[SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

JasonMehmel · 2016-02-17 22:29:18

Hey all,

Read through the posts! We figured it out!

I was shoulder-surfing a friend who was using an apple laptop and noticed the Notification Centre. It really appealed to me!

Then I figured that it would probably be possible to do something like that with Conky, maybe using hot corners or something.

Does anyone have an idea about how I could have the Conky appear in that fashion, as a hot corner? (I did some googling, but couldn't find anything along these lines.)

As a secondary question, I'd love to hear if there's an alternative program that might do something similar.

(This is what it looked like, the example from Apple)

Last edited by JasonMehmel (2023-03-29 04:04:08)

damo · 2016-02-17 23:24:55

You could use `bl-hotcorners`, which is included in BL (It is basically @corenominal's `cb-hotcorners` script for #!)

Create an rc file for the commands you want...`~/.config/bl-hotcorners/bl-hotcornersrc`

[Hot Corners]
top_left_corner_command = 
top_right_corner_command = 
bottom_left_corner_command = 
bottom_right_corner_command =

So you could run a notification, or a conky etc etc. I haven't tested a conky, so I don't know if it would close after a time interval or a mouse-out move, but that should be easy enough to script.

EDIT: Just tried it....a bl-hotcorners mouse move will run a conky, but it doesn't close

EDIT 2: This works, but it is a bit clumsy... (make sure the conkyrc doesn't have "below" in "own_window_hints")

[Hot Corners]
top_left_corner_command = conky -c  $HOME/.config/conky/CB-Left.conkyrc && sleep 5s && pkill -xf "conky -c $HOME/.config/conky/CB-Left.conkyrc"

As a secondary question, I'd love to hear if there's an alternative program that might do something similar.

dunst is an alternative notifier. Also dzen2 can have info piped to it.

Last edited by damo (2016-02-17 23:52:19)

johnraff · 2016-02-18 01:29:06

Try this little script to toggle a certain conky (or any other process):

command='conky -q -c /path/to/conkyfile'
#command="urxvt -e tail -f $HOME/.xsession-errors" # alternative example
pkill -fx "$command" || exec $command

and call it from your hotcorner. If that particular conky command isn't running it will start it, if it's running already it will stop it.

Unia · 2016-02-18 16:24:28

Take a look at Budgie Desktop's Raven: https://solus-project.com/budgie/

I have no idea if you can run it outside of Budgie Desktop, though.

ohnonot · 2016-02-18 19:55:04

hotcorners is certainly good.
things to consider:
depending on the info you request, there might be noticeable lag between triggering it and appearing on desktop. maybe good to have a background script running that is keeping the info ready for immediate demand?

also, depending on what you need, notify-send could be sufficient, even more elegant?

Last edited by ohnonot (2021-07-04 07:00:03)

JasonMehmel · 2016-02-19 06:57:28

notify-send is an interesting idea. One thing I'm not sure of; will it take the input of an entire Conky script? Something to play around with.

Good point on the lag issue, too.

I guess the reason I keep going back to Conky is because I know it a little bit better, and there's already a wealth of knowledge around how to add weather, calendar events, RSS feeds, that sort of thing.

I might try johnraff's script, toggled after a hotcorner, just to see how it goes. But I'll keep poking at notify-send to see what sort of text I can pump through if I can generate that text via the data sources that I've mentioned.

jasonwert · 2016-02-19 14:49:43

This is an interesting idea. I've toyed around with showing the last X number of notifications in conky. That way I could see notifications that popped up when I was away from my computer. I ended up going a different direction and installed Dunst, which has notification history keyboard shortcuts. You could probably integrate hotcorners with the dunst history keyboard shortcut in some way.

JasonMehmel · 2016-02-19 17:55:08

It's also probably worth mentioning that I want to not just do the general notifications, but also incorporate my calendar events and such. I don't know how much that changes any of the suggestions that you've all given already!

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-26 21:13:23

Okay, this is basically necroposting, but I finally, FINALLY, came back to this!

I installed lwa-hot-corners via the info over here: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=6456

And I've tried both damo and johnraff's suggestions to open and kill the conky, but I'm getting the following error in the terminal:

sh: 1: -c: not found

I'm not sure if that means the hotcorners aren't reading correctly, or if for some reason either of my configs have problems.

Plus side: it looks like lwa-hot-corners is working because I'm seeing that response each time I go Top Left!

Going with johnraff's script idea, here's what I'm working with

lwa-hotcornersrc:

top_left_command=$HOME/.config/conky/popinfo.sh
top_right_command=
bottom_left_command=
bottom_right_command=
hold_duration=500
disable_on_fullscreen=false

And the script, popinfo.sh

#!/bin/bash
command='conky -q -c ~/.config/conky/popupinfo-conky.conf'
#command="urxvt -e tail -f $HOME/.xsession-errors" # alternative example
pkill -fx "$command" || exec $command
exit

Happy for any advice if you don't mind the necro-bump!

Last edited by JasonMehmel (2023-03-26 21:14:54)

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-26 23:52:27

Okay... I came back to it and used the full working directories instead of using $HOME or ~/.

At first, it was working great! Go to the corner to get the conky, and go there again to dismiss it!

But then I closed the terminal, tried it again, and now the conky is just sitting there, and gets summoned again if I go back to the corner!

(to be specific, it's no longer killing the conky when I go back to the corner.)

I've been using this:

top_left_command=conky -c /home/jason/.config/conky/popupinfo-conky.conf && sleep 5s && pkill -xf "conky -c conky -c /home/jason/.config/conky/popupinfo-conky.conf"

But I can't tell what's changed! I've also tried johnraff's script, but with the same result.

I had set the conky to 'dock' so that it would go overtop of whatever window might be in the way, but that was also before this stuck behaviour.

Last edited by JasonMehmel (2023-03-27 00:14:47)

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-27 03:13:16

Okay... as a temporary fix, I took off the 'undecorated' option from own_window_hints, so the conky appears as a window which I can then close when I'm done. Workable for now!

But I'd still like to know why the same hotcorner wasn't closing the conky the way we'd hoped for!

unklar · 2023-03-27 08:31:15

If the script calls the conky like this:

command='conky -q -c ~/.config/conky/popupinfo-conky.conf'

the kill command cannot be:

pkill -xf "conky -c conky -c /home/jason/.config/conky/popupinfo-conky.conf"

either -q -c

or -c

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-27 17:13:53

Aha! That might be the source of my problems. When I was troubleshooting I think I definitely changed those around a few times so they're no longer consistent.

I'll give it a try and see if I can get it working as desired!

unklar wrote:

If the script calls the conky like this:
command='conky -q -c ~/.config/conky/popupinfo-conky.conf'
the kill command cannot be:
pkill -xf "conky -c conky -c /home/jason/.config/conky/popupinfo-conky.conf"
either -q -c
or -c

Also, I'm not totally sure what -q does for conky. It says 'quiet mode, no output' but does that then mean it won't display the window I'm looking for? Why would I want that? (I can also ask this in a more conky-specific thread if that's preferred.)

unklar · 2023-03-28 09:07:36

No.
-q means that no messages are output in the terminal.
If you don't want your window manager to have 'influence' on the conky window, then you can test 'override' instead of 'dock'.

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-28 18:13:15

Thank you for the answer!

I've currently got it working as desired! I'm using @johnraff's script.

(I thought I was trying that script before, when it wasn't working... but either I got it wrong, or something changed. Or I was only using the longer command, instead of the script, with the -q -c problem unklar noted.)

When it wasn't working as intended, I actually DID want the window manager to have influence, so I could close it without having to open htop or a terminal. Now, that it's working, I put it back to 'undecorated' and 'above' in the hints portion, and 'utility' in the type portion. I'll paste that part of my conf below.

I'm not sure the difference between 'override' and 'utility,' the conky documentation on those types isn't very clear!

I'm going to mark this thread as 'solved' so that anyone looking for something similar can implement it!

(And if anyone from the future is reading this... because gcalcli takes a few seconds to load, it means that the pop up also has a few-second delay.)

--  Window Settings
    own_window = true,
    own_window_type = utility,
    own_window_transparent = false,
    own_window_hints = 'undecorated,above,skip_taskbar,skip_pager,sticky',
    own_window_colour = '000000',
    own_window_class = 'Conky',
    own_window_title = 'Pop Up Conky',

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-28 18:14:26

(Actually, turns out I can't modify the subject line. Mods, is there any interest in adding 'solved' or 'success' or something to the subject line?)

johnraff · 2023-03-29 02:07:19

^You should be able to. Click 'Edit' on the top post, and the subject should be available for editing.

JasonMehmel · 2023-03-29 03:56:10

I'll give that a go!

@johnraff, would you have any wisdom on the 'nohub' element being added to the autostart file?

(I should note, that's over here in the lwa-hot-corners thread: https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=6456)

Last edited by JasonMehmel (2023-03-29 04:06:37)

JasonMehmel · 2024-07-24 20:27:20

Necroposting once again, but it seemed worth mentioning!

I was finding myself not using the hotcorners as often as I thought, and would even sometimes accidentally trigger it. So I had the idea of using a button on the tint2 tray...

I downloaded an appropriate icon, added it as a 'button' that calls the same conky script (and closes it) and I'm pretty happy with the results! It's got me thinking if there are other ideas that could benefit from this approach!

#1 2016-02-17 22:29:18

[SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#2 2016-02-17 23:24:55

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#3 2016-02-18 01:29:06

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#4 2016-02-18 16:24:28

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#5 2016-02-18 19:55:04

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#6 2016-02-19 06:57:28

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#7 2016-02-19 14:49:43

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#8 2016-02-19 17:55:08

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#9 2023-03-26 21:13:23

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#10 2023-03-26 23:52:27

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#11 2023-03-27 03:13:16

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#12 2023-03-27 08:31:15

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#13 2023-03-27 17:13:53

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#14 2023-03-28 09:07:36

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#15 2023-03-28 18:13:15

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#16 2023-03-28 18:14:26

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#17 2023-03-29 02:07:19

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#18 2023-03-29 03:56:10

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

#19 2024-07-24 20:27:20

Re: [SUCCESS!] Creating a Notification Centre (with Conky!)

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