Growl support for Adobe AIR applications
One of the top feature requests that end users have been asking for from AIR applications (on Mac) is the ability for those applications to leverage the open source Growl notification framework on Mac. However, this was not previously possible due to how applications are required to communicate with Growl.
I am really excited to announce that Adobe has been working with the Growl team to add support to Growl for Adobe AIR and Flash applications. Among other things, this will enable Adobe AIR applications to leverage the Growl notification framework on Mac. The best part, is that it is implemented in a way that is not just limited to use by Flash and AIR.
The new functionality is not yet in the release version of Growl, but if you are a developer you can download a nightly source build of Growl with the support. This will allow you to play around with the functionality and begin to add Growl support to your application.
In addition, I have put together a new open source ActionScript project, named as3growl, which provides an API for working with the new Growl functionality. The project is hosted at Google code and already contains the complete API source, API docs, examples, documentation, unit tests and other information.
I have posted information on how to grab the correct Growl source and compile it. You can find it in the Known Issues section of the as3growl Release Notes.
If you find any issues, or have any feature requests, you can log them here.
You can find more info about Growl on their site.
Update (November 17, 2008) : I created a mailing list for the project here.
What would be the story for windows folks? AIR + somelib + (windows growl?)
Andrew Wooldridge
13 Nov 08 at 10:44 am
Awesome news! Are there any plans to abstract it out even further so that there is a cross-platform growl-like notification on other platforms (ie Windows)?
Norm Yee
13 Nov 08 at 10:49 am
There is a Growl for Windows project here:
http://www.tripthevortex.com/growl/
and I believe they will be implementing the new changes which means this would work on windows also. I am trying to confirm this.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
13 Nov 08 at 10:56 am
As great as it sounds, I’ll probably continue using my own custom notification system, to ensure consistency between platforms.
david deraedt
13 Nov 08 at 10:57 am
Oh, I didn’t know that ! A growl project for windows would of course change the game. However, I doubt its penetration will be as great as it is for the mac (at least for now).
david deraedt
13 Nov 08 at 11:00 am
@david
No problem with that.
However, if you do want to support it (or if your users want you to support), you now have the option.
Btw, my experience is that end users dont care how the app works on a platform they dont use, just that it works how they expect on the platform they are using.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
13 Nov 08 at 11:02 am
This is good news! Growl installed on a Mac is almost a given, or so it seems, so this a welcomed feature. Thanks for posting the info and the nightly build to test it out.
Matthew Keefe
13 Nov 08 at 11:03 am
hotness
Trevor
13 Nov 08 at 11:05 am
[...] run down from Mike Chambers at Adobe here. Posted in AIR, Flash [...]
FDUG » Blog Archive » Adobe AIR To Get Support For Growl
13 Nov 08 at 11:06 am
[...] Chambers has posted some very interesting information about Growl notification support over on his blog. This basically means that with the help of the Growl team, they have created a [...]
mkeefeDESIGN & Photography » Blog Archive » Growl support for AIR applications
13 Nov 08 at 11:08 am
Very nice… I can hardly wait for that multyplatform..
Rafael Ochoa
13 Nov 08 at 11:28 am
This is very cool - I have the notification coming up at the bottom. Now I just need to figure out how to change the UI for it (message box like instead of banner), etc. Very cool.
eric dolecki
13 Nov 08 at 11:48 am
“The best part, is that it is implemented in a way that is not just limited to use by Flash and AIR.”
Mike… I’m interested in hearing more about that statement. Care to elaborate? :)
Thanks,
Frank
Frank
13 Nov 08 at 11:52 am
Is the only notification type available the banner @ the bottom right now? I don’t see reference to specific types (yet)
eric dolecki
13 Nov 08 at 11:57 am
@eric_dolecki
The user specifies what the notification looks like in the Growl preferences pane.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
13 Nov 08 at 12:04 pm
Awesome. Though I really do feel AIR should have its own notification framework for the cross OS consistency.
arpit
13 Nov 08 at 12:15 pm
Thanks Mike. While the user can set that in the Prefs, it would be kind of nice to be able to actually call up a supported type we deem would work best for an application. I get not wanting to stomp on prefs, let the user have control, but I also feel like some apps might have better Growl integration if we could specify a type to actually call up.
eric dolecki
13 Nov 08 at 1:08 pm
@eric dolecki
Well, that is up to the Growl developers.
However, as a user, I dont want apps changing how my notifications are displayed. One of the reasons I like Growl, is that it provides consistent notifications across applications.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
13 Nov 08 at 1:26 pm
Do you know if CoverSutra, GMail notifier, etc. use a form of growl or their own baked solution? Because their “icon” can be a large album cover, or a large PNG, etc.
Perhaps I am thinking of asking more than what Growl is really intended for - quick, mainly text-based notifications.
eric dolecki
13 Nov 08 at 1:31 pm
It’s really great feature! But growl-dev requirement makes it unusable. Anyway this is right direction!
ilya
13 Nov 08 at 1:37 pm
this is really great!
Dave
13 Nov 08 at 1:40 pm
don’t forget poor old linux users though - I think there’s a glibnotify or something which the Ubiquity folks are using.
Dave
13 Nov 08 at 1:44 pm
@ilya
–
But growl-dev requirement makes it unusable.
–
For end users, but not developers. This will eventually be in the release version of Growl.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
13 Nov 08 at 1:47 pm
One feature request if I may. It would be nice to have a method in GrowlService class like isGrowlAvailable(). This would try to connect to growl, do the needed handshake and report back true/false if that succeeded.
Then one could more easily in their code check if it’s OK to use growl service or some other notification system like as3notificationlib.
Erki Esken
13 Nov 08 at 1:56 pm
@erki
Just call GrowlService.connect() and listen for an IOErrorEvent. If you receive that, it means the service is not available.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
13 Nov 08 at 1:59 pm
Mike, is there a reason why Adobe didn’t just implement UDP support in Air? It seems quite a palaver to actually change the Growl project to use a TCP socket.
Alex MacCaw
13 Nov 08 at 4:05 pm
@alex
–
Mike, is there a reason why Adobe didn’t just implement UDP support in Air?
–
Well, for a project with the size, scale and scope of AIR, you never “just implement” anything.
–
It seems quite a palaver to actually change the Growl project to use a TCP socket.
–
I dont think so. This is something that the Growl team had been considering for a while. We just helped make it possible, sooner.
But regardless, this had ZERO impact on the AIR team, and thus was a no brainer for Adobe (developers get Growl support, and end users get apps that work like they expect in regards to Growl).
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
13 Nov 08 at 4:17 pm
@eric dolecki
Growl allows you to load an image. I am not exactly sure how the size is determined but I do know the UI is a Growl notification global option. However the end user can choose different notifications for each application.
Matthew Keefe
13 Nov 08 at 4:57 pm
[...] Chambers has announced that Growl is soon to be Adobe AIR-friendly. Growl is one of those add-ons you need to install when you get a Mac, so this is a very good thing [...]
coderkind.com » Blog Archive » Growl support for AIR apps on the Mac
13 Nov 08 at 5:52 pm
glad to see the AIR library for Growl released. the new TCP protocol format that Growl will support adds a bunch of other features as well, such as allowing network apps to send images in the notifications (the current UDP network protocol doesnt allow this), allowing websites to send notifications (via libraries like as3growl), and an extensible protocol format for sending in custom information such as sounds, etc.
a new version of Growl for Windows is in development and just about complete - just waiting on finalizing the TCP protocol 100% with the Growl guys and then some beta testing. hopefully with the new TCP protocol, there will be a true cross-platform solution for notifications.
brian dunnington
13 Nov 08 at 11:20 pm
That’s good for Mac users but what about Windows??
How about support for Snarl: http://www.fullphat.net/
“Snarl is a notification system inspired by Growl for Macintosh that lets applications display fancy messages on the screen with the minimum of fuss - no complex code, libraries or other middleware required.”
Sam Hassan
14 Nov 08 at 6:50 am
That all looks very cool - but what does Growl give you that custom notifications in AIR don’t? Is it just the ability for the user to turn them on and off from a central location?
James
14 Nov 08 at 7:08 am
@James
–
but what does Growl give you that custom notifications in AIR don’t?
–
A consistent Notification system across applications.
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
mikechambers
14 Nov 08 at 9:02 am
[...] I saw Mike Chambers tweet post I knew I had to have a play. I love Growl and I am game for a play around with what Mike has done. [...]
Flex Video with Growl Notifications
14 Nov 08 at 5:18 pm
Hi Mike,
Really chuffed to see this post, Growl is wicked and your integration work is really appreciated.
I have whipped together a very quick PureMVC application using your swc. Check it out, little FMS video app with Growl notifications :)
http://www.nutrixinteractive.com/blog/?p=233
Cheers,
Simon
Simon Bailey
14 Nov 08 at 5:41 pm
That’s an incredible API. We’re planning on putting that ability into an air product.
Patrick Lemiuex
14 Nov 08 at 7:03 pm
@Sam Hassan: The AIR side of this is implementation independent as it conforms to the new GNTP (Growl Network Transfer Protocol) 1.0 spec. Growl and Growl for Windows will be supporting it. Snarl’s developers could choose to implement support, as well, once it’s finalized.
Evan Schoenberg
15 Nov 08 at 9:51 pm
[...] PNG. By the way Adobe, get cracking on providing an AS3 XMP library that we can use in AIR apps. Growl is nice, but a library for reading and injecting XMP would bring down the house for meta-nerds [...]
The XMP Revolution is Here
15 Nov 08 at 11:45 pm
[...] > Growl support for Adobe AIR applications at Mike Chambers [...]
localToGlobal » Blog Archive » news review -> 46th week of 2008
16 Nov 08 at 11:52 am
This is great news indeed. I appreciate the effort very much!
But some of the comments here miss a little the point. Growl is sure for consistency across applications but also for usability and `configurability`.
You can easily have one style for each app. You also can completely stop all notifications in one place (the menu bar) i.e. for doing a presentation or to watch a full screen movie.
Iraê
17 Nov 08 at 5:44 am
[...] There were actually so many features and projects announced that it became a bit hard to file it all away after awhile at the keynote. I’d rather people back a blur in than have nothing to talk about, for sure. As an example, Adobe Wave looks like an import, conceptually, of the Growl notification system into Adobe Platform-land. Of Growl and AIR, see here. [...]
People Over Process » All Platform, All the Time - Adobe MAX, Day 1
17 Nov 08 at 7:29 pm
[...] Growl support for Adobe AIR applications at Mike Chambers [...]
People Over Process » Links for November 17th
17 Nov 08 at 9:59 pm
[...] Growl support for Adobe AIR applications at Mike Chambers I am really excited to announce that Adobe has been working with the Growl team to add support to Growl for Adobe AIR and Flash applications. Among other things, this will enable Adobe AIR applications to leverage the Growl notification framework on Mac. (tags: adobeintegratedruntime growl) [...]
links for 2008-11-19 « Brent Sordyl’s Blog
19 Nov 08 at 7:03 am
[...] Mike Chambers reports that the beloved open source Growl notification framework will be able to be leveraged by Adobe AIR applications. If you are unfamiliar with Growl, Growl is a notification system for Mac OS X that allows applications that support Growl to send you notifications. [...]
As3Growl: Adobe AIR Learns To Growl | Flash Speaks Actionscript
20 Nov 08 at 6:03 am
please tell me how to develop air application using XMP it s urgent
David
david
2 Dec 08 at 10:21 pm