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Platform UI/Notifications
Some applications need to inform the user of events in the workbench that may require attention, whether or not the workbench is visible. An increasingly standard way of doing this is to use a desktop notification popup, often appearing for a fixed amount of time in the bottom-right hand of the window.
Ideally this mechanism would use the native Os mechanism for notifications. However, we do not yet have standard APIs for notifications on Windows, Linux or Mac (Growl is popular on Mac, but not part of the OS). Eclipse projects such as Mylyn make heavy use notifications, as do Eclipse-based products such as Jazz and Tasktop. To avoid the usability problems of having various plug-ins' notifications using different mechanisms, we should provide a common notification API.
Contents
Status
Mylyn
The Mylyn Commons API component currently provides the desktop notification popup used by Mylyn, implemented via bug 177974. The notification popup and mechanism are currently provisional.
Jazz
Ben: please fill out
Requirements
DRAFT
Platform should provide:
- A common notification service that dispatches notifications to a presentation layer. We need to figure out if there is overlap with the status service.
- A generic notification popup suitable for us by RCP and SDK-based applications.
Extensions can provide:
- Integration with OS-specific notification mechansims (e.g., Growl).
- New notification popup UIs with additional features (e.g., richer interaction).
References
- Vista notification guidelines: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511497.aspx
- Mac notifications via Growl: http://growl.info
- Linux notifcations project: http://www.galago-project.org/specs/notification