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Idea #19114: The ability to change aspects to the new notification system (such as color)

Written by Rook777 the 9 Apr 09 at 04:09. Category: Look and Feel. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
It would be great to further customize the new notification system by changing color, shape, how programs use it, and so forth.

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Solution #1: Create a GUI for notification system preferences
Written by Rook777 the 9 Apr 09 at 04:09.
This GUI could allow the user to change color, shape, transparency, placement, size. This could even be included in the appearance preferences.
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Solution #2: use system theme
Written by choad the 11 Apr 09 at 22:09.
why make another customizable option when it makes more sense to integrate it with the system theme?
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Solution #3: Both options are good
Written by Seph_VII the 13 Apr 09 at 17:55.
Why not use the same kind of dialog we currently use for the Panels? It should be accessed through "System/Preferences/Notifications." We'd have a "General" tab with location and size options, and a "Background" tab with:

[o]None (Use system theme)

[o]Unicoloured
Color: [Box to choose color]

[o]Background image:
[Box to choose image]

Transparency: [Slider]
Blur: [Slider]
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Solution #4: Configurable through gconf-editor
Written by JebusWankel the 27 Apr 09 at 05:11.
This prevents feature creep, but is still a gui. We don't want to add entries to menus like Preferences and Administration, because it makes Ubuntu look too complicated and the menus look too much like in KDE (no offense). We also don't want to encourage people to change it unless it bothers them. It's probably very easy to make the notifications ugly but hard to make them any more attractive.
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Solution #5: Various options in Appearance Preferences
Written by Avantarius the 27 Apr 09 at 08:16.
Insert a new tab in the Appearance Preferences>Costumize dialog, this would be the most logical way.
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Solution #6: Help notifications be read
Written by Dazed_75 the 28 Apr 09 at 16:12.
Too often notifications in the new scheme come up and then disappear before I've actually read them. Whichever scheme is used to set preferences for notifications I would like to see included:

- a minimum time for notification bubbles to be visible

- a check box to set that notification bubbles not disappear once the time has run out until there is user activity (keyboard, mouse, ???). Note that user activity before the timer runs out should NOT fade the notification as the user may be active as the notification appears.

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MTecknology wrote on the 13 Apr 09 at 21:38
Part of the reasons for notify-osd is a very elegant and universal notification system. As far as I know, the theme is built into the code and would require a complete rewrite to allow this.

If you want a different theme, you could "apt-get source notify-osd" and change it yourself.

yuretsz wrote on the 16 Apr 09 at 23:04
If I have several users with different themes? Each user should have his own notify-osd compilled in home folder? Very elegant.

fazillatheef wrote on the 18 Apr 09 at 03:41
The current notification looks great. Bringing this theme feature should not affect the performance of the app. If it does then I am against it.Just my opinion

fazillatheef wrote on the 18 Apr 09 at 03:45
@yuretsz
If different users use different theme for notification then it would be very inconsistent. And it will definetly break the system.

Compiling the code from source is a freedom. You can use it as you want.

chrismounce wrote on the 19 Apr 09 at 06:54
Saying that unhappy users should just change it themselves is a cop out.*

If the average user wants to customize the notification system's behavior, are they going to hack the existing system or replace it with an alternative system? I don't think so.

There are legitimate reasons for not letting the user customize the notification system (e.g., feature bloat, option bloat, lack of simplicity/universality). Issues like these are the ones that should be addressed.

*That may be a bit strong, and I don't mean it offensively. But it had to be said.

Bruce wrote on the 19 Apr 09 at 17:16
It's a design decision to specifically not allow the notifications to be themable. I don't know what reason the Canonical devs have for this, but it seems a very weird position to take.

The specifications for Notify OSD state:

"Regardless of type, a bubble should appear as a rectangle of color #131313 (regardless of theme) with opacity 90%, corner roundness 0.375 em, and a drop shadow of #000000 color and 0.5 em spread. The bubble should blur whatever is behind it with a Gaussian blur of 0.125 em."

See: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NotifyOSD#Inside%20the%20bubble

JebusWankel wrote on the 27 Apr 09 at 05:04
I think the best way to implement this is through gconf-editor. It prevents feature creep, but it is a gui.

AndrewLuecke wrote on the 27 Apr 09 at 05:29
I don't don't it should be via gconf-editor. Gconf editor should only be used to access advanced settings. This pretty basic, and pretty much EVERY implementation of this allows theming

JebusWankel wrote on the 28 Apr 09 at 00:43
Despite your wishes, Andrew, gconf-editor isn't used for settings much more advanced than can be configured with existing guis. It's a little hard to learn where things are, but it's really easy to use. You should actually try it before judging it.

This type of feature creep would lead us down a path I don't want to go down. Soon enough Ubuntu would start being as cluttered as KDE.

As for "EVERY" implementation of this allowing theming, "notify-osd theme" is not a very fruitful google search.

AndrewLuecke wrote on the 28 Apr 09 at 05:35
I have tried it in the past. Its pretty much just a clone of regedit. However, its odd that you are suggesting that people should use it..

What do you mean by feature creep though? And where do you draw the line? You can make an OS damned advanced without cluttering the gui. Look at Maya for instance.

I don't think people should need to touch gconf editor at all


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