dbus-notification 2026.2.0

Sends notifications using DBus

DBus Notification

This library provides a simple interface for creating and displaying desktop notifications with custom buttons. Please note that some features might have varying levels of support across different Linux distributions.

Features:

• Send notifications with custom titles, messages, and images
• Include clickable buttons for user interaction
• Control notification urgency, timeout, and sound
• Replace an active notification using its ID.
• Close a specific notification by its ID.
• Clear all notifications sent by the application.
• Receive callbacks when a notification is closed by the user, client, or timeout. Note: Some features might have limited support depending on your desktop environment.

Requirements

DBus Notification has minimal system dependencies:

• Python 3.7 or later
• jeepney library

Installation

Install the library using pip:

pip install dbus-notification

Usage

This library offers two primary usage approaches:

Command-Line Interaction

If you prefer a quick way to view information or control playback, you can potentially execute the dbus-notification script directly, though this doesn't support button actions. For more extensive programmatic control, I would recommend using the library within your Python code.

Programmatic Control

Import the DBusNotification class from your Python code:

import time
from dbus_notification import DBusNotification

def callback(notification_type, notification):
    if notification_type == "closed":
        print(f"Notification {notification["id"]} has closed.")
    elif notification_type == "button":
        print(f"Notification {notification["id"]} has clicked on the button {notification["button"]}.")

dbus_app = DBusNotification(appname="dbus_notification", callback=callback)

notification_id = dbus_app.send(
    title="Initial Message",
    message="This message will be replaced in 3 seconds.",
    logo="logo.png",
    image="myimage.png",
    sound="message-new-instant",
    actions=["Test Button"],
    urgency=1,
    timeout=5000, # 5 seconds
)
time.sleep(3)

notification_id = dbus_app.send(
    title="Updated Message",
    message="This is the new message body.",
    notifyid=notification_id,
)
time.sleep(3)
dbus_app.close(notification_id)

dbus_app.send(title="N2", message="A second notification.")
dbus_app.send(title="N3", message="A third notification.")
time.sleep(3)

dbus_app.close_all()

# Keep the app running
while True:
    time.sleep(1)

Future Features

• Support for notification categories
• Resident or transient notification options
• Ability to specify notification position on the screen