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Feature Request: Growl Notifications via RSS

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:48 pm
by Anm
If something like this is already available, please just let me know how.

I'd like to be able to query the currently showing growl notifications via HTTP+RSS. URLs like this would be ideal:
http://machine:port/user/ - gets all notifications currently showing to the user.
http://machine:port/user/app/ - gets all notifications currently showing from a particular application.

Obviously, for security reasons, the mini server should be off by default and the port should be firewalled by default. Users might even want to filter some notifications or content from the RSS feed.

My original goal was to get mail and IM status into my Quartz Comps screen saver. Given the structure of RSS feeds is similar to a notification and the existing RSS feed patch, it seemed like a nice fit without requiring a custom patch just for QuartzComps.

But think of the other uses: I could aggregate all my notifications from several machines, view them on any modern browser on any platform, remotely if I choose to open my firewall. No more custom Growl protocol.

One step above this is a custom URL handler for the RSS feed link. Maybe something like:
growl-notification://machine/user/id
If the machine reading the RSS feed doesn't understand the protocol, it si effectively ignored. If the machine understands it (is a Mac with Growl installed), but it is not the same machine or account, the notification can either be ignored or retireved (possibly via RSS again) and shown in a window. But if it is the same machine and account, then the notifying app can be brought forward from the RSS feed reader just as if notification itself was clicked. In the screen saver case, think of the keyboard commands to look up URLs in Apple's RSS Visualizer.


Anm

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:06 am
by The_Tick
It'd be nice as an extra

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 9:13 am
by yelly
password protection? possible? (the gmail RSS feed is password protected).
cool idea.

Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 12:01 am
by Anm
I'm not familar with the APIs available to extras. so...

Can extras receive notifications from Growl? I thought the developer APIs were primarily for sending out new notifications (and browsing the developer docs seems to reinforce this belief). If they can receive notifications, can they also get another update when the notification goes away (either by clicking or the display duration times out).

Alternatively, is there a query for currently shown notifications.

Either of these features would be required to implement the feature in the thread topic via an external app.


Anm