Desktop client (Windows/Mac/Linux)

[12nick12]

Hi, I would love a Windows client with push support

[thefeiter]

This should be doable with python. Maybe not as a final solution, but afaik there is a library for python to send notifications on Windows.

[binwiederhier]

Is this client supposed to send notifications or receive them? If it's the former, i can probably just compile the CLI for Windows.

Can you be a little more specific?

[12nick12]

receive notifications and send them via push on the Windows client.

[SMAW]

Maybe a tutorial like this can help? Or using electron at all

https://jojozhuang.github.io/tutorial/converting-web-app-to-desktop-app-with-electron/

[c33s]

i would love to subscribe to topics via a windows client. shouldn't it be possible to compile go for windows?

[binwiederhier]

There are two things:

• The CLI (excluding the server) can likely be easily compiled for Windows and Mac, then you can subscribe like described here https://ntfy.sh/docs/subscribe/cli/
• The web app (like this one: https://ntfy.sh/app) can be packaged into a desktop app as well, using electron or others. I played with this today and it's absolutely doable.

Q: Which one would take precedent for you guys?

[binwiederhier]

Note to self, also maybe look at https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri, thanks @Laurenz (Matrix).

[binwiederhier]

(from this afternoon, WIP which does not work: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/pull/239)

[arminus]

Regarding the above question: What I'm looking for is an unobtrusive/low footprint systray thingy which tells me about new messages (I frequently forget to keep an ntfy browser tab open, yeah I know, can be pinned...).

Low footprint is kind of an issue with Electron, also not sure how well it would integrate with the systray and windows notification "requirement", so what I did yesterday was to prototype a small WPF app. I'm neither a .NET/WPF nor a C# expert so I'm not sure how far I will get with reasonable effort and energy but here goes a first proof of concept:

There's plenty of things still to do, but the basics are there. The major thing at this point is really that I display the messages in a WebView2 component (for lack of WPF experience on how hot to make such a list look nice w/o HTML) and that defeats the entire purpose of keeping a low memory footprint. Maybe I'll just dump the messages into a RichTextBox instead. Also need to figure out how to browse from there to the system default browser and not Edge... etc. etc.

So... I'll probably be back in a while with this...

[binwiederhier]

@arminus very cool. Keep it up. I would absolutely love to have a low memory footprint app like that, but having to build the web app, Android app, and iOS app all by myself I eont have time for more. So if you can bring this to a great state I'll happily accept the contribution!

I think I'll definitely do the CLI for Windows and the Electron desktop app for all platforms, because it is fairly low effort compared to writing it from scratch. It's just fighting with a little bit of build stuff.

[c33s]

i would also look for a low profile app which sits in the tray and simply fetches notifications.

i thought about doing a simple cron job which calls a bash/php script to fetch new notifications and then use notifu to show them via the OS notification system but this would be an ugly hack

[binwiederhier]

The CLI can do that https://ntfy.sh/docs/subscribe/cli/#subscribe-to-topics, though it doesn't sit in the tray. I suppose I could add tray support to that, but what for...

This will likely be really easy because I just have to compile for Windows.

[c33s]

@binwiederhier thank you for this awesome app and service, i really like it.

would be awesome to have a windows version of the cli tool and being able to open it in background and send it directly to the tray.

my current php based solution (just download and setup notifu and adapt the constants to fit your needs):

ntfy.php

<?php

const TOPIC = 'test';
//const PROXY = 'proxy.example.com:8080';
const PROXY = null;
const LOGFILE = 'ntfy.log';
//const LOGFILE = null;
const NOTIFU_COMMAND = 'notifu';

$opts = [];
if (PROXY) {
    $opts= ['http' => ['proxy' => 'tcp://'.PROXY]];
}
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$fp = fopen('https://ntfy.sh/'.TOPIC.'/json', 'rb', false, $context);
if (!$fp) {
    exit('cannot open stream');
}
while (!feof($fp)) {
    $json = fgets($fp, 2048);
    $data = json_decode($json, true);
    if (LOGFILE) {
        file_put_contents(LOGFILE, $json."\n" , FILE_APPEND | LOCK_EX);
    }
    if ($data['event'] === 'message') {
        $command = sprintf('%s /p "%s" /m "%s"',
            NOTIFU_COMMAND,
            $data['topic'],
            $data['message']
        );
        exec($command);
    }
    flush();
}
fclose($fp);

start it with

start /B php ntfy.php

stop/kill it with the task manager

grüße aus wien / greetings from vienna

[binwiederhier]

Well that was easy. Needs a little bit of work to make the "run a command on message" stuff work, but not more than an hour or so.

[binwiederhier]

https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/pull/245

[binwiederhier]

So I got it running batch scripts via cmd /Q /C ... and it works nicely. What I'm unsure about is whether people would want PowerShell scripts instead. If there are no responses, I'll keep the cmd route.

(Note to self, run PS: https://gist.github.com/coolbrg/d1854cc771025efb4a30197820c2c612)

[SMAW]

Good work @binwiederhier !!

What I wanted to do and like to have is a PowerShell script, and when it receives something I get a toaster message (there is an module for that)

https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/BurntToast/0.8.5 (1.0 is in preview)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfbe5Jp40tA (for maybe some extra info)

[binwiederhier]

I achieved the same thing with this simple batch script and notifu.

notifu /p "%NTFY_TITLE%" /m "%NTFY_MESSAGE%"
exit 0

Mainly I want to know if PS is really necessary. My gut says no, right now.

[binwiederhier]

:loudspeaker: Request for testing:

Got the yaml to work too, even with launching the calculator. Darn I wanted to do iOS, now I gotta finish and release this :-D I think I'll just release the CLI like this for now though. If you wanna test it here it is: https://phil.nopaste.net/ntfy.exe?d=1&f=ntfy.exe&a=yKVxKcfQVc

The docs from https://ntfy.sh/docs/subscribe/cli/ largely apply.

This can be placed in %AppData%\ntfy\client.yml and then you can run ntfy sub --from-config to listen:

subscribe:
- topic: echo-this
  command: 'echo Message received: %message%'
- topic: alerts
  command: |
    notifu /m "%NTFY_MESSAGE%"
    exit 0
  if:
    priority: high,urgent
- topic: calc
  command: calc

[c33s]

awesome! will give it a try this week.

i personally prefer cmd over powershell.

[binwiederhier]

I've now got a Windows binary for amd64 and a macOS universal binary. The PR for it is pretty complete and I'll likely release this very soon. The documentation doesn't really highlight the support for macOS and Windows, but I think I want to keep it that way until I've got the Electron apps too.

https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/pull/245/files

macOS https://phil.nopaste.net/X7FB6NaLWw?d=1&f=ntfy_v1.22.0-next_macOS_all.tar.gz&a=RKxf7O6Q7H

Windows https://phil.nopaste.net/cJEaaFmM7V?d=1&f=ntfy_v1.22.0-next_windows_x86_64.zip&a=zkczYLcVoD

[arminus]

FYI - I'm about to release an alpha version of my .NET/WPF client in about 2 weeks, it's basically ready, but I won't have much time to respond to issues until then, so I'll hold it for a while.

Memory consumption currently clocks in at about 60-70MB which is unfortunately a lot more than I had hoped for (most likely due to the .NET runtime), would be curious to see how that compares to an Electron based version. And currently it only listens, i.e. no sending of messages since that is not my main priority from Windows.

[binwiederhier]

Very cool. I'd be happy to make a section in the docs or install instructions for third party clients like this. Is the code open source and available somewhere?

The CLI for Windows and macOS are released so you can compare it to that, but the Electron app I've shelved for s bit.

[arminus]

It'll be on my github and open source, probably MIT licensed.

[arminus]

It's been a while and I'm afraid I have made no progress. The main issue is that the trade off between less memory consumption vs. effort required to implement something without an existing .NET HTML UI library (which are either memory hogs or have functional deficiencies) didn't quite work out in a way that I'm really happy.

Maybe I'll revisit this sometime in fall, but I'm not sure... Mostly just used ntfy in the browser UI in the last weeks.

[code-kungfu]

Hello @binwiederhier

A couple of great Delphi developers wrote a nice wrapper for the API. (https://github.com/hazzelnuts/ntfy-for-delphi)

Seeing this issue got me excited as I can help out!

Would you be willing to accept a Delphi FireMonkey multi platform application contribution - With source, of course (It is true native compiled applications for each target - Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and Linux, from a single code base) - This will allow a low memory footprint desktop app which integrates tightly into the target OS (Lower than both C# .NET and Electron - No external dependencies needs to be packaged)? FireMonkey is a mature and stable multi platform framework.

There is a free community edition available of Delphi so anyone who want to use the code can do so right away 🙂

Kind regards Glenn

[SMAW]

Hello @binwiederhier

A couple of great Delphi developers wrote a nice wrapper for the API. (https://github.com/hazzelnuts/ntfy-for-delphi)

Seeing this issue got me excited as I can help out!

Would you be willing to accept a Delphi FireMokey multi platform application contribution - With source, of course (It is true native compiled applications for each target - Windows, macOS, Android, iOS and Linux, from a single code base) - This will allow a low memory footprint desktop app which integrates tightly into the target OS (Lower than both C# .NET and Electron - No external dependencies needs to be packaged)? FireMonkey is a mature and stable multi platform framework.

There is a free community edition available of Delphi so anyone who want to use the code can do so right away 🙂

Kind regards Glenn

Looking for this! but also no custom server and topics with credentials as far as I see?

[code-kungfu]

but also no custom server and topics with credentials as far as I see?

The wrapper is quite new, these features will be added next and thus in a demo application 🙂

[SMAW]

but also no custom server and topics with credentials as far as I see? The wrapper is quite new, these features will be added next and thus in a demo application 🙂

As far as I can see now I really like it! also that there is an real application like this : https://github.com/hazzelnuts/ntfy-for-delphi/tree/main/sample/vcl/subscriber and then a notification when a message received... I would be very happy to see this running on my machine

[code-kungfu]

also that there is an real application like this

Yes, the wrapper library ships with a simple, Windows-only (for now) demo.

and then a notification when a message received

Adding support for desktop notifications are straightforward. The developers behind the wrapper are working on extending the library further, and also eliminating the need for OpenSSL dependencies. I'll keep this thread updated once I know more 🙂

[p-samuel]

@SMAW, I'll provide a zip folder with the binaries for you just to have a demo. Maybe I can post today. It's a plug and play. Just run the executables and it's done. I'm currently working to remove the OpenSSL dependecy so that the binaries works without needing them.

@code-kungfu , thank you for informing the library in this issue.

[SMAW]

@p-samuel Would love to, but as said I have an private server with authentication on all topics... So think it won't work?

[p-samuel]

It works just fine. You only need to provide the credentials and the server host on the library. I'll add this fields in the main form's window so you can play with it.

[p-samuel]

It also works fine with multiple topics

[SMAW]

Yeah would love to see the library, or can compile myself (even better if it isn't hard to do :) because of next versions) you can reach me on my mailadres in my profile!

[code-kungfu]

I'll provide a zip folder with the binaries for you just to have a demo.

Maybe it would be an idea to put the compiled demo under the release section of the Delphi wrapper library @p-samuel? Then it is readily available for anyone to test 🙂

or can compile myself (even better if it isn't hard to do :)

I can write up a quick guide on how to build the library and demo application with the free Delphi Community Edition if you'd like @SMAW?

[p-samuel]

@code-kungfu, alright! Good idea. I'll move to do it. Thank you again glenn.

[SMAW]

I'll provide a zip folder with the binaries for you just to have a demo.

Maybe it would be an idea to put the compiled demo under the release section of the Delphi wrapper library @p-samuel? Then it is readily available for anyone to test 🙂

or can compile myself (even better if it isn't hard to do :)

I an write up a quick guide on how to build the library and demo application with the free Delphi Community Edition if you'd like @SMAW?

@code-kungfu Yeah would love that.....

[bravery-only]

Regarding the above question: What I'm looking for is an unobtrusive/low footprint systray thingy which tells me about new messages (I frequently forget to keep an ntfy browser tab open, yeah I know, can be pinned...).

Low footprint is kind of an issue with Electron, also not sure how well it would integrate with the systray and windows notification "requirement", so what I did yesterday was to prototype a small WPF app. I'm neither a .NET/WPF nor a C# expert so I'm not sure how far I will get with reasonable effort and energy but here goes a first proof of concept:

There's plenty of things still to do, but the basics are there. The major thing at this point is really that I display the messages in a WebView2 component (for lack of WPF experience on how hot to make such a list look nice w/o HTML) and that defeats the entire purpose of keeping a low memory footprint. Maybe I'll just dump the messages into a RichTextBox instead. Also need to figure out how to browse from there to the system default browser and not Edge... etc. etc.

So... I'll probably be back in a while with this...

Can you share it so that everyone can use it?

[binwiederhier]

Check out the projects listed here: https://docs.ntfy.sh/integrations/

[p-samuel]

@SMAW, and participants

As promised, a new release was made with credentials and other functionalities.

Regards

https://github.com/hazzelnuts/ntfy-for-delphi/releases/tag/v1.0.1

[xdpirate]

I made a simple electron wrapper around the web app - it might be of interest to some of you:

https://github.com/xdpirate/ntfy-electron

[arminus]

Update from my side: I've revisited this but more from a "manual push" perspective (in my quest to find a self-hosted pushbullet replacement).

So I've added send/push capability to my WPF C# client, still undecided what to do with the subscription listener part and message display. It's still in, but lately, I've come to just using a sticky tab and the web client for incoming messages on my Windows box since the "always running" requirement for a WPF C# subscriber client met some constraints regarding low memory footprint vs. HTML rendering and issues with hibernation/restart so I didn't feel confident to share that.

Long story short, my impression is that the receiver/subscription side is handled pretty well in the "ntfy eco system" but the sender side is mostly geared for automated/scripted senders, less for manual pushers (-> "pushbullet scenario").

So if there's interest, I'll probably remove the less stable subscription part in the WPF client and just release the sender part - which is of course a less capable duplication of the push function in the web client - so, huh. But: At least startup is fast ;-) (also compared to other approaches like electron or other multiplatform frameworks, briefly played around with the python client lib and some python UI libs)

Side note: The other kind of manual push client is my attempt over in https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/98

[nimbleghost]

Related: Implementing web push in #751 (related #346, #199) involved implementing a web manifest that enables an installable desktop app (PWA) using Chrome/Edge, and installable mobile app using Chrome Android/Safari iOS. This probably covers some cases but not all described here.

[nimbleghost]

Look here for the desktop PWA: https://docs.ntfy.sh/subscribe/pwa/

[binwiederhier]

I don't think there is a reason anymore to do a separate desktop app for ntfy, so I'm going to close this, I think.

[code-kungfu]

@binwiederhier I think it is important with a fully native compiled application besides a PWA and would kindly ask you to reconsider opening this issue or add the native compiled example from @p-samuel to the docs section.

[binwiederhier]

@code-kungfu I am happy to re-open it, but I do not personally intend to work on a desktop app any time soon. I view the ntfy issues as a TODO list for myself and/or contributors, and if I don't intend to do something then I it makes no sense to have a ticket for it.

As for the native compiled app, where do you want me to add it? All the known third-party apps already are listed in the integrations page.

[ThinkSalat]

I made a simple electron wrapper around the web app - it might be of interest to some of you:

https://github.com/xdpirate/ntfy-electron

Very nice thank you. It doesn't show any notifications though, is there something I have to do get desktop notifications?