node-notifier

What is node-notifier?

The node-notifier package is a Node.js module for sending native notifications on different platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux. It provides an easy-to-use API to show system notifications using the native notification system of the operating system.

What are node-notifier's main functionalities?

Cross-platform notifications

This feature allows you to send desktop notifications across different operating systems. The code sample shows how to send a simple notification with a title and a message.

const notifier = require('node-notifier');
notifier.notify({
  title: 'My notification',
  message: 'Hello, this is a notification!'
});

Notification actions

This feature allows you to listen for user interactions with the notification, such as clicking on it. The code sample demonstrates how to handle a click event on the notification.

const notifier = require('node-notifier');
notifier.notify({
  title: 'My notification',
  message: 'Click to perform an action',
  wait: true
}, (err, response, metadata) => {
  if (metadata.activationType === 'clicked') {
    console.log('Notification clicked!');
  }
});

Custom notification sound

This feature allows you to customize the notification sound and appearance. The code sample shows how to send a notification with a custom sound and icon.

const notifier = require('node-notifier');
notifier.notify({
  title: 'My notification',
  message: 'With a custom sound!',
  sound: true, // Only Notification Center or Windows Toasters
  appIcon: '/path/to/icon.png', // Absolute path (doesn't work on balloons)
  contentImage: '/path/to/image.png' // Absolute Path to Attached Image (Content Image)
});

Other packages similar to node-notifier

electron-notifications

A package specifically designed for Electron applications to show desktop notifications. It is similar to node-notifier but tailored for the Electron environment, which means it might not be suitable for non-Electron Node.js applications.

pushover-notifications

This package allows you to send notifications using the Pushover service. It differs from node-notifier in that it requires an internet connection and uses the Pushover API to send messages to devices, whereas node-notifier works offline and uses the native OS notification systems.

toastr

Toastr is a Javascript library for non-blocking notifications. It is designed for web applications and provides in-browser notifications as opposed to the system-level notifications provided by node-notifier.

README

node-notifier

A Node.js module for sending cross platform system notifications. Using Notification Center for Mac, notify-osd/libnotify-bin for Linux, Toasters for Windows 8/10, or taskbar Balloons for earlier Windows versions. If none of these requirements are met, Growl is used.

Quick Usage

Show a native notification on Mac, Windows, Linux:

const notifier = require('node-notifier');
// String
notifier.notify('Title', 'Message');

// Object
notifier.notify({
  'title': 'My notification',
  'message': 'Hello, there!'
});

Requirements

• Mac OS X: >= 10.8 or Growl if earlier.
• Linux: notify-osd or libnotify-bin installed (Ubuntu should have this by default)
• Windows: >= 8, task bar balloon if earlier or Growl if that is installed.
• General Fallback: Growl

Growl takes precedence over Windows balloons.

See documentation and flow chart for reporter choice

Install

$ npm install --save node-notifier

Cross-Platform Advanced Usage

Standard usage, with cross-platform fallbacks as defined in the reporter flow chart. All of the options below will work in a way or another on all platforms.

const notifier = require('node-notifier');
const path = require('path');

notifier.notify({
  title: 'My awesome title',
  message: 'Hello from node, Mr. User!',
  icon: path.join(__dirname, 'coulson.jpg'), // Absolute path (doesn't work on balloons)
  sound: true, // Only Notification Center or Windows Toasters
  wait: true // Wait with callback, until user action is taken against notification
}, function (err, response) {
  // Response is response from notification
});

notifier.on('click', function (notifierObject, options) {
  // Triggers if `wait: true` and user clicks notification
});

notifier.on('timeout', function (notifierObject, options) {
  // Triggers if `wait: true` and notification closes
});

You can also specify what reporter you want to use if you want to customize it or have more specific options per system. See documentation for each reporter below.

Example:

const NotificationCenter = require('node-notifier/notifiers/notificationcenter');
new NotificationCenter(options).notify();

const NotifySend = require('node-notifier/notifiers/notifysend');
new NotifySend(options).notify();

const WindowsToaster = require('node-notifier/notifiers/toaster');
new WindowsToaster(options).notify();

const Growl = require('node-notifier/notifiers/growl');
new Growl(options).notify();

const WindowsBalloon = require('node-notifier/notifiers/balloon');
new WindowsBalloon(options).notify();

Or if you are using several (or you are lazy): (note: technically, this takes longer to require)

const nn = require('node-notifier');

new nn.NotificationCenter(options).notify();
new nn.NotifySend(options).notify();
new nn.WindowsToaster(options).notify(options);
new nn.WindowsBalloon(options).notify(options);
new nn.Growl(options).notify(options);

Contents

• Notification Center documentation
• Windows Toaster documentation
• Windows Balloon documentation
• Growl documentation
• Notify-send documentation

Usage NotificationCenter

Same usage and parameter setup as terminal-notifier.

Native Notification Center requires Mac OS X version 10.8 or higher. If you have an earlier version, Growl will be the fallback. If Growl isn't installed, an error will be returned in the callback.

Example

Wrapping around terminal-notifier, you can do all terminal-notifier can do through properties to the notify method. E.g. if terminal-notifier says -message, you can do {message: 'Foo'}, or if terminal-notifier says -list ALL, you can do {list: 'ALL'}. Notification is the primary focus for this module, so listing and activating do work, but isn't documented.

All notification options with their defaults:

const NotificationCenter = require('node-notifier').NotificationCenter;

var notifier = new NotificationCenter({
  withFallback: false, // Use Growl Fallback if <= 10.8
  customPath: void 0 // Relative path if you want to use your fork of terminal-notifier
});

notifier.notify({
  'title': void 0,
  'subtitle': void 0,
  'message': void 0,
  'sound': false, // Case Sensitive string for location of sound file, or use one of OS X's native sounds (see below)
  'icon': 'Terminal Icon', // Absolute Path to Triggering Icon
  'contentImage': void 0, // Absolute Path to Attached Image (Content Image)
  'open': void 0, // URL to open on Click
  'wait': false // Wait for User Action against Notification
}, function(error, response) {
  console.log(response);
});

For Mac OS notifications, icon and contentImage requires OS X 10.9.

Sound can be one of these: Basso, Blow, Bottle, Frog, Funk, Glass, Hero, Morse, Ping, Pop, Purr, Sosumi, Submarine, Tink. If sound is simply true, Bottle is used.

See specific Notification Center example.

Usage WindowsToaster

Note: There are some limitations for images in native Windows 8 notifications: The image must be a PNG image, and cannot be over 1024x1024 px, or over over 200Kb. You also need to specify the image by using an absolute path. These limitations are due to the Toast notification system. A good tip is to use something like path.join or path.delimiter to have cross-platform pathing.

Windows 10 Note: You might have to activate banner notification for the toast to show.

From mikaelbr/gulp-notify#90 (comment)

You can make it work by going to System > Notifications & Actions. The 'toast' app needs to have Banners enabled. (You can activate banners by clicking on the 'toast' app and setting the 'Show notification banners' to On)

toaster is used to get native Windows Toasts!

const WindowsToaster = require('node-notifier').WindowsToaster;

var notifier = new WindowsToaster({
  withFallback: false, // Fallback to Growl or Balloons?
  customPath: void 0 // Relative path if you want to use your fork of toast.exe
});

notifier.notify({
  title: void 0,
  message: void 0,
  icon: void 0, // Absolute path to Icon
  sound: false, // true | false.
  wait: false, // Wait for User Action against Notification
}, function(error, response) {
  console.log(response);
});

Usage Growl

const Growl = require('node-notifier').Growl;

var notifier = new Growl({
  name: 'Growl Name Used', // Defaults as 'Node'
  host: 'localhost',
  port: 23053
});

notifier.notify({
  title: 'Foo',
  message: 'Hello World',
  icon: fs.readFileSync(__dirname + "/coulson.jpg"),
  wait: false, // Wait for User Action against Notification

  // and other growl options like sticky etc.
  sticky: false,
  label: void 0,
  priority: void 0
});

See more information about using growly.

Usage WindowsBalloon

For earlier Windows versions, the taskbar balloons are used (unless fallback is activated and Growl is running). For balloons, a great project called notifu is used.

const WindowsBalloon = require('node-notifier').WindowsBalloon;

var notifier = new WindowsBalloon({
  withFallback: false, // Try Windows Toast and Growl first?
  customPath: void 0 // Relative path if you want to use your fork of notifu
});

notifier.notify({
  title: void 0,
  message: void 0,
  sound: false, // true | false.
  time: 5000, // How long to show balloon in ms
  wait: false, // Wait for User Action against Notification
}, function(error, response) {
  console.log(response);
});

See full usage on the project homepage: notifu.

Usage NotifySend

Note: notify-send doesn't support the wait flag.

const NotifySend = require('node-notifier').NotifySend;

var notifier = new NotifySend();

notifier.notify({
  title: 'Foo',
  message: 'Hello World',
  icon: __dirname + "/coulson.jpg",

  // .. and other notify-send flags:
  urgency: void 0,
  time: void 0,
  category: void 0,
  hint: void 0,
});

See flags and options on the man pages

CLI

You can also use node-notifier as a CLI (as of v4.2.0).

$ notify -h

# notify
## Options
   * --help (alias -h)
   * --title (alias -t)
   * --subtitle (alias -st)
   * --message (alias -m)
   * --icon (alias -i)
   * --sound (alias -s)
   * --open (alias -o)

## Example

   $ notify -t "Hello" -m "My Message" -s --open http://github.com
   $ notify -t "Agent Coulson" --icon https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikaelbr/node-notifier/master/example/coulson.jpg -m "Well, that's new. "
   $ notify -m "My Message" -s Glass
   $ echo "My Message" | notify -t "Hello"

You can also pass message in as stdin:

➜ echo "Message" | notify

# Works with existing arguments
➜ echo "Message" | notify -t "My Title"
➜ echo "Some message" | notify -t "My Title" -s

Thanks to OSS

node-notifier is made possible through Open Source Software. A very special thanks to all the modules node-notifier uses.

• terminal-notifier
• toaster
• notifu
• growly

Common Issues

Use inside tmux session

When using node-notifier within a tmux session, it can cause a hang in the system. This can be solved by following the steps described in this comment: https://github.com/julienXX/terminal-notifier/issues/115#issuecomment-104214742

See more info here: https://github.com/mikaelbr/node-notifier/issues/61#issuecomment-163560801

Within Electron Packaging

If packaging your Electron app as an asar, you will find node-notifier will fail to load. Due to the way asar works, you cannot execute a binary from within an asar. As a simple solution, when packaging the app into an asar please make sure you --unpack the vendor folder of node-notifier, so the module still has access to the notification binaries. To do this, you can do so by using the following command:

asar pack . app.asar --unpack "./node_modules/node-notifier/vendor/**"

License

MIT License

Changelog

v4.5.0

Additions

1. Adds syntactic sugar for notify. Now able to just pass message:

notifier.notify('My message');

See #45 for more info.

Fixes

1. Improvements to docs and examples
2. Updates semver dependency to support Webpacking with Electron.