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deno_notify

Send desktop notifications on all platforms in Deno.
Supports Windows, macOS, and linux using notify-rust though some features are platform-specific.

Note: More features are in the works and the API may change as a result, but the module can already be considered as working.

Supports Deno v1.0.0 and higher.

Important

Because the plug-in API of Deno is still in an unstable state, the --unstable flag needs to be used. The minimum permissions required to run deno_notify should be

# With prepared.ts (these extra permissions are required for downloading and caching the plugin)
deno run --unstable --allow-plugin --allow-read --allow-write --allow-net xxx.ts

# With manual plugin loading (mod.ts)
deno run --unstable --allow-plugin xxx.ts

Usage

A prepared.ts entrypoint is provided which uses deno-plugin-prepare internally so you don’t have to download or open the plugin manually.

import { notify } from 'https://deno.land/x/deno_notify@0.2.0/ts/prepared.ts';

// Pass a simple message string
notify('Message');

// Pass an options object (See mod.ts's INotification)
notify({
  title: 'Hello',
  message: 'World',
  icon: {
    app: "Terminal",
  },
  sound: "Basso",
});

Manual Loading

If you prefer to handle the plugin loading manually, you can do so by using the mod.ts entrypoint. Make sure you download the correct plugin for your operating system.

import { notify } from 'https://deno.land/x/deno_notify@0.2.0/ts/mod.ts';

// Load the plugin manually
Deno.openPlugin("./libdeno_notify.dylib");

// Use notify the same way you would with the prepared import
notify({ title: 'Hello', message: 'World' });

TODO

  • Find a way to test in GH actions for Linux & Windows
  • Find out why Windows notifications only appear in action center
  • Separate API into platform-specific files (one for each platform) so TS api is nicer
    • And export a cross-platform version that allows only cross-platform options
    • This means TS api never lies to you, if you want cross platform you only get a subset, but if you want specific platforms to work differently, you can have your own if/else logic based on the platform you care about.
    • On the rust side, I could also have separating logic like notify-rust to enable for more macOS-specific code (such as delivery_date which is not available in notify-rust but is available in mac-notification-sys).

Known Issues

  • Many platform-specific features are not implemented
    • I need to figure out a good way to handle platform-specific features while retaining easy to use and understand typings/documentation.
    • Features like actions, subtitle, hints, etc.
  • Custom app icons are only applied if the notification requesting it is the first one being sent on mac
    • This means an app icon cannot be changed once set, and cannot be changed even if it wasn’t set in the first one.
  • Using a custom app icon on mac sometimes crashes

Resources & Credits