send custom notifications via ftrack_api

[Remus Avram]

Hi all,

is it possible to send custom notifications via ftrack_api?

We are automating a lot with actions. But this creates also a lot of confusion. We need to communicate better to the users. We are using the pop up messages, but these are displayed only for 5 seconds. Sometimes the user is missing them, sometimes the message is going away before he/she finishes reading it.

Sending notifications to the user will help a lot in understanding what is happening.

[Mattias Lagergren]

Hi Remus, this could be done in two other ways at the moment:

• Trigger an action dialog for the user with the information. You can just use label with markdown to get the message through.
• Create a job to show the user progress.

As for the notification system we have ideas of revamping the notifications and at the same time give the ability to add your own. Note that this is just internal discussions at the moment.

[Remus Avram]

Hi @Mattias Lagergren, thanks for the thoughts. 

Both other ways have downsides. The Ftrack notification system is really nice and using it for custom notifications will be great.

[tokejepsen]

Quote

Trigger an action dialog for the user with the information. You can just use label with markdown to get the message through.

Could you elaborate on this?

Trying to trigger an action dialog from a custom published event, and can't seem to get it to work.

[Mattias Lagergren]

At the bottom of this article there is some information about triggering an action interface: http://help.ftrack.com/developing-with-ftrack/key-concepts/actions

I hope this helps!

[tokejepsen]

Hey Mattias,

Tried getting the examples running, but couldn't so wanted to see if you could correct my example code?

import getpass

import ftrack_api


def callback(event):
    """Status change updates."""

    session = ftrack_api.Session()

    for entity_data in event["data"].get("entities", []):

        if entity_data["action"] != "update":
            continue

        if "statusid" not in entity_data["keys"]:
            continue

        new_status = session.get(
            "Status", entity_data["changes"]["statusid"]["new"]
        )

        # Task changes
        if entity_data["entityType"] == "task":
            if new_status["name"] == "In Progress":
                event = ftrack_api.event.base.Event(
                    topic='ftrack.action.trigger-user-interface',
                    data={
                        'type': 'form',
                        'items': [
                            {
                                'label': 'My Boolean',
                                'name': 'my_boolean',
                                'value': True,
                                'type': 'boolean'
                            }
                        ],
                        'title': 'Foobar'
                    },
                    target=(
                        'applicationId=ftrack.client.web and '
                        'user.id={0}'.format(
                            event['source']['user']['id']
                        )
                    )
                )
                session.event_hub.publish(event)

    session.commit()


def register(session, **kw):
    """Register event listener."""

    # Validate that session is an instance of ftrack_api.Session. If not,
    # assume that register is being called from an incompatible API
    # and return without doing anything.
    if not isinstance(session, ftrack_api.Session):
        # Exit to avoid registering this plugin again.
        return

    # Register the event handler
    subscription = (
        "topic=ftrack.update and source.applicationId=ftrack.client.web and "
        "source.user.username={0}".format(getpass.getuser())
    )
    session.event_hub.subscribe(subscription, callback)

When a task's status is set to "In Progress" this code should show a form for the user to interact with.

[Mattias Lagergren]

Could you try to adda a small "time.sleep(..)" after initialising the new session? It could be that the event hub is not yet connected when the event is emitted.

[tokejepsen]

Thanks Mattias

I've used the shared session from ftrack-connect, and that works well.

Now the question is how do you intercept the "Submit" event?
Normally you look for "values" in the same event.

[tokejepsen]

Should have investigated it deeper. The event from hitting "Submit" on the dialog has a topic of "ftrack.action.launch" with the values in it.

Might be nice to update the documentation with this information.

 

import getpass

import ftrack_api
from ftrack_connect.session import get_shared_session


def callback(event):
    """Status change updates."""

    session = get_shared_session()

    for entity_data in event["data"].get("entities", []):

        if entity_data["action"] != "update":
            continue

        if "statusid" not in entity_data["keys"]:
            continue

        new_status = session.get(
            "Status", entity_data["changes"]["statusid"]["new"]
        )

        # Task changes
        if entity_data["entityType"] == "task":
            if new_status["name"] == "In Progress":
                event = ftrack_api.event.base.Event(
                    topic='ftrack.action.trigger-user-interface',
                    data={
                        'type': 'form',
                        'items': [
                            {
                                'label': 'My Boolean',
                                'name': 'my_boolean',
                                'value': True,
                                'type': 'boolean'
                            }
                        ],
                        'title': 'Foobar'
                    },
                    target=(
                        'applicationId=ftrack.client.web and '
                        'user.id={0}'.format(
                            event['source']['user']['id']
                        )
                    )
                )
                session.event_hub.publish(event)

    session.commit()


def action_launch(event):

    print event


def register(session, **kw):
    """Register event listener."""

    # Validate that session is an instance of ftrack_api.Session. If not,
    # assume that register is being called from an incompatible API
    # and return without doing anything.
    if not isinstance(session, ftrack_api.Session):
        # Exit to avoid registering this plugin again.
        return

    # Register the event handler
    subscription = (
        "topic=ftrack.update and source.applicationId=ftrack.client.web and "
        "source.user.username={0}".format(getpass.getuser())
    )
    session.event_hub.subscribe(subscription, callback)

    subscription = (
        "topic=ftrack.action.launch and "
        "source.user.username={0}".format(getpass.getuser())
    )
    session.event_hub.subscribe(subscription, action_launch)

 

[Remus Avram]

Hi @Mattias Lagergren

any updates regarding this? This will help us a lot if we were able to send messages to Artists using the Ftrack notifications.

[Mattias Lagergren]

No updates as of now - as an additional workaround, have you looked into writing a message (note without parent) to the user? This should trigger a notification

note = session.create('Note', { 'content': 'hey', 'user_id': author_user_id})
sesssion.create('Recipient', { 'note_id': note['id'], 'resource_id': target_user_id })
session.commit()

 

[Remus Avram]

3 hours ago, Mattias Lagergren said:

No updates as of now - as an additional workaround, have you looked into writing a message (note without parent) to the user? This should trigger a notification

note = session.create('Note', { 'content': 'hey', 'user_id': author_user_id})
sesssion.create('Recipient', { 'note_id': note['id'], 'resource_id': target_user_id })
session.commit()

 

I think this is what exactly we are looking for  

we will give it a try and let you know if works for us

[PeterH]

I'm coming in 2 years late, but I was attempting to do this myself and found some info which might help others:

• If api_user == target_user, then target_user will never receive any notification. It can only be found in the sent items of author_user.
• The browser notification will always be from api_user. 
• The note itself will correctly be from author_user.