How to show notifications in an app

[Zakarayaev]

I'm writing an application that will mostly be in minimized state and I need the application to display notifications on the screen, like notifications that show messengers, is there something like this in Avalonia UI?

[leonleerl]

Try HandyControl: https://github.com/HandyOrg/HandyControl

[Zakarayaev]

"Thanks, but I can't seem to get HandyControl working in my project. Is there any guide for Avalonia? On GitHub, HandyControl only shows instructions for WPF, not Avalonia

[rabbitism]

"Thanks, but I can't seem to get HandyControl working in my project. Is there any guide for Avalonia? On GitHub, HandyControl only shows instructions for WPF, not Avalonia

yes handycontrol is only mature for wpf, avalonia support is still in early stage. I don't know why he recommends

[Zakarayaev]

Then how can I solve the problem with displaying the notification?

[rabbitism]

Then how can I solve the problem with displaying the notification?

If you mean showing a notification inside avalonia app, then there is a WindowNotificationManager available. If you mean showing inside operating system, then there is no solid solution atm.

[Zakarayaev]

I came up with a fairly simple option, I can just create a new window that can be changed as you like, it will be both fast and beautiful.

[thevortexcloud]

Avalonia has no built in toast API. You can write your own code somewhat easily for most platforms to do it. For Linux, there is a DBUS API you can use.

https://specifications.freedesktop.org/notification-spec/latest/

Windows has many different toast APIs available.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/design/shell/tiles-and-notifications/toast-notifications-overview

Android and iOS should also be supported by Xamarin/MAUI essentials. Not sure about Mac.

[maxkatz6]

There is one in Avalonia.Labs. Supported on all except browser platforms.
https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia.Labs/blob/main/samples/Avalonia.Labs.Catalog/ViewModels/NativeNotificationsViewModel.cs

[tobyfirth]

If you are just targeting windows then I have found Microsoft.Toolkit.Uwp.Notifications is pretty straight forward to use.
It has technically been superseded by a newer version which is part of the windows app sdk and is not a stand alone package anymore. The code is just a wrapper around the windows api so this older library still works perfectly well. Despite the name, it doesn't have any dependency on any UWP code so just works in a C# app. For example I have used it in a WinForms app which need the ability to send system notifications.

[Zakarayaev]

Is there a way that can work on Linux and macOS as well?

[tobyfirth]

No. It is Windows specific. Basically you would need look up the platform specific notification APIs for each OS such as using DBUS on Linux as @thevortexcloud mentioned.

When doing a quick search on nuget I noticed that there is an experimental cross platform library as part of Avalonia Labs. But it looks like it was only added recently so probably too early to use it in an app. It might give you some examples about how to use the different native platform APIs.

[cedric56]

This is what i use, i inject the service in each project

The abstraction

public interface IUserNotificationService
{
    void Show(string header, string title, string information);
}

For Android

public class UserNotificationService : IUserNotificationService
{
    Context context;
    int icon;
    NotificationManager notificationManager;
    public UserNotificationService(Context context, int icon)
    {
        this.context = context;
        this.icon = icon;
        // Get the NotificationManager
        notificationManager = (NotificationManager)context.GetSystemService(Context.NotificationService);
    }

    public void Show(string header, string title, string information)
    {
        var intent = new Intent();
        var taskStackBuilder = TaskStackBuilder.Create(context);
        taskStackBuilder.AddNextIntent(intent);
        var pendingIntent = taskStackBuilder.GetPendingIntent(0, PendingIntentFlags.Mutable);
        string channelId = null;

        // Only for Android 8.0 and above
        if (Build.VERSION.SdkInt >= BuildVersionCodes.O)
        {
            // Define the channel ID
            channelId = "your_channel_id";
            string channelName = "Your Channel Name";

            // Create the NotificationChannel
            var notificationChannel = new NotificationChannel(channelId, channelName, NotificationImportance.Default)
            {
                Description = "Channel Description"
            };

            //create the channel            
            notificationManager.CreateNotificationChannel(notificationChannel);
        }

        var notification = new Notification.Builder(context, channelId)
                .SetContentTitle(title)
                .SetContentText(information)
                .SetSmallIcon(icon)
                .SetOngoing(true)
                .SetAutoCancel(true) // Dismiss the notification from the notification area when the user clicks on it
                .SetContentIntent(pendingIntent) // Just do nothing
                .Build();

        notificationManager.Notify(1, notification);
    }
}

For iOS

public class NotificationDelegate : UNUserNotificationCenterDelegate
{
    public override void WillPresentNotification(UNUserNotificationCenter center, UNNotification notification, Action<UNNotificationPresentationOptions> completionHandler)
    {
        // Ensure the notification is presented even in the foreground
        completionHandler(UNNotificationPresentationOptions.Alert | UNNotificationPresentationOptions.Sound);
    }
}

internal class UserNotificationService : IUserNotificationService
{
    public void Show(string header, string title, string information)
    {
        UNUserNotificationCenter.Current.GetNotificationSettings((settings) =>
        {
            if (settings.AuthorizationStatus != UNAuthorizationStatus.Authorized)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Notifications are not authorized.");
            }
        });
        UNUserNotificationCenter.Current.RequestAuthorization(UNAuthorizationOptions.Alert | UNAuthorizationOptions.Badge | UNAuthorizationOptions.Sound,
        (approved, error) =>
        {
            if (approved)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Notification permission granted.");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Notification permission denied.");
            }
        });
        var content = new UNMutableNotificationContent
        {
            Title = title,
            Body = information,
            Sound = UNNotificationSound.Default // Default notification sound
        };
        // Set a trigger, for example, 5 seconds after the current time
        var trigger = UNTimeIntervalNotificationTrigger.CreateTrigger(5, false); // 5 seconds

        // Create a request with a unique identifier
        var requestID = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
        var request = UNNotificationRequest.FromIdentifier(requestID, content, trigger);


        UNUserNotificationCenter.Current.AddNotificationRequest(request, (error) =>
        {
            if (error != null)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"Error scheduling notification: {error.LocalizedDescription}");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Notification scheduled successfully.");
            }
        });
    }
}

For macOS

public class UserNotificationService : IUserNotificationService
{
    public void Show(string header, string title, string information)
    {
        var notification = new NSUserNotification
        {
            Title = title,
            InformativeText = information,
            SoundName = NSUserNotification.NSUserNotificationDefaultSoundName,                 
        };
        NSUserNotificationCenter.DefaultUserNotificationCenter.DeliverNotification(notification);
    }
}

For Windows

 public static class UserNotificationInterop
 {
     public static void Show(string applicationId, string xml)
     {
         // Load the XML into a DOM
         var toastXml = new XmlDocument();
         toastXml.LoadXml(xml);

         // Create the toast notification
         var toast = new ToastNotification(toastXml);

         // Show the toast notification
         var notifier = ToastNotificationManager.CreateToastNotifier(applicationId);
         notifier.Show(toast);
     }

     public static void Show(string applicationId, string icon, string title, string information)
     {
         // Define the toast notification content as XML
         string toastXmlString = $@"
         <toast activationType='background'>
             <visual>
                 <binding template='ToastGeneric'>
                     <!-- App logo icon in the header -->
                     <image placement='appLogoOverride' src='{icon}' />
                     <text>{title}</text>
                     <text>{information}</text>
                 </binding>
             </visual>
         </toast>";

         Show(applicationId, toastXmlString);
     }
 }

[suoyukii]

Preview:

Code:

var wnm = new WindowNotificationManager(this)
{
    // Position = NotificationPosition.TopRight, 
    Margin = new Thickness(20,40)
};
wnm.Show(
    new Notification
    {
        Title = "Title 1",
        Message = "Message 1",
        Expiration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)
    });
wnm.Show(
    new Notification
    {
        Title = "Title 2",
        Message = "Message 2",
        Expiration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)
    });
wnm.Show(
    new Notification
    {
        Title = "Title 3",
        Message = "Message 3",
        Expiration = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5)
    });

[maxkatz6]

You can check native notifications from Avalonia.Labs package. A simple sample is here: https://github.com/AvaloniaUI/Avalonia.Labs/blob/main/samples/Avalonia.Labs.Catalog/ViewModels/NativeNotificationsViewModel.cs

It's an experimental package. If you find any issues - please report on the Avalonia.Labs repository.