Day 1: Mastering Notifications with Python

🎄 Welcome to the Python Advent Calendar! 🎄

Every day till Xmas, we'll open a new door to Python secrets.

1️⃣ jupyterlab_notify: Desktop alerts from Jupyter

📆 Last updated: May 2023
⬇️ Downloads: 106/week
🐍 PyPI | ⭐ GitHub Stars: 5

🔍 What is it?

Trigger desktop notifications using a Jupyter cell magic to alert you when a cell has completed execution. Inspired by the earlier jupyter-notify (notebook only, and last updated April 2021) and adapted to work with Jupyter Lab.

📦 Install

pip install jupyterlab-notify

🛠️ Use

First register the magic:

%load_ext jupyterlab_notify

Then trigger alerts using the %%notify magic:

%%notify
import time
time.sleep(3)

2️⃣ pync: macOS alerts from Python

 📆 Last updated: Jan 2022
⬇️ Downloads: 455/week
🐍 PyPI | ⭐ GitHub Stars: 353

❓ What about Linux & Windows?

Check out plyer - it’s actively maintained and exposes a huge array of native APIs on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android and iOS including notifications, audio recordings, camera access, GPS, native file chooser, keystores, and more.

🔍 What is it?

Triggers macOS notifications with customisable callback actions by wrapping the terminal-notifier command-line tool.

📦 Install

pip install pync

🛠️ Use

import pync

# Notification from "Terminal"
pync.notify("Hello from Terminal")

# Notification from "Python"
pync.notify("Hello from Python", title='Python')

# Click the notification to open Safari
pync.notify("Click me!", activate='com.apple.Safari')

# Click the notification to open a URL
url = "https://github.com/CoefficientSystems/python-advent-calendar"
pync.notify("Check out our GitHub repo!", open=url)

# Make macOS talk
joke = "Knock knock. Race condition. Who's there?"
pync.notify("Want to hear a joke?", execute=f'say "{joke}"')

3️⃣ Pushover: Send notifications to your mobile

📆 Last updated: June 2023
⬇️ Downloads: 91/week
🐍 PyPI | ⭐ GitHub Stars: 23

🔍 What is it?

Use the pushover.net service to deliver notifications in real-time to the Pushover app on iOS, Android, or desktop client. The Pushover service has a one-off cost of $5 per platform to cover service costs. Their website states: “We don't show ads in any of our apps or notifications, and we don't sell any of your data.”

📦 Install

1. Install the Pushover app on your mobile device.

2. Sign up to try it free for 30 days and go to https://pushover.net/apps/build to get your account details.

3. Verify your email address to create an API token.

4. pip install pushover

🛠️ Use

First create a file called credentials.pushover

[pushover]
app_key = ###############################
user_key = ##############################

Then you can start firing notifications to your mobile device:

from pushover import PushoverClient

client = PushoverClient('credentials.pushover')
client.send_message("☕ Your tea is ready.")