hs.notify.md

docs » hs.notify

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This module allows you to create on screen notifications in the User Notification Center located at the right of the users screen.

Notifications can be sent immediately or scheduled for delivery at a later time, even if that scheduled time occurs when Hammerspoon is not currently running. Currently, if you take action on a notification while Hammerspoon is not running, the callback function is not honored for the first notification clicked upon -- This is expected to be fixed in a future release.

When setting up a callback function, you have the option of specifying it with the creation of the notification (hs.notify.new) or by pre-registering it with hs.notify.register and then referring it to by the tag name specified with hs.notify.register. If you use this registration method for defining your callback functions, and make sure to register all expected callback functions within your init.lua file or files it includes, then callback functions will remain available for existing notifications in the User Notification Center even if Hammerspoon's configuration is reloaded or if Hammerspoon is restarted. If the callback tag is not present when the user acts on the notification, the Hammerspoon console will be raised as a default action.

A shorthand, based upon the original inspiration for this module from Hydra and Mjolnir, hs.notify.show, is provided if you just require a quick and simple informative notification without the bells and whistles.

This module is based in part on code from the previous incarnation of Mjolnir by Steven Degutis.

API Overview

• Constants - Useful values which cannot be changed
• activationTypes
• defaultNotificationSound
• Variables - Configurable values
• registry
• warnAboutMissingFunctionTag
• Functions - API calls offered directly by the extension
• deliveredNotifications
• register
• scheduledNotifications
• unregister
• unregisterall
• withdrawAll
• withdrawAllScheduled
• Constructors - API calls which return an object, typically one that offers API methods
• new
• show
• Methods - API calls which can only be made on an object returned by a constructor
• actionButtonTitle
• activationType
• actualDeliveryDate
• additionalActions
• additionalActivationAction
• alwaysPresent
• alwaysShowAdditionalActions
• autoWithdraw
• contentImage
• delivered
• getFunctionTag
• hasActionButton
• hasReplyButton
• informativeText
• otherButtonTitle
• presented
• response
• responsePlaceholder
• schedule
• send
• setIdImage
• soundName
• subTitle
• title
• withdraw
• withdrawAfter

API Documentation

Constants

activationTypes

Signature	hs.notify.activationTypes[]
Type	Constant
Description	Convenience array of the possible activation types for a notification, and their reverse for reference.
Notes	Count starts at zero. (implemented in Objective-C)

defaultNotificationSound

Signature	hs.notify.defaultNotificationSound
Type	Constant
Description	The string representation of the default notification sound. Use hs.notify:soundName() or set the soundName attribute in hs:notify.new(), to this constant, if you want to use the default sound

Variables

registry

Signature	hs.notify.registry[]
Type	Variable
Description	A table containing the registered callback functions and their tags.
Notes	This table should not be modified directly. Use the hs.notify.register(tag, fn) and hs.notify.unregister(id) functions. This table has a __tostring metamethod so you can see the list of registered function tags in the console by typing hs.notify.registry See hs.notify.warnAboutMissingFunctionTag for determining the behavior when a notification attempts to perform a callback to a function tag which is not present in this table. This occurrence is most common with notifications which are acted upon by the user after Hammerspoon has been reloaded.

warnAboutMissingFunctionTag

Signature	hs.notify.warnAboutMissingFunctionTag
Type	Variable
Description	A value indicating whether or not a missing notification function tag should cause a warning. Defaults to true.

Functions

deliveredNotifications

Signature	hs.notify.deliveredNotifications() -> table
Type	Function
Description	Returns a table containing notifications which have been delivered.
Parameters	None
Returns	a table containing the notification userdata objects for all Hammerspoon notifications currently in the notification center
Notes	Only notifications which have been presented but not cleared, either by the user clicking on the hs.notify:otherButtonTitle or through auto-withdrawal (see hs.notify:autoWithdraw for more details), will be in the array returned.

register

Signature	hs.notify.register(tag, fn) -> id
Type	Function
Description	Registers a function callback with the specified tag for a notification. The callback function will be invoked when the user clicks on or interacts with a notification.
Parameters	tag - a string tag to identify the registered callback function. Use this as the function tag in hs.notify.new and hs.notify.show fn - the function which should be invoked when a notification with this tag is interacted with.
Returns	a numerical id representing the entry in hs.notify.registry for this function. This number can be used with hs.notify.unregister to unregister a function later if you wish.
Notes	If a function is already registered with the specified tag, it is replaced by with the new one.

scheduledNotifications

Signature	hs.notify.scheduledNotifications() -> table
Type	Function
Description	Returns a table containing notifications which are scheduled but have not yet been delivered.
Parameters	None
Returns	a table containing the notification userdata objects for all Hammerspoon notifications currently scheduled to be delivered.
Notes	Once a notification has been delivered, it is moved to hs.notify.deliveredNotifications or removed, depending upon the users action.

unregister

| Signature | hs.notify.unregister(id|tag) | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Function | | Description | Unregisters a function callback so that it is no longer available as a callback when notifications corresponding to the specified entry are interacted with. | | Parameters |

• id - the numerical id provided by hs.notify.register
• tag - a string tag representing the callback function to be removed

| | Returns |

• None

|

unregisterall

Signature	hs.notify.unregisterall()
Type	Function
Description	Unregisters all functions registered as callbacks.
Parameters	None
Returns	None
Notes	This does not remove the notifications from the User Notification Center, it just removes their callback function for when the user interacts with them. To remove all notifications, see hs.notify.withdrawAll and hs.notify.withdrawAllScheduled

withdrawAll

Signature	hs.notify.withdrawAll()
Type	Function
Description	Withdraw all delivered notifications from Hammerspoon
Parameters	None
Returns	None
Notes	This will withdraw all notifications for Hammerspoon, including those not sent by this module or that linger from a previous load of Hammerspoon.

withdrawAllScheduled

Signature	hs.notify.withdrawAllScheduled()
Type	Function
Description	Withdraw all scheduled notifications from Hammerspoon
Parameters	None
Returns	None

Constructors

new

Signature	hs.notify.new([fn,][attributes]) -> notification
Type	Constructor
Description	Creates a new notification object
Parameters	fn - An optional function or function-tag, which will be called when the user interacts with notifications. The notification object will be passed as an argument to the function. If you leave this parameter out or specify nil, then no callback will be attached to the notification. attributes - An optional table for applying attributes to the notification. Possible keys are:
Returns	A notification object
Notes	A function-tag is a string key which corresponds to a function stored in the hs.notify.registry table with the hs.notify.register() function. If a notification does not have a title attribute set, OS X will not display it, so by default it will be set to "Notification". You can use the title key in the attributes table, or call hs.notify:title() before displaying the notification to change this.

show

Signature	hs.notify.show(title, subTitle, information[, tag]) -> notfication
Type	Constructor
Description	Shorthand constructor to create and show simple notifications
Parameters	title - the title for the notification subTitle - the subtitle, or second line, of the notification information - the main textual body of the notification tag - a function tag corresponding to a function registered with hs.notify.register
Returns	a notification object
Notes	All three textual parameters are required, though they can be empty strings This function is really a shorthand for hs.notify.new(...):send() Notifications created using this function will inherit the default withdrawAfter value, which is 5 seconds. To produce persistent notifications you should use hs.notify.new() with a withdrawAfter attribute of 0.

Methods

actionButtonTitle

| Signature | hs.notify:actionButtonTitle([buttonTitle]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the label of a notification's action button | | Parameters |

• buttonTitle - An optional string containing the title for the notification's action button. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if buttonTitle is present; otherwise the current setting.

| | Notes |

• The affects of this method only apply if the user has set Hammerspoon notifications to Alert in the Notification Center pane of System Preferences
• This value is ignored if hs.notify:hasReplyButton is true.

|

activationType

Signature	hs.notify:activationType() -> number
Type	Method
Description	Returns how the notification was activated by the user.
Parameters	None
Returns	the integer value corresponding to how the notification was activated by the user. See the table hs.notify.activationTypes[] for more information.

actualDeliveryDate

Signature	hs.notify:actualDeliveryDate() -> number
Type	Method
Description	Returns the date and time when a notification was delivered
Parameters	None
Returns	A number containing the delivery date/time of the notification, in seconds since the epoch (i.e. 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000)
Notes	You can turn epoch times into a human readable string or a table of date elements with the os.date() function.

additionalActions

| Signature | hs.notify:additionalActions([actionsTable]) -> notificationObject | table | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set additional actions which will be displayed for an alert type notification when the user clicks and holds down the action button of the alert. | | Parameters |

• an optional table containing an array of strings specifying the additional options to list for the user to select from the notification.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if an argument is present; otherwise the current value

| | Notes |

• The additional items will be listed in a pop-up menu when the user clicks and holds down the mouse button in the action button of the alert.
• If the user selects one of the additional actions, hs.notify:activationType will equal hs.notify.activationTypes.additionalActionClicked
• See also hs.notify:additionalActivationAction

|

additionalActivationAction

| Signature | hs.notify:additionalActivationAction() -> string | nil | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Return the additional action that the user selected from an alert type notification that has additional actions available. | | Parameters |

• None

| | Returns |

• If the notification has additional actions assigned with hs.notify:additionalActions and the user selects one, returns a string containing the selected action; otherwise returns nil.

| | Notes |

• If the user selects one of the additional actions, hs.notify:activationType will equal hs.notify.activationTypes.additionalActionClicked
• See also hs.notify:additionalActions

|

alwaysPresent

| Signature | hs.notify:alwaysPresent([alwaysPresent]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set whether a notification should be presented even if this overrides Notification Center's decision process. | | Parameters |

• alwaysPresent - An optional boolean parameter indicating whether the notification should override Notification Center's decision about whether to present the notification or not. Defaults to true. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if alwaysPresent is provided; otherwise the current setting.

| | Notes |

• This does not affect the return value of hs.notify:presented() -- that will still reflect the decision of the Notification Center
• Examples of why the users Notification Center would choose not to display a notification would be if Hammerspoon is the currently focussed application, being attached to a projector, or the user having set Do Not Disturb.

|

alwaysShowAdditionalActions

| Signature | hs.notify:alwaysShowAdditionalActions([state]) -> notificationObject | boolean | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set whether an alert notification should always show an alternate action menu. | | Parameters |

• state - An optional boolean, default false, indicating whether the notification should always show an alternate action menu.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if an argument is present; otherwise the current value.

|

autoWithdraw

| Signature | hs.notify:autoWithdraw([shouldWithdraw]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set whether a notification should automatically withdraw once activated | | Parameters |

• shouldWithdraw - An optional boolean indicating whether the notification should automatically withdraw. Defaults to true. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if shouldWithdraw is present; otherwise the current setting.

|

contentImage

| Signature | hs.notify:contentImage([image]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set a notification's content image. | | Parameters |

• image - An optional hs.image parameter containing the image to display. Defaults to nil. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if image is provided; otherwise the current setting.

| | Notes |

• See hs.image for details on how to specify or define an image
• This method is only supported in OS X 10.9 or greater. A warning will be displayed in the console and the method will be treated as a no-op if used on an unsupported system.

|

delivered

Signature	hs.notify:delivered() -> bool
Type	Method
Description	Returns whether the notification has been delivered to the Notification Center
Parameters	None
Returns	A boolean indicating whether the notification has been delivered to the users Notification Center

getFunctionTag

Signature	hs.notify:getFunctionTag() -> functiontag
Type	Method
Description	Return the name of the function tag the notification will call when activated.
Parameters	None
Returns	The function tag for this notification as a string.
Notes	This tag should correspond to a function in hs.notify.registry and can be used to either add a replacement with hs.notify.register(...) or remove it with hs.notify.unregister(...)

hasActionButton

| Signature | hs.notify:hasActionButton([hasButton]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the presence of an action button in a notification | | Parameters |

• hasButton - An optional boolean indicating whether an action button should be present. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if hasButton is present; otherwise the current setting.

| | Notes |

• The affects of this method only apply if the user has set Hammerspoon notifications to Alert in the Notification Center pane of System Preferences

|

hasReplyButton

| Signature | hs.notify:hasReplyButton([state]) -> notificationObject | boolean | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set whether an alert notification has a "Reply" button for additional user input. | | Parameters |

• state - An optional boolean, default false, indicating whether the notification should include a reply button for additional user input.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if an argument is present; otherwise the current value

|

informativeText

| Signature | hs.notify:informativeText([informativeText]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the informative text of a notification | | Parameters |

• informativeText - An optional string containing the informative text to be set on the notification object. This can be an empty string. If nil is passed, any existing informative text will be removed. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if informativeText is present; otherwise the current setting.

|

otherButtonTitle

| Signature | hs.notify:otherButtonTitle([buttonTitle]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the label of a notification's other button | | Parameters |

• buttonTitle - An optional string containing the title for the notification's other button. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if buttonTitle is present; otherwise the current setting.

| | Notes |

• The affects of this method only apply if the user has set Hammerspoon notifications to Alert in the Notification Center pane of System Preferences
• Due to OSX limitations, it is NOT possible to get a callback for this button.

|

presented

Signature	hs.notify:presented() -> bool
Type	Method
Description	Returns whether the users Notification Center decided to display the notification
Parameters	None
Returns	A boolean indicating whether the users Notification Center decided to display the notification
Notes	Examples of why the users Notification Center would choose not to display a notification would be if Hammerspoon is the currently focussed application, being attached to a projector, or the user having set Do Not Disturb.

response

| Signature | hs.notify:response() -> string | nil | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get the users input from an alert type notification with a reply button. | | Parameters |

• None

| | Returns |

• If the notification has a reply button and the user clicks on it, returns a string containing the user input (may be an empty string); otherwise returns nil.

| | Notes |

• hs.notify:activationType will equal hs.notify.activationTypes.replied if the user clicked on the Reply button and then clicks on Send.
• See also hs.notify:hasReplyButton

|

responsePlaceholder

| Signature | hs.notify:responsePlaceholder([string]) -> notificationObject | string | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Set a placeholder string for alert type notifications with a reply button. | | Parameters |

• string - an optional string specifying placeholder text to display in the reply box before the user has types anything in an alert type notification with a reply button.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if an argument is present; otherwise the current value

| | Notes |

• In macOS 10.13, this text appears so light that it is almost unreadable; so far no workaround has been found.
• See also hs.notify:hasReplyButton

|

schedule

Signature	hs.notify:schedule(date) -> notificationObject
Type	Method
Description	Schedules a notification for delivery in the future.
Parameters	date - the date the notification should be delivered to the users Notification Center specified as the number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00Z or as a string in rfc3339 format: "YYYY-MM-DD[T]HH:MM:SS[Z]".
Returns	The notification object
Notes	See also hs.notify:send() hs.settings.dateFormat specifies a lua format string which can be used with os.date() to properly present the date and time as a string for use with this method.

send

Signature	hs.notify:send() -> notificationObject
Type	Method
Description	Delivers the notification immediately to the users Notification Center.
Parameters	None
Returns	The notification object
Notes	See also hs.notify:schedule() If a notification has been modified, then this will resend it. You can invoke this multiple times if you wish to repeat the same notification.

setIdImage

Signature	hs.notify:setIdImage(image[, withBorder]) -> notificationObject
Type	Method
Description	Set a notification's identification image (replace the Hammerspoon icon with a custom image)
Parameters	image - An hs.image object, a string containing an image path, or a string defining an ASCIImage withBorder - An optional boolean to give the notification image a border. Defaults to false
Returns	The notification object
Notes	See hs.image for details on how to specify or define an image WARNING: This method uses a private API. It could break at any time. Please file an issue if it does

soundName

| Signature | hs.notify:soundName([soundName]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the sound for a notification | | Parameters |

• soundName - An optional string containing the name of a sound to play with the notification. If nil, no sound will be played. Defaults to nil. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if soundName is present; otherwise the current setting.

| | Notes |

• Sounds will first be matched against the names of system sounds. If no matches can be found, they will then be searched for in the following paths, in order:
• ~/Library/Sounds
• /Library/Sounds
• /Network/Sounds
• /System/Library/Sounds

|

subTitle

| Signature | hs.notify:subTitle([subtitleText]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the subtitle of a notification | | Parameters |

• subtitleText - An optional string containing the subtitle to be set on the notification object. This can be an empty string. If nil is passed, any existing subtitle will be removed. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if subtitleText is present; otherwise the current setting.

|

title

| Signature | hs.notify:title([titleText]) -> notificationObject | current-setting | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the title of a notification | | Parameters |

• titleText - An optional string containing the title to be set on the notification object. The default value is "Notification". If nil is passed, then the title is set to the empty string. If no parameter is provided, then the current setting is returned.

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if titleText is present; otherwise the current setting.

|

withdraw

Signature	hs.notify:withdraw() -> notificationObject
Type	Method
Description	Withdraws a delivered notification from the Notification Center.
Parameters	None
Returns	The notification object This method allows you to unlock a dispatched notification so that it can be modified and resent.

withdrawAfter

| Signature | hs.notify:withdrawAfter([seconds]) -> notificationObject | number | | -----------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Type | Method | | Description | Get or set the number of seconds after which to automatically withdraw a notification | | Parameters |

• seconds - An optional number, default 5, of seconds after which to withdraw a notification. A value of 0 will not withdraw a notification automatically

| | Returns |

• The notification object, if an argument is present; otherwise the current value.

|