777551 - Figure out a different notification mechanism to use on application install other than growl on OS X

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox Graveyard :: Web Apps, defect, P3)

Description

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

In bug 777409 growl support is being removed from Firefox builds. We need to figure out a different mechanism to notify the user of application installs other than using growl, since growl support is being removed.

Comment 1

[Dan Walkowski]

There isn't one. I would argue that the -correct- thing to do is to preserve growl notification for 10.6 and 10.7, and use the new OS X notification system for 10.8 and beyond.  By what reasoning was growl support removed?

Comment 2

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

(In reply to Dan Walkowski from comment #1)
> There isn't one. I would argue that the -correct- thing to do is to preserve
> growl notification for 10.6 and 10.7, and use the new OS X notification
> system for 10.8 and beyond.  By what reasoning was growl support removed?

See bug 777409 for a rationale on that.

Comment 3

[Josh Aas]

Growl support has not been removed, nor has the decision been made to do so. Figuring out an alternative is a good idea though.

Comment 4

[Jason Smith [:jsmith]]

(In reply to Josh Aas (Mozilla Corporation) from comment #3)
> Growl support has not been removed, nor has the decision been made to do so.
> Figuring out an alternative is a good idea though.

So I'm a bit confused. Then what is bug 777409 about then?

Comment 5

[Marco Castelluccio [:marco]]

I think now we're using XUL notifications on both OS X and Linux (maybe on Windows too?). It'd be great for platform integration to have native notifications.

Comment 6

[Trane Francks]

(In reply to Marco Castelluccio [:marco] from comment #5)
> I think now we're using XUL notifications on both OS X and Linux (maybe on
> Windows too?). It'd be great for platform integration to have native
> notifications.

Here's the deal. Growl enabled system-wide notifications on OS X Snow Leopard and Lion. XUL notifications are limited to the desktop on which SeaMonkey (or whatever) is running. So, when I'm on desktop 3 debugging code for a client and e-mail comes in, the XUL notification that I WOULD have seen had I been on desktop 2 just doesn't happen. Now I get to scan through 8 inboxes to see which of the accounts got mail and then figure out whether it needs dealing with now or later.

XUL notifications also do a REALLY excellent job of clobbering on-screen Growl notifications. Yay! Not only do I get a step backwards in my SeaMonkey notifications, I get to enjoy SeaMonkey stepping all over my OTHER notifications, too. Joy. It is just too much to ask for, really.

You now, guys, it really isn't rocket science to, say, use OS X Notification Center if present, fall back to Growl if present and, finally, XUL notifications as a last resort. For those of us on Snow Leopard or Lion, Growl is the only game in town to get system-wide notifications. XUL does NOT cut it.

Who thought this was a good idea?

Comment 7

[Marco Castelluccio [:marco]]

(In reply to Trane Francks from comment #6)
> Here's the deal. Growl enabled system-wide notifications on OS X Snow
> Leopard and Lion. XUL notifications are limited to the desktop on which
> SeaMonkey (or whatever) is running. So, when I'm on desktop 3 debugging code
> for a client and e-mail comes in, the XUL notification that I WOULD have
> seen had I been on desktop 2 just doesn't happen. Now I get to scan through
> 8 inboxes to see which of the accounts got mail and then figure out whether
> it needs dealing with now or later.
>
> XUL notifications also do a REALLY excellent job of clobbering on-screen
> Growl notifications. Yay! Not only do I get a step backwards in my SeaMonkey
> notifications, I get to enjoy SeaMonkey stepping all over my OTHER
> notifications, too. Joy. It is just too much to ask for, really.

These should be XUL alerts' bugs, could you file two new bugs? (and make them block bug 782211).
I'm not sure they can be fixed, but they're worth filing (like there's bug 858919 for Linux).

> You now, guys, it really isn't rocket science to, say, use OS X Notification
> Center if present, fall back to Growl if present and, finally, XUL
> notifications as a last resort. For those of us on Snow Leopard or Lion,
> Growl is the only game in town to get system-wide notifications. XUL does
> NOT cut it.
> 
> Who thought this was a good idea?

I haven't much experience with Growl, but looks like Growl's features were not enough to support the notification API (see the discussion in bug 782211).

Comment 8

[Trane Francks]

(In reply to Marco Castelluccio [:marco] from comment #7)
> (In reply to Trane Francks from comment #6)
> > Here's the deal. Growl enabled system-wide notifications on OS X Snow
> > Leopard and Lion. XUL notifications are limited to the desktop on which
> > SeaMonkey (or whatever) is running. So, when I'm on desktop 3 debugging code
> > for a client and e-mail comes in, the XUL notification that I WOULD have
> > seen had I been on desktop 2 just doesn't happen. Now I get to scan through
> > 8 inboxes to see which of the accounts got mail and then figure out whether
> > it needs dealing with now or later.
> >
> > XUL notifications also do a REALLY excellent job of clobbering on-screen
> > Growl notifications. Yay! Not only do I get a step backwards in my SeaMonkey
> > notifications, I get to enjoy SeaMonkey stepping all over my OTHER
> > notifications, too. Joy. It is just too much to ask for, really.
> 
> These should be XUL alerts' bugs, could you file two new bugs? (and make
> them block bug 782211).
> I'm not sure they can be fixed, but they're worth filing (like there's bug
> 858919 for Linux).

Thanks. Yes, I'll do that.

> I haven't much experience with Growl, but looks like Growl's features were
> not enough to support the notification API (see the discussion in bug
> 782211).

I don't know enough about Growl's features other than that I understand the new 2.01SDK supports Notification Center and can fall back to Growl if installed/running and use Mist if Growl is not installed/running. That said, I do not know whether it supports the spec's requirement of closing and callbacks of notification status. I'm not even aware of whether Notification Center itself will enable that functionality. Hopefully, it will; otherwise, this won't have really fixed much of anything.