URI = 'resource://gre/modules/commonjs';
var {require} = Cu.import(COMMONJS_URI + '/toolkit/require.js', {});
var notifications = require("sdk/notifications");
var data = require("sdk/self").data;
var myiconURL = "./success.png";
notifications.notify({
    title: "Done!",
    text: "It worked.",
    iconURL: myiconURL
});

This API is flaky, especially on Linux’s and OS X. Try changing the text, add a Math.random() to the end and it will probably work. It’s real quirky, I don’t like it. I avoid it. The other draw back is it only last 4 seconds, if the user is at the computer or not, so its likely the user will miss the notification.

#3

Thanks for your reply!

I gave up an hour later and made the extension display notifications without icons. :grin:

These bugs need to be taken care of though, especially since they’re planning to remove support for XPCOM and XUL based add-ons…

#4

I absolutely agree. This is a very basic API, yet super critical API, and needs also an option/feature to stay till dismissed by user.

#5

Native notifications are flaky on Linux even with the low-level API. libnotify support was dropped, they were implemented in-browser (UGLY!!!), then libnotify support was reintroduced, but it doesn’t always work. I think it is more reliable than the SDK API though, especially on other systems.

#6

Yeah man I gave up with this and with with the browser notification bars -

I just knocked up an api for myself it makes the notification box with react so its real nice and dynamic -

If you install it, it alerts you before each update, its pretty sweet, supports infinite submenus too.

#7

@noitidart - Can include some screenshots (or details on how to include it)? It looks interesting.

#8

Not actually “native” though. This is essentially the solution that Firefox had for Linux (and some Macs) from about version 24 until 35, although with some extra features.

#9

Thanks Amit. I haven’t actually used it yet in my addons, but I plan to soon. I haven’t turned it into a standalone module yet that i can drop in, but as soon as I do that I’ll let you know so including it is a no brainer :slight_smile:

But if you want the non-dynamic/non-transient bar you can go ahead with the regular moz method -