system-config-printer notification patch should auto-detect capabilities of notification daemon, so that it can get upstreamized

Note that this would also simplify maintaining the system-config-printer package a lot.

For the record, I discussed that with Till on IRC. Indeed checking $GDMSESSION is wrong here. Sorry that I didn't spot this earlier when sponsoring the original patch; things were pretty hectic around UIF..

None of the changes I described in <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NotifyOSD#system-config-printer> involve using notification bubbles, with actions or without. They involve eliminating notification bubbles, and I think they're just as valid on a system where the notification server accepts actions as on a system where it doesn't. (They reduce the total surface area of the interface, so people have less to learn or think about. And in the "Printer added" and "Authentication required" cases, they make the number of clicks required either the same or less.)

So, I suggest first seeing if upstream will accept the design changes described in the spec. If they will, make the changes unconditionally. If they won't, *then* make the changes conditional on whether the notification server accepts actions.

Tim, what do you think about making the following notification behavior the upstream default in system-config-printer?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NotifyOSD#system-config-printer

We do away with notification bubbles in general and instead, we do the following:

* When a printer is added successfully using a matching printer driver, a “Printer added” notification bubble appears containing the text “`%s' is ready for printing.” and a “Configure” button. Instead, the Properties window for that printer should open unfocused directly.
* When a printer is added successfully using a non-matching printer driver, a “Printer added” notification bubble appears containing the text “%s' has been added, using the %s' driver.” and a “Find driver” button. (system-config-printer 1.1 will also include a “Print test page” button.) Instead, the Properties window for that printer should open unfocused.
* When you try to view jobs on a printer that requires authentication, an “Authentication required” notification bubble appears containing the text “Job requires authentication to proceed” and an “Authenticate” button that brings up an alert box saying “Authentication required for printing document `%s' (job %d)”. The notification bubble should be abolished, and the alert box should be invoked directly instead.
* When a print job gets stuck for some reason, a notification bubble appears containing text “There was a problem processing the document” or similar, containing no buttons but staying open until it is clicked. This should be converted to an error alert box with an “OK” button.

ken, pitti, Matthew, if Tim does not agree to make this behavior default, we need to have both this new and the old behavior available in the upstream code. By default, the new behavior should be used in the case that the notification facility is not supporting actions and the old behavior otherwise. In addition, a "./configure" option should also allow to force the old or the new behavior.

Any consensus on this yet?

Ken, for now we should just rewrite our patch to use notify_get_server_caps() instead of querying $GDMSESSION. UI changes should go into separate bug reports.

Test for capabilities instead of GDMSESSION

This bug was fixed in the package system-config-printer - 1.1.3+git20090218-0ubuntu17

---------------
system-config-printer (1.1.3+git20090218-0ubuntu17) jaunty; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/26_notification.patch:
    - Check notification daemon capabilities to determine if actions are
      supported rather than check $GDMSESSION (LP: #339847)

 -- Ken VanDine <email address hidden> Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:54:27 -0400

Ken VanDine, thanks for the fix, I have applied the fixed patch upstream now.