Freedesktop.org Notifications specification
For the most part, xfce4-notifyd is compliant with the freedesktop.org's notifications specification. However, there are also some features which are not currently supported (e.g. sound). Another example is “urgency”, which is only implicitly supported by checking the expire-timeout.
The following table provides an overview of the features of the specification supported by the xfce4-notifyd service.
Please note that the "default action", which is usually triggered by clicking a notification bubble is not implemented in xfce4-notifyd. Clicking a notification instead closes it. If applications want to provide actions they have to specify the tuple of action-id and action for a button to be shown in the bubble.
| Hint | Value Type | Description | Spec Version | Supported by notifyd |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| “action-icons” | boolean | When set, a server that has the “action-icons” capability will attempt to interpret any action identifier as a named icon. The localized display name will be used to annotate the icon for accessibility purposes. The icon name should be compliant with the Freedesktop.org Icon Naming Specification. | >= 1.2 | No |
| “category” | string | The type of notification this is. | No | |
| “desktop-entry” | string | This specifies the name of the desktop filename representing the calling program. This should be the same as the prefix used for the application's .desktop file. An example would be “rhythmbox” from “rhythmbox.desktop”. This can be used by the daemon to retrieve the correct icon for the application, for logging purposes, etc. | Yes | |
| “image-data” | (iiibiiay) | This is a raw data image format which describes the width, height, rowstride, has alpha, bits per sample, channels and image data respectively. | >= 1.2 | Yes |
| “image_data” | (iiibiiay) | Deprecated. Use image-data instead. | 1.1 | Yes |
| “image-path” | string | Alternative way to define the notification image. See Icons and Images. | >= 1.2 | Yes |
| “image_path” | string | Deprecated. Use image-path instead. | 1.1 | Yes |
| “icon_data” | (iiibiiay) | Deprecated. Use image-data instead. | < 1.1 | Yes |
| “resident” | boolean | When set the server will not automatically remove the notification when an action has been invoked. The notification will remain resident in the server until it is explicitly removed by the user or by the sender. This hint is likely only useful when the server has the “persistence” capability. | >= 1.2 | No |
| “sound-file” | string | The path to a sound file to play when the notification pops up. | No | |
| “sound-name” | string | A themeable named sound from the freedesktop.org sound naming specification to play when the notification pops up. Similar to icon-name, only for sounds. An example would be “message-new-instant”. | No | |
| “suppress-sound” | boolean | Causes the server to suppress playing any sounds, if it has that ability. This is usually set when the client itself is going to play its own sound. | No | |
| “transient” | boolean | When set the server will treat the notification as transient and by-pass the server's persistence capability, if it should exist. | >= 1.2 | Yes |
| “x” | int | Specifies the X location on the screen that the notification should point to. The “y” hint must also be specified. | No | |
| “y” | int | Specifies the Y location on the screen that the notification should point to. The “x” hint must also be specified. | No | |
| “urgency” | byte | The urgency level. | No |
Other Notifications specifications
- Ubuntu's Notify-OSD and its Development Guidelines
- KDE's KNotification API