Ubuntu Wiki

Programs that should be modified before Ubuntu 9.04

Many programs currently use notification bubbles with actions. These need changing to either remove the actions or communicate in some other way. The programs are listed most important first.

Update Manager

The availability of updates should no longer be shown using a notification area icon and notification bubble pointing to it. Instead, Update Manager should open automatically, unfocused and in the background (bug 333284). (When opened manually, Update Manager should still open focused and frontmost as usual.) This will fix bug 175166 ("click the icon" instruction dangerously confusing) and bug 33605 ("Updates available" popup should hide when update-manager starts).

So that the window does not open inappropriately:

• When security updates are available, Update Manager should open automatically within one day, and display those security updates plus any non-security updates that happen to be available. Test procedure: ...

• When non-security-only updates are available, Update Manager should open automatically whichever is later: (a) one week after it was last open, whether that was manually or automatically, or (b) one week after updates were installed by any apt-powered method, including apt-get or aptitude (bug 334952). Test procedure: ...

• When no updates are available, Update Manager should not open automatically at all. Test procedure: ...

• When Add/Remove Applications, Synaptic, or a similar graphical tool is open (i.e. if apt/dpkg is locked) at the moment Update Manager would be scheduled to open, it should wait until they are closed (bug 334935). Test procedure: ...

The automatic opening means that Update Manager will often be the first window people ever see on a newly-installed Ubuntu system. Therefore, the text at the top of the Update Manager window should also be altered to be more welcoming.

To make it easier to configure the Update Manager behavior, a “Settings…” button should be added to the bottom left of the Update Manager window that opens the “Updates” tab of Software Sources ( bug 334959).

Finally, the settings should be modified to reflect the automatic-opening behavior. The “Automatic updates” section should be changed from a checkbox with an option menu and three radio buttons, to a checkbox with three option menus:

gnome-settings-daemon

• Brightness and volume changes should be shown as confirmation bubbles instead of the existing overlays (bug 333997).

• New in Gnome 2.26, gnome-settings daemon warns about low disk space in a “Low Disk Space” critical notification bubble with text “%d%% of the disk space on %s' is in use”). If Disk Usage Analyzer (baobab`) is installed, the bubble contains an “Analyze” button that opens Disk Usage Analyzer. Instead, this should be an alert box (bug 337441):

  

  (This is a starting point for a smarter low disk space warning.)

• When “Accessibility features can be toggled with keyboard shortcuts” is on, holding down the Shift key for 8 seconds uses a notification bubble to prompt to activate/deactivate Slow Keys, and pressing Shift five times consecutively uses a notification bubble to prompt to activate/deactivate Sticky Keys. Instead these should open alert boxes (bug 342567), frontmost because they are in direct response to user input:
  

  
  
  

  Take care that the secondary text varies between the activate and deactivate cases, as shown in these mockups.
  
  

  The previous bubble for deactivating Sticky Keys began by saying “You just pressed two keys at once, or pressed the Shift key five times in a row.” This sentence is dropped from the alert box design, because it is lame for the computer to feign ignorance about which of those two things happened. Alternatively, the primary text should correctly begin with either the sentence “You pressed two keys at once.”, or the sentence “You pressed the Shift key five times in a row.”.
  
  In all four alerts, the “Settings…” button should open and focus the “Accessibility” tab of the “Keyboard Preferences” window, and close the alert.

update-notifier

Post-update information should no longer be advertised using a notification area icon and a notification bubble pointing to it. Instead, the post-update information dialog should open unfocused directly.

This will fix:

• bug 93624 ("System restart required" bubble is unnecessary, just use the alert)

• bug 160362 ("Ubuntu has some information for you.")

• Urgent Reboot Notification

Network Manager

Because Network Manager is a high-profile user of notification bubbles, it should be adjusted not just for compatibility with Notify OSD, but also to make its bubbles more elegant regardless of which notification system is in use.

• When you are not connected but wireless networks are available, a “Wireless Networks Available” bubble appears, with text “Click on this icon to connect to a wireless network” and a "Don't show this message again" button. This bubble should be removed. Instead, the network manager icon should flash with a glow effect five times over five seconds. This clashes with the proposed appearance for when wireless is actually connecting.

• When the computer is connecting to a wireless network, the wireless Network Manager icon should appear in offline state but with its base blinking on and off. No notification bubble should appear.

• Once you are connected to a wireless network, a notification bubble should appear with the connected wireless icon, title the name of the wireless network, and body “Connection established”. (Launchpad #330526)

• When connection to a wireless network fails for a reason other than incorrect authentication, a notification bubble should appear with disconnected icon, title the name of the wireless network, and body “Connection failed”.

• When the computer is disconnected from a wireless network via software, a notification bubble should appear with disconnected icon, title the name of the wireless network, and body “Disconnected”. If this disconnection leaves you with no active network connections, the body text should end with “- you are now offline”, and the bubble should use an urgency of 2 so as to be treated as critical. (This is so that, for example, you will be notified of losing connection promptly while playing an online game).

• When the computer is disconnected from a wireless network via hardware switch, a notification bubble should appear with wireless-disabled icon, title “Wi-fi switched off”, and no body.
• When the computer is connecting to a wired network, the wired Network Manager icon should appear in offline state but with its base blinking on and off. No notification bubble should appear.

• Once you are connected to a wired network, a notification bubble should appear with the connected wired icon, title “Wired network”, and body “Connection established”. (Launchpad #330571)

• When connection to a wired network fails, a notification bubble should appear with disconnected icon, title “Wired network”, and body “Connection failed”.

• When the computer is disconnected from a wired network via software, a notification bubble should appear with disconnected icon, title “Wired network”, and body “Disconnected”. If this disconnection leaves you with no active network connections, the body text should end with “- you are now offline”, and the bubble should use an urgency of 2 so as to be treated as critical.

• When a mobile broadband card is inserted or a 3G phone is connected in network mode, a “New Mobile Broadband Device Detected” bubble appears with text “Model Name: - Click here to configure the device…” and a “Configure” button. Clicking the button or anywhere else in the bubble, opens a setup assistant. Instead, the setup assistant should open unfocused directly (bug 327427).

• When mobile broadband configuration is complete, a “New Configuration Created” bubble appears with text “You can activate the connection by clicking this icon. Use connection editor to add new and to change settings if necessary” [sic]. This bubble has no actions, but has the problem that it refers to “this icon”. Instead, “Connect immediately when setup is complete” should be a checkbox horizontally centered at the bottom of the “Summary” page of the setup assistant.

• When the computer is connecting to a mobile broadband network, the mobile broadband NetworkManager icon should appear in connecting state. No notification bubble should appear.

• Once you are connected to a mobile broadband network, a notification bubble should appear with the relevant network type icon, title the name of the mobile network, and body “Connection established”. (Launchpad #330608)

• When connection to a mobile broadband network fails, a notification bubble should appear with disconnected icon, title the name of the mobile broadband network, and body “Connection failed”.

• When the computer is disconnected from a mobile broadband network via software, a notification bubble should appear with disconnected icon, title the name of the mobile broadband network, and body “Disconnected”. If this disconnection leaves you with no active network connections, the body text should end with “- you are now offline”, and the bubble should use an urgency of 2 so as to be treated as critical.

Gnome Power Manager

Gnome Power Manager puts up interactive notifications in many situations (bug 329296).

Five of these are unusual and important and should be acknowledged, so they should be presented as alert boxes instead:

• “Battery may be recalled”, with text “The battery in your computer may have been recalled by %s and you may be at risk. For more information visit the %s battery recall website.”, and buttons labelled “Visit recall website” and “Do not show me this again".

• “Battery may be broken”, with text “Your battery has a very low capacity (%i%%), which means that it may be old or broken.” and a button "Do not show me this again". (This will fix bug 155191 (Battery Broken message cut off).)

• “UPS Discharging”, with text "The AC power has been unplugged. The system is now using backup power." and a button "Do not show me this again".

• “Sleep Problem”, with text “Your computer failed to hibernate. Check the help file for common problems.” or “Your computer failed to suspend. Check the help file for common problems.” and containing a "Do not show me this again" button and a “Visit quirk website” button.

• “Power Critically Low”, with text “You have approximately X minutes of remaining battery life (Y%). Plug in your AC Adapter to avoid losing data.”, or “The battery is below the critical level and this computer will power-off when the battery becomes completely empty.”.

Implementation: Tweak gpm-notify.c so that it uses the #else versions of the #ifdef HAVE_LIBNOTIFY functions. The design of these alerts could be improved, but we should not spend time on this now, because the code will soon be replaced by DeviceKit-power.

Three others should put up neither a notification bubble nor an alert, so their bubbles should be removed:

• “Battery Discharging”, “The AC power has been unplugged. The system is now using battery power.”
• “Sleep warning”, “Your laptop will not sleep if you shut the lid as a running program has prevented this. Some laptops can overheat if they do not sleep when the lid is closed.”
• “Battery Charged”, “Your laptop battery is now fully charged”.

Evolution

• When the “Mail Notification” plug-in is turned on and new messages arrive, Evolution puts up a "New email" notification bubble which, when clicked, hides the notification area icon. This should be replaced by the messaging menu.

Launchpad #331571

Pidgin

• When a buddy signs on, or a message is received, the pidgin-libnotify plug-in shows a notification bubble containing a “Show” button, which in both cases opens the chat window for that person. Both of these buttons should be made conditional on whether the notification server advertises that it accepts actions. Implementation: an if block around the line notify_notification_add_action (notification, "show", _("Show"), action_cb, NULL, NULL);

In addition, Pidgin should be integrated with the messaging menu.

gnome-screensaver

• The screensaver’s “Leave a Message” function uses a persistent notification bubble to present the messages (bug 333269). Instead, all messages left during a single session should be presented in a scrolling text view in a single “While You Were Out” floating dialog in the center of the screen, with an “OK” button that clears the message list and closes the dialog.

Alternatively

Merge the "Leave Message" function into indicator-applet and design a helper application - Brainstorm Idea 19482

gnome-mount

• gnome-mount should implement the hardware device detection bubbles as specified (bug 345317).

• When the process of unmounting a volume is taking more than a few seconds (because previously cached data is being written to it first), gnome-mount puts up a persistent notification warning you not to “remove the media or disconnect the drive”.

  Instead, it should open a progress window frontmost (bug 332600, bug 325315):

  
  The title and icon for the progress window should be the name and icon for the volume.

  The other text should vary depending on whether the volume is to be ejected or disconnected (as determined by whether hal regards it as “removable” or “hotpluggable”).

  	Removable volume	Hotpluggable volume
  Primary text while unmounting (standard application font)	Finishing up…	Finishing up…
  Secondary text while unmounting (Pango <small>)	To prevent data loss, wait until this has finished before ejecting.	To prevent data loss, wait until this has finished before disconnecting.
  Primary text after unmounting (standard application font)	It’s now safe to eject “Name Of Volume”.	It’s now safe to disconnect “Name Of Volume”.

  The window should not change size when it switches to showing the post-unmount information. Once the the window has shown the post-unmount information for four seconds, it should close automatically.

apport

• When a system process crashes, an icon appears in the panel, and a “Crash report detected” bubble appears with the text “An application has crashed on your system (now or in the past). Click on the notification icon to display details.” The icon and bubble should not appear; instead an alert should appear unfocused.

  As a temporary alternative, if there is not time to implement the alert, the icon should still appear but the bubble should not.

  Implementation: update-notifier src/crash.c

Banshee

• When a connection to Last.fm fails, a notification bubble appears with “Account Settings” and “Join Last.fm” buttons. This should be converted to an error alert box with the same wording and buttons.

• When a new track begins, a notification bubble appears with a “Skip this item” button. The bubble still makes sense without the button, so the button should be made conditional on whether the notification server supports actions ( bug 327640).

bluez-gnome

• When from a Bluetooth device you try to connect to the computer, a “Bluetooth Device” bubble appears with the text “Pairing request for device name” and an “Enter PIN code” button that, when clicked, opens an authentication alert for entering the PIN. Instead, the authentication alert should open unfocused directly, and request attention.

• A bubble apparently appears when sending a file from a device to the computer, but this cannot be reproduced currently.

system-config-printer

• When a printer is added successfully using a matching printer driver, a “Printer added” notification bubble appears containing the text “`%s' is ready for printing.” and a “Configure” button. Instead, the Properties window for that printer should open unfocused directly.

• When a printer is added successfully using a non-matching printer driver, a “Printer added” notification bubble appears containing the text “%s' has been added, using the %s' driver.” and a “Find driver” button. (system-config-printer 1.1 will also include a “Print test page” button.) Instead, the Properties window for that printer should open unfocused.

• When you try to view jobs on a printer that requires authentication, an “Authentication required” notification bubble appears containing the text “Job requires authentication to proceed” and an “Authenticate” button that brings up an alert box saying “Authentication required for printing document `%s' (job %d)”. The notification bubble should be abolished, and the alert box should be invoked directly instead.

• When a print job gets stuck for some reason (for example, when a printer is out of paper), a notification bubble appears containing text “There was a problem processing the document” or similar, containing no buttons but staying open until it is clicked. This should be converted to an error alert box with an “OK” button (bug 343904).

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/system-config-printer/+bug/328604 - patch submitted

VLC

• When something starts playing, a notification bubble appears naming it, and containing “Previous” and “Next” buttons. The bubble still makes sense without the buttons, so the buttons should be made conditional on whether the notification server supports actions.

Launchpad #328605

Liferea

• Liferea has a “Show a popup window with new headlines.” option that is on by default. As a result, when updating feeds, Liferea puts up a flood of notification bubbles with “Open Feed”, “Mark all as read”, and “Show details” buttons. These are annoying and unusable unless you are subscribed to very few feeds, but the presence of the option makes it difficult to remove. Instead, the buttons should be made conditional on whether the notification server supports actions.

Launchpad #328606

amsn

• When someone sends you an instant message while you are online, a notification bubble appears that, when clicked, displays the message. The button should be made conditional on whether the notification server supports actions.

• When someone sends you an instant message while you are offline, a notification bubble appears that, when clicked, opens the login page for your Hotmail in a Web browser. What’s the text?

decibel-audio-player

• When a new track starts playing, a notification bubble appears giving the song details, and containing a “Skip track” button. The button should be made conditional on whether the notification server supports actions.

Launchpad #328609

goobox

• When a music track starts playing, a notification bubble appears containing “Next” and “Stop” buttons. The button should be made conditional on whether the notification server supports actions. Launchpad #327714

bzr-gtk

• When a merge or pull is complete, a notification bubble appears that never expires and contains an “Inspect” button that opens a visualizer and a “Branch” button that shows the branch in Nautilus. Instead, the main Olive window should request attention when a merge or pull is complete, and the “Inspect” and “Branch” actions should be available from that main window.

Gossip

• When a contact comes online, a notification bubble appears containing a “Chat” button, though clicking anywhere else in the bubble does the same as clicking the button. The actions should be made conditional on whether the notification server advertises that it accepts actions.

• When someone adds you to their buddy list, a notification bubble appears that, when clicked, opens the subscription request dialog. Instead, the subscription request dialog should open directly, unfocused and in the background.

• When a new message arrives, a notification bubble appears containing a “Show” button, though clicking anywhere else in the bubble does the same as clicking the button. The actions should be made conditional on whether the notification server advertises that it accepts actions.

#328613

gajim

• When a new message arrives while gajim is in the background, a notification bubble appears that, when clicked, brings the relevant window to the front. The action should be made conditional on whether the notification server supports actions.

zeroinstall

Zero Install uses a notification with a download button when updates are available. Debian/testing has a fixed version - please sync from there. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zeroinstall-injector/+bug/336317