<![CDATA[Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.]]>Hi,

I've been trying a create a Whatsweb fork (Application for whatsapp based on whatsapp web), that is able to send notifications, provided that the app suspend is disabled, by catching web desktop notifications and then notifying the system from that. (So that it vibrates, plays a sound and display notification on the system tray, as it would for a SMS)

I have a simple question: is it actually possible from from QT/C++/QML to send a local notification from an app in apparmor context without going through the Push Server loop, or not?

In this repository I've tried many things, in particular libnotify, and notify through QtDBus on com.lomiri.Postal, but nothing works. (libnotify works more or less when executing the executable from terminal, but not from apparmor context)

https://github.com/pparent76/whatsweb/tree/master

If someone has a hint about how to trigger a notification locally in the easiest way possible, it would greatly help.

Thank you in advance.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/topic/11375/send-notification-locally-from-qt-c-qml-app.RSS for NodeWed, 13 May 2026 06:52:49 GMTSun, 28 Sep 2025 14:17:44 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:37:04 GMT]]>✔ My solution to the initial question:
Here is my QML module to handle local notifications:

https://github.com/pparent76/UbuntuTouch-qml-notify-module

It contains a script setup-project.sh to install automatically all the requirements into the app project.

Also this push request to the whatsweb app can be pretty informative:

https://github.com/alefnode/ubports-apps/pull/44

Especially this commit that corresponds to setting up the module with setup-project.sh:

https://github.com/alefnode/ubports-apps/pull/44/commits/81d08baba14ed941ca0c9b246d0df543b0a452a6

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88821https://forums.ubports.com/post/88821Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:37:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:49:15 GMT]]>@Fuseteam
You can always compile and test the current version of my repo:

https://github.com/pparent76/whatsweb

It already contains many improvements:

  • Support for notifications
  • Smoother navigation with transitions
  • Smoother keyboard appearance/appearance
  • Avoid opening the keyboard untimely, when navigating
  • Enable GPU acceleration
  • Hide left panel for more pleasant interface
  • Make Emoji panel usable
  • Better graphical integration of navigation buttons ( back in chatview )
  • Copy a message to clipboard quickly with a long push on message.
  • Screensaver when the app is not foreground: hide the webview to save battery
  • Fix "contact info" panel
  • Fix left menus.
]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88824https://forums.ubports.com/post/88824Wed, 08 Oct 2025 15:49:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:37:12 GMT]]>@pparent that's an interesting tweak— curious to see the effect

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88823https://forums.ubports.com/post/88823Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:37:12 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:36:02 GMT]]>@Fuseteam Seems out of my scope, and having notifications only when the app is on to me is not a real drawback, since it allows to get notifications only when you want, and quit the app otherwise.

Also in my current version I made a tweak to hide the webview when the app is not in foreground to make sure it does not compute any visual stuff in the webview in background.

In practice with this the battery usage seem very limited.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88822https://forums.ubports.com/post/88822Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:36:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:37:04 GMT]]>✔ My solution to the initial question:
Here is my QML module to handle local notifications:

https://github.com/pparent76/UbuntuTouch-qml-notify-module

It contains a script setup-project.sh to install automatically all the requirements into the app project.

Also this push request to the whatsweb app can be pretty informative:

https://github.com/alefnode/ubports-apps/pull/44

Especially this commit that corresponds to setting up the module with setup-project.sh:

https://github.com/alefnode/ubports-apps/pull/44/commits/81d08baba14ed941ca0c9b246d0df543b0a452a6

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88821https://forums.ubports.com/post/88821Tue, 07 Oct 2025 15:37:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:42:15 GMT]]>@pparent if you are going to improve the app further, there is one more idea you can try; whatsapp web's service workers.

If we can figure out the service workers, we can potentially get notifications even without being unsuspended

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88813https://forums.ubports.com/post/88813Tue, 07 Oct 2025 12:42:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:37:19 GMT]]>Ps: And by the way I also plan to make this whatsapp application way more usable than it was. The version currently on my repo, already include some improvements that make the app significantly more fluid, polished and usable. But I will keep improving it progressively, and I plan to fix all the major functionalities offered by whatsapp web, that are currently broken on the app (starting with downloading/uploading photos/videos). And also I guess that future upgrade to Qt6 will also be a leap forward in regards of performance of this app, given that the webengine will be significantly more modern.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88722https://forums.ubports.com/post/88722Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:37:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:10:02 GMT]]>@lduboeuf said in Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.:

congrats for your perseverance. Now you are in the perfect situation to update or create a documentation 🙂

Thank's I will make better than this! 😉 I will update my QML notification module, and make a scripts that installs into an existing project all the prerequisites for it to work. Because there are some many tweaks to achieve it that it should not be done by a human, it's a loss of time, and the risk of mistake is too high. And anyway a script is always a more precise documentation on the actions to take than a human readable documentation.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88718https://forums.ubports.com/post/88718Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:10:02 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 21:47:05 GMT]]>@pparent said in Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.:

Ok in this version of whatsweb I have the notifications working without being unconfined, and it gets to the system panel! (Provided the app is not suspended in background)

🎉🎉

https://github.com/pparent76/whatsweb/tree/778f2302414f75029b22ea42a136fce3440f7a29

congrats for your perseverance. Now you are in the perfect situation to update or create a documentation 🙂

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88694https://forums.ubports.com/post/88694Fri, 03 Oct 2025 21:47:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Sun, 05 Oct 2025 14:56:37 GMT]]>Ok in this version of whatsweb I have the notifications working without being unconfined, and it gets to the system panel! (Provided the app is not suspended in background)

🎉🎉

https://github.com/pparent76/whatsweb/tree/82cd0c659af09bfad4315ba6c39e398d881451c3

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88690https://forums.ubports.com/post/88690Sun, 05 Oct 2025 14:56:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:05:04 GMT]]>@pparent said in Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.:

I guess this was the missing piece that I had seen nowhere else. ( Having PROGRAM instead of files )

I found this by checking journalctl -f on the device while calling gdbus

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88685https://forums.ubports.com/post/88685Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:05:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:00:39 GMT]]>@lk108 said in Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.:

install(PROGRAMS pushexec DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX})

Ok it works!!! Thanks! 😊

I guess this was the missing piece that I had seen nowhere else. ( Having PROGRAM instead of files )

I will make a version of whatsapp app with these notifications next.

Though, I still think this is not normal that it requires so many specific tweaks to do something as simple as sending a notification. At least my repo will possibly serve as a documentation for someone looking for that.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88684https://forums.ubports.com/post/88684Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:00:39 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 16:52:50 GMT]]>@pparent Three things:

  1. In your manifest, you define a hook "notify-notify", but it should be "push":

    "hooks": {
        "notify": {
            "apparmor": "notify.apparmor",
            "desktop":  "notify.desktop",
            "content-hub": "content-hub.json"
        },
        "push": {
            "apparmor": "notify-push.apparmor",
            "push-helper": "notify-push-helper.json"
        }
    },
[...]
  1. You need to install the push helper with execution rights in CMakeLists.txt:
install(PROGRAMS pushexec DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX})
  1. I was not aware, but there actually seems to be a difference between confined and unconfined apps. The push helper of dekko is allowed to use cp, but for your app, it's not. So instead of the simple bash script that just says cp $1 $2, use python in your pushexec:
#!/usr/bin/python3
import sys
f1, f2 = sys.argv[1:3]
open(f2, "w").write(open(f1).read())

With this, your gdbus line works.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88683https://forums.ubports.com/post/88683Fri, 03 Oct 2025 16:52:50 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:41:15 GMT]]>@lk108

Ok then let's agree on a minimalist example that should work. Can you see why this minimalist example does NOT work?

https://github.com/pparent76/UT-notify-example

It does not work, when dbus calls are made from the code, but it does not work either with the terminal command (Whether the app is visible or not when the call is made, it does not change anything)

gdbus call --session --dest com.lomiri.Postal --object-path /com/lomiri/Postal/notify_2epparent --method com.lomiri.Postal.Post notify.pparent_notify '{"message": "foobar", "notification":{"card": {"summary": "yes", "body": "hello", "popup": true, "persist": true}}}'
]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88680https://forums.ubports.com/post/88680Fri, 03 Oct 2025 15:41:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:15:28 GMT]]>@pparent For my app, this works: https://codeberg.org/lk108/deltatouch/src/commit/d734cab514c0ee0c465b759d46c05ada322f58ca/src/plugins/DeltaHandler/notificationsLomiriPostal.cpp#L345
(but only if the app is not currently shown to the user)

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88677https://forums.ubports.com/post/88677Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:15:28 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 13:53:24 GMT]]>@pparent The DBus call passes the JSON at the end of your command to the so-called push helper. This is a separate executable that is shipped with each app that supports push. Check the manifest, it defines a hook "push" which has an entry "push-helper". This entry again references a JSON with an entry "exec" pointing to the push helper executable.

The push helper is called by the system with an infile containing the JSON passed by the DBus call, and an outfile to which the push helper is expected to write a JSON in a format that is understood by the notification service.

In the case of dekko2, the push helper is just passing the content of the infile to the outfile as it is already fed something in the correct format by dekko's background service. So your command works. In the case of teleports, the push helper is expecting something else entirely, and does not know what to do with the JSON that you fed to it via your DBus call.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88674https://forums.ubports.com/post/88674Fri, 03 Oct 2025 13:53:24 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 13:44:04 GMT]]>@pparent Notifications has nothing to do with the app being confined or not

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88671https://forums.ubports.com/post/88671Fri, 03 Oct 2025 13:44:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 13:41:59 GMT]]>@pparent At some place in the code that generates the notification popup and the entry in the notification list, there's a check if the app for which the notification is generated is currently active and shown on the screen to the user. If that's the case, generation of the popup etc. is aborted.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88670https://forums.ubports.com/post/88670Fri, 03 Oct 2025 13:41:59 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:55:19 GMT]]>@lduboeuf said in Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.:

dekko is unconfined, teleports not....

Yes but in both case I do the dbus call from unconfined terminal, so this should not even make a difference....

Or else, its Postal itself that when receiving the call, verifies if the app is confined or not, and will only send the notification if unconfined?.... This makes no sense at all....

If we can officially send notifications only from unconfined context then it should be clearly stated, but then it's to be expected that people want to build unconfined apps... 😧

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88668https://forums.ubports.com/post/88668Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:55:19 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:46:55 GMT]]>@pparent said in Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.:

By the way intersting thing to note, having teleports and dekko installed

This does not do anything (but does not throw any error)

gdbus call --session --dest com.lomiri.Postal --object-path /com/lomiri/Postal/teleports_2eubports --method com.lomiri.Postal.Post teleports.ubports_teleports '{"message": "foobar", "notification":{"card": {"summary": "yes", "body": "hello", "popup": true, "persist": true}}}'

This triggers a notification

gdbus call --session --dest com.lomiri.Postal --object-path /com/lomiri/Postal/dekko2_2edekkoproject --method com.lomiri.Postal.Post dekko2.dekkoproject_dekko '{"message": "foobar", "notification":{"card": {"summary": "yes", "body": "hello", "popup": true, "persist": true}}}'

Why?

dekko is unconfined, teleports not....

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88667https://forums.ubports.com/post/88667Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:46:55 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:48:37 GMT]]>By the way intersting thing to note, having teleports and dekko installed

This does not do anything (but does not throw any error)

gdbus call --session --dest com.lomiri.Postal --object-path /com/lomiri/Postal/teleports_2eubports --method com.lomiri.Postal.Post teleports.ubports_teleports '{"message": "foobar", "notification":{"card": {"summary": "yes", "body": "hello", "popup": true, "persist": true}}}'

This triggers a notification

gdbus call --session --dest com.lomiri.Postal --object-path /com/lomiri/Postal/dekko2_2edekkoproject --method com.lomiri.Postal.Post dekko2.dekkoproject_dekko '{"message": "foobar", "notification":{"card": {"summary": "yes", "body": "hello", "popup": true, "persist": true}}}'

Why? Can anybody explain this witchcraft? 😅

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88666https://forums.ubports.com/post/88666Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:48:37 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:40:38 GMT]]>@lk108 said in Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App.:

@pparent Not sure if this is relevant here, but notifications won't show if the app is the currently active one, i.e., shown in the foreground with unlocked screen. This is on purpose: https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/lomiri-push-service/-/commit/0c8983a359e9834cad4015512d57b5a29ca06937

Thank's for the message, but I'm not sure to see what you mean by "notifications won't show if the app is the currently active one, i.e., shown in the foreground with unlocked screen."

In any case I would like yet to see a simple example where this notification system through POSTAL actually does work. The only example I've seen is dekko, but they have so many "notification plugins" modules in their code that it's very hard to follow what makes it work + they are running unconfined.

If someone knows how this systems works, and wants to write a minimal "Hello world" through notification example app, I think it could help many potential developers.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88665https://forums.ubports.com/post/88665Fri, 03 Oct 2025 12:40:38 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Fri, 03 Oct 2025 08:00:08 GMT]]>@pparent Not sure if this is relevant here, but notifications won't show if the app is the currently active one, i.e., shown in the foreground with unlocked screen. This is on purpose: https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/lomiri-push-service/-/commit/0c8983a359e9834cad4015512d57b5a29ca06937

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88642https://forums.ubports.com/post/88642Fri, 03 Oct 2025 08:00:08 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:39:05 GMT]]>By the way in this push notifications profile the argument "@{APP_PKGNAME_DBUS}" used to filter Postal service is only used in this profile, and in app prushase (obviously a deprecated one). This is very suspicious.

https://gitlab.com/search?search=%40{APP_PKGNAME_DBUS}&nav_source=navbar&project_id=25344238&group_id=4298794&search_code=true&repository_ref=main

All the other profile use variable @{APP_ID_DBUS}

https://gitlab.com/search?search=%40{APP_ID_DBUS}&nav_source=navbar&project_id=25344238&group_id=4298794&search_code=true&repository_ref=main

This is probably a sign that this push-notification has been left abandoned for a while.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88624https://forums.ubports.com/post/88624Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:39:05 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Send notification locally from QT/C++/QML App. on Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:35:29 GMT]]>Adding dbus authorisation to "org.freedesktop.Notifications" and "com.lomiri.hfd" would solve the confinement problem. Also

https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/apparmor-easyprof-ubuntu/-/blob/main/data/policygroups/ubuntu/1.2/push-notification-client

Also the filtering in this file for Postal is probably buggy as I get

[POST] >>   QDBusMessage(type=MethodCall, service="com.lomiri.Postal", path="/com/lomiri/Postal/alefnode_2ewhatsweb", interface="com.lomiri.Postal", member="Post", signature="", contents=("alefnode.whatsweb_whatsweb", "{"notification":{"card":{"actions":["appid://alefnode.whatsweb/whatsweb/current-user-version"],"icon":"/opt/click.ubuntu.com/.click/users/@all/alefnode.whatsweb/icon.png","persist":true,"popup":true,"summary":"Whatsapp test"},"sound":true,"vibrate":true}}") )
[POST ERROR]  "An AppArmor policy prevents this sender from sending this message to this recipient; type=\"method_call\", sender=\":1.483\" (uid=32011 pid=27477 comm=\"/opt/click.ubuntu.com/alefnode.whatsweb/current/bi\" label=\"alefnode.whatsweb_whatsweb_0.2.8 (enforce)\") interface=\"com.lomiri.Postal\" member=\"Post\" error name=\"(unset)\" requested_reply=\"0\" destination=\"com.lomiri.Postal\" (uid=32011 pid=3117 comm=\"/usr/lib/lomiri-push-service/lomiri-push-service \" label=\"unconfined\")"

But anyway even unconfined postal does not work for me.

]]>https://forums.ubports.com/post/88622https://forums.ubports.com/post/88622Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:35:29 GMT