Description:

dtbell 1.1.1

Ditch The Bell




A desktop notifier for RSS/Atom feeds that lets you closely configure features of the freedesktop notification specification to unlock the most customizable feed notification experience possible on Linux.


Features


Configure a custom command to launch when clicking on a notification (e.g., your favorite application, shell command, custom script). The feed entry link will be passed as an argument, allowing the command to open the link directly.


A feed profile system built to separate notification behaviors for each of your different types of feeds (e.g., news, blogs, podcasts, videos, etc).


Define patterns in your profiles to filter feeds so you're only notified for the entries that are relevant to you.


Configuration options to fine-tune feed fetching behavior such as the search window, search interval, etc.



Install
PyPI
Dependencies:

Python 3.7+
Optional: Before installing, it is recommended that you install PyGObject from your distribution's package manager for GObject Introspection. The package is typically named one of the following: python-gi, python-gobject, or pygobject on most distributions.

Ditch The Bell is available on PyPI and can be installed via pip, the Python package manager.
pip install dtbell


Arch Linux (AUR):
Ditch The Bell is available in the Arch AUR: dtbell-git

Usage
To run, simply execute:
dtbell

If needed, use the --debug flag to print debug logs to the console:
dtbell --debug


Configuring
File Locations
All relevant files are stored in accordance with the XDG Base Directory Specification.
Configuration files config.ini, urls: are located in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dtbell/.

If $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set, the default location is $HOME/.config/dtbell/.

Data files dtbell.db, dtbell.log: are located in $XDG_DATA_HOME/dtbell/.

If $XDG_DATA_HOME is not set, the default location is $HOME/.local/share/dtbell/.

If you enable thumbnail downloads, thumbnails will be temporarily downloaded to /tmp/dtbell/.
Adding Feeds
To add feeds, edit the urls file, adding one URL per line.
https://example.com/feed/rss.xml
https://another-example.com/feed/rss.xml

Authenticated feeds are not yet supported.
Configuration Options
To modify the configuration settings, edit the config.ini file.
Feed Configuration
The [feed] section in your config.ini file serves as the primary area for defining feed fetch behavior. Below are the available configuration options for the [feed] section:



Name
Description
Data Type
Default Value




search_window
The number of days to go back when searching for new feeds. Cached entries are retained for this duration.
Integer
1


search_interval
Time interval (in minutes) between each search for new entries.
Integer
30


search_on_startup
Determines if a search is initiated upon application launch.
Boolean
true


flood_cap
Maximum number of notifications to avoid notification flooding. Set to 0 for unlimited.
Integer
10


fetch_timeout
Maximum time (in seconds) the app will wait for a response after requesting a feed.
Integer
10



Defining Profiles
The profile system is designed to adapt to the diverse array of feeds that modern RSS users often manage (news feeds, blog feeds, podcast feeds, etc). It allows for tailored notification behavior based on the nature of each feed. You can define custom notification profiles for these specific types of feeds in your config.ini file. For instance, a profile for video based feeds could look like this:
[video]
entry_age = true
persist_on_click = true
launcher = mpv
launcher_args = '--save-position-on-quit'

A [default] profile is defined in the config.ini file and serves as the baseline configuration for all feeds not tagged with a custom profile. Below are the available configuration options for the [default] section:



Name
Description
Data Type
Default Value




launcher
Shell command to open notifications; must accept a URL as argument.
String
default_browser


launch_args
Argument(s) to pass to launcher; e.g., '-P news' if launcher was set to firefox.
String
''


transience
Determines whether notifications are temporary and disappear after a short time.
Boolean
false


persist_on_click
Keep notification after click; useful if transience is set to false.
Boolean
false


urgency
Notification urgency: 0 (low), 1 (normal), 2 (critical).
Integer
1


timeout
Timeout in ms; -1 for server default, 0 for never.
Integer
-1


entry_age
Display entry age.
Boolean
false


download_thumbnails
Download thumbnails; consult your feed's TOS and be mindful of bandwidth usage.
Boolean
true


require_patterns
Require entries to contain at least one of these patterns; e.g., 'Open Source', Linux
Custom (Comma-separated values)
''


exclude_patterns
Exclude entries that contain any one of these patterns; e.g., Proprietary, Windows
Custom (Comma-separated values)
''



You can modify the default profile directly to affect all untagged feeds, or define custom profiles like the [video] profile if you wish to customize settings for a select group of feeds. Omitting fields in a custom profile will cause those settings to fall back to the values defined in the default profile.
Adding Profiles to URLs
As mentioned earlier, the urls file should contain one RSS feed URL per line. To associate a profile with a specific feed, simply append the profile name (the name within the square brackets [ ] in your config.ini) to the end of the feed URL, separated by a space. The format is simply url profile. For instance, using the [video] profile from earlier, an example urls file would look like this:
https://example.com/feed/rss.xml video
https://another-example.com/feed/rss.xml video


Contributing
This program is in its early stages of development and may have some rough edges or bugs. If you encounter any issues and want to contribute, feel free to submit an issue or open a PR!
Note: All PRs must adhere to PEP 8 and pass pylint checks.

License
This program is licensed under the GPLv3; see the LICENSE file.

License

For personal and professional use. You cannot resell or redistribute these repositories in their original state.

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