Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Specto notifier -- trying it out in Ubuntu

I've been checking out the Specto notifier in Ubuntu 9.04 on my EeePC 901.
It's easy to setup (I installed the bzr version as described in the above link even though a version is available in the Ubuntu Synaptic package manager).
Additionally it runs fine on Gmail, Twitter and a Linux blog rss feed.
However, I really don't like the way it notifies. Even though the preferences section allows you to select "pop toasts from tray icon", what actually happens is much more mundane and dull. A box shows up in the middle of the screen informing you that Twitter or Gmail has updated and then waits for you to click OK before it disappears.
I was expecting to see something like what the Mumbles notifier shows i.e. balloon pop-ups that stay for a few seconds.
Indeed, I found a mailing-list thread on this very topic but it seems to have fizzled out. Maybe, I'll go back to Mumbles because, based on this very brief test, Specto is a disappointment.

Posted by PaulFXH at 00:17

10 comments:

  1. Wout Clymans16 September 2009 at 10:29

    Hello,

    Are you running notify-osd (the new alert system from ubuntu)? And are you sure you have the latest version? Because on my system i get a mumbles-like notification using notify-osd.

    Please create a bug report with some extra information.

    ReplyDelete
  2. PaulFXH16 September 2009 at 11:04

    Yes, I am using notify-osd version 0.9.11 which is the latest version.
    I had also been using gmail-notifier which I thought may have been interfering with Specto. However, even after turning off gmail-notifier and rebooting, Specto still refuses to show short-duration balloon pop-ups.
    If I don't hear anything further about how to resolve this issue I'll file a bug report.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wout Clymans16 September 2009 at 12:38

    Could you please post the output from these commands:
    python
    >>import pynotify
    >>print pynotify.get_server_caps()

    the 'python' command will open the python terminal (you can close it by ctrl + d)
    for the other commands you don't have to type the '>>' it is only a indication that these commands need to be entered in the python terminal.

    Don't give up on specto yet...it is really a useful tool and saying that specto is a disappointment hurt my feelings ;) (i'm the developer so...)

    ReplyDelete
  4. PaulFXH16 September 2009 at 13:13

    Uh-oh. Sorry about hurting your feelings.
    BTW, I have checked if I have ALL the stated dependencies for Specto and it seems I do.
    The outputs from the python commands you suggested are:
    >>> import pynotify
    >>> print pynotify.get_server_caps()

    (.:7589): libnotify-CRITICAL **: notify_get_server_caps: assertion `proxy != NULL' failed
    []
    >>>
    Seems all is not well here. Hope this enables you to diagnose what the problem is for me.
    Certainly, I'll use Specto if I can get the short-duration balloons that I liked so much in Mumbles. My reason for not continuing with Mumbles is that it has very limited compatibility with apps while Specto's options are much more widespread.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wout Clymans16 September 2009 at 13:55

    Hmm this seems to be a bug in notify-osd, but it is still not the cause why it shows the ugly message box appears. and running specto from the terminal does not give you extra information? like errors that appear?

    ReplyDelete
  6. PaulFXH16 September 2009 at 18:03

    OK, I shut down Specto aand then started it from a terminal. here's the output I saw:
    ~$ specto
    /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/spectlib/notifier.py:272: DeprecationWarning: PyArray_FromDimsAndDataAndDescr: use PyArray_NewFromDescr.
    for row in pixbuf.get_pixels_array():

    I then sent myself an email and the "ugly box" showed up to notify me but no further outputs appeared in the terminal.
    Does this give any clues?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wout Clymans16 September 2009 at 18:58

    I forgot to tell you but in the "preferences" window you can enable debugging.
    Please enable it and try again.
    Also post the content of the file ~/.config/specto/error.log

    ReplyDelete
  8. PaulFXH16 September 2009 at 19:54

    OK, here's what the output looks like when Debugging is enables. Nore, however, that I was unable to find any error.log file. Note also that I had set the watch frequency on Gmail to 1/minute and I sent myself an eemail during the 10 minutes or so to which this output refers.
    ~$ specto
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: size set
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: position set
    /usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/spectlib/notifier.py:272: DeprecationWarning: PyArray_FromDimsAndDataAndDescr: use PyArray_NewFromDescr.
    for row in pixbuf.get_pixels_array():
    INFO - main.Specto - watch "Twitter" stopped
    INFO - watch_web_static.Web_watch - Updating watch: "Twitter"
    INFO - watch_web_static.Web_watch - Difference percentage:0.747 (Watch: "Twitter")
    INFO - main.Specto - watch "Twitter" started
    INFO - main.Specto - watch "SimpleHelp" stopped
    INFO - watch_web_static.Web_watch - Updating watch: "SimpleHelp"
    INFO - watch_web_static.Web_watch - Difference percentage:0.717 (Watch: "SimpleHelp")
    INFO - main.Specto - watch "SimpleHelp" started
    INFO - main.Specto - watch "Gmail" stopped
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - main.Specto - watch "Gmail" started
    DEBUG - main.Specto - notifier: reappear
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: size set
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: position set
    DEBUG - main.Specto - preferences: create
    INFO - preferences.Preferences - Preferences saved.
    DEBUG - main.Specto - notifier: reappear
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: size set
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: position set
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Watch "Gmail" updated!
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    INFO - watch_mail_gmail.Mail_watch - Updating watch: "Gmail"
    DEBUG - main.Specto - preferences: create
    DEBUG - main.Specto - notifier: reappear
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: size set
    DEBUG - notifier.Notifier - notifier: position set
    DEBUG - main.Specto - edit watch: create

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wout Clymans16 September 2009 at 19:59

    AHAH now i see what is wrong :) You are running specto 0.2 so not the latest bzr version.

    Add the sources on this page to your /etc/apt/sources.list
    and run an "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade specto"

    https://launchpad.net/~specto-bzr/+archive/ppa

    Note that your watches list will be empty but you can import them using "File->Import Watches"...Your old watches file is located in ~/.specto/watches.list

    I hope this will help you!

    ReplyDelete
  10. PaulFXH16 September 2009 at 20:25

    Now that's more like what I wanted. A huge improvement indeed. I'll update my blog tonight to reflect my revised opinion of your app.
    Very many thanks for all your help to get this working.
    If only all of my computer problems could be solved like this :)

    ReplyDelete

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