This article demonstrates how to create a simple
In the example we use in this article, the content that will appear as notification on desktop is the
of the day.So, in order to fetch the top headlines, we will be using this Python script to scrape news headlines:
It is a simple Python script which parses the news headlines available in XML format.
Note: To understand how XML parsing works, please refer this article:
XML parsing in PythonA sample news item generated by above Python script looks like this:
{'description': 'Months after it was first reported, the feud between Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel continues to rage on, with a new report saying that the two are being kept apart during the promotions of The Fate of the Furious.', 'link': 'http://www.hindustantimes.com/hollywood/vin-diesel-dwayne-johnson-feud-rages-on-they-re-being-kept-apart-for-fast-8-tour/story-Bwl2Nx8gja9T15aMvcrcvL.html', 'media': 'http://www.hindustantimes.com/rf/image_size_630x354/HT/p2/2017/04/01/Pictures/_fbcbdc10-1697-11e7-9d7a-cd3db232b835.jpg', 'pubDate': b'Sat, 01 Apr 2017 05:22:51 GMT ', 'title': "Vin Diesel, Dwayne Johnson feud rages on; they're being deliberately kept apart"}
Save this Python script as
topnews.py(as we import it by this name in our desktop notifier app).
Installations
Now, in order to create a desktop notifier, you need to install a third party Python module,
notify2.You can install
notify2 using a simple pip command:
pip install notify2
Desktop notifier app
Now, we write the Python script for our desktop notifier.Consider the code below:
Pythonimporttimeimportnotify2fromtopnewsimporttopStories# path to notification window iconICON_PATH="put full path to icon image here"# fetch news itemsnewsitems=topStories()# initialise the d-bus connectionnotify2.init("News Notifier")# create Notification objectn=notify2.Notification(None,icon=ICON_PATH)# set urgency leveln.set_urgency(notify2.URGENCY_NORMAL)# set timeout for a notificationn.set_timeout(10000)fornewsiteminnewsitems:# update notification data for Notification objectn.update(newsitem['title'],newsitem['description'])# show notification on screenn.show()# short delay between notificationstime.sleep(15)Let us try to analyze above code step by step:
- Now, we create a notification object,n using:
n = notify2.Notification(None, icon = ICON_PATH)
The general syntax for above method is:notify2.Notification(summary, message='', icon='')
Here,- summary: The title text
- message: The body text
- icon: Path to an icon image
Currently, we have setsummary asNone and passed theICON_PATH asicon argument.Note: You need to pass complete path of the icon image. - You can optionally set the urgency level of notifications usingset_urgency method:
n.set_urgency(notify2.URGENCY_NORMAL)
The available constants are:- notify2.URGENCY_LOW
- notify2.URGENCY_NORMAL
- notify2.URGENCY_CRITICAL
- Another optional utility isset_timeout method using which, you can explicitly set the display duration in milliseconds as shown below:
n.set_timeout(10000)
- Now, as we iterate through each news item one by one, we need to update notification object with a newsummary andmessage usingupdate method:
n.update(newsitem['title'], newsitem['description'])
- In order to display a notification, simply callshow() method of Notification object like this:
n.show()
A sample screen shot of desktop when you run above Python script:
Github repository for this desktop notifier application:
Desktop-Notifier-ExampleThis blog is contributed by Nikhil Kumar.