Simple generic SNI indicator broker

[Consolatis]

After reading #378 I had some fun with the idea of a generic SNI broker with a named pipe and simple line based command flow as interface: https://github.com/Consolatis/AppIndicator-Broker

Example flow from its readme:

export SNI_BROKER=/tmp/some_named_pipe

# Start the daemon and let it run in the background
./appindicator-broker.py "$SNI_BROKER" &

# Create a tray entry identified with "foo", using the vlc icon
echo "foo create vlc" > "$SNI_BROKER"

# Modify it
echo "foo title some title" > "$SNI_BROKER"
echo "foo label some <b>label</b>" > "$SNI_BROKER"
echo "foo hide" > "$SNI_BROKER"
echo "foo show" > "$SNI_BROKER"
echo "foo icon dialog-warning" > "$SNI_BROKER"

# Add menu entries
echo "foo menu-add date Show the date on console" > "$SNI_BROKER"
echo "foo menu-add foot Start the foot terminal" > "$SNI_BROKER"

# Clear the menu
echo "foo menu-clear" > "$SNI_BROKER"

# Animate it
while true; do
	sleep 1;
	echo "foo icon vlc" > "$SNI_BROKER"
	sleep 1;
	echo "foo icon dialog-warning" > "$SNI_BROKER"
done

# Add a second tray entry, this time using the firefox icon
echo "bar create firefox" > "$SNI_BROKER"

# And clean up everything
kill %1

CC @bdantas

[bdantas]

Hi Consolatis. Wow, this is exactly what I was hoping to find and it works as described. Amazing!

I noticed that using icons in custom directories is already implemented, so this works too:

echo "baz create /opt/my_icons/penguin.png" > "$SNI_BROKER"

I have two feature requests:

1. Ability to add/modify tooltip (message that appears when hovering over icon with cursor), like this:

echo "baz tooltip Hello world" > "$SNI_BROKER"
echo "baz tooltip Good-bye world" > "$SNI_BROKER"

2. Ability to define a command or shell script to run when icon is left-clicked:

echo "baz left-click-action /home/bruno/.local/bin/something-cool.sh" > "$SNI_BROKER"

[bdantas]

however I think most panels will show the title on hover. Maybe sfwbar doesn't implement that part? @LBCrion

Nothing is shown when I hover over the icon, not even the icon's title.

Whatever way you want to implement commands--via a menu or immediately upon clicking--would be awesome.

[bdantas]

I tried appindicator-broker.py in X+fluxbox and it works in that environment just as well as in labwc+sfwbar. Very cool!

If this matures just a wee bit more (title or tooltip when hovering, ability to run commands through clicking or menu), I'll migrate my shell scripts from yad --notification to appindicator-broker.py. That way, my shell scripts will be X/wayland agnostic and will work in either environment :)

BTW I noticed that title does not appear when hovering over the icon in fluxbox, either. So this unexpected behavior is not specific to sfwbar.

[Consolatis]

Added menu-add and menu-clear commands. Technically we could add more things to the menu entries like icons and tooltips but then the parsing gets messy. Same reason why the command executed doesn't support any arguments. In another project I used a binary format which uses \x01 and \x02 as separators rather than whitespaces but that would kind of defeat the purpose of the simple line based API. They can still be used from shell scripts via printf but its kind of ugly and not intuitive. Suggestions how to overcome this welcome.

Random example of what is possible with SNI indicator menus:

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import os
import gi
import importlib

gi.require_version("Gio", "2.0")
gi.require_version("Gtk", "3.0")
gi.require_version("Gdk", "3.0")
from gi.repository import Gio, Gtk, Gdk


# Import a menu implementation
for menu_impl, menu_version, menu_prefix, menu_root_icon in (
	('MateMenu', '2.0', 'mate', 'mate-desktop'),
	('GMenu', '3.0', 'gnome', 'gnome_badge-symbolic'),
	('CMenu', '3.0', 'cinnamon', 'pr_for_cinnamon_icon_name_welcome')
):
	try:
		gi.require_version(menu_impl, menu_version)
	except ValueError as e:
		print(menu_impl, "not found:", e)
		continue
	GenericMenu = importlib.import_module(f"gi.repository.{menu_impl}")
	print(f"Using {menu_impl}")
	break
else:
	raise ImportError("No supported menu implemention found")


# Import libappindicator
try:
	gi.require_version('AyatanaAppIndicator3', '0.1')
	from gi.repository import AyatanaAppIndicator3 as AppIndicator
	print("Using AyatanaAppIndicator")
except ValueError:
	try:
		gi.require_version('AppIndicator3', '0.1')
		from gi.repository import AppIndicator3 as AppIndicator
		print("Using AppIndicator")
	except ValueError:
		raise ImportError("No supported libappindicator implemention found")


class PanelWidget:
	def __init__(self, app_icon, app_name):
		category = getattr(AppIndicator.IndicatorCategory, 'PANEL_WIDGET', None)
		if not category:
			category = AppIndicator.IndicatorCategory.SYSTEM_SERVICES
			#category = AppIndicator.IndicatorCategory.APPLICATION_STATUS
		self.indicator = AppIndicator.Indicator.new(app_name, app_icon, category)

		self.set_label = self._set_label
		if not getattr(self.indicator, 'set_label', None):
			self.set_label = self._set_title
			print("Missing client side support for XAyatanaLabel / Label."
				+ "Will fall back to setting the Title property")

		self.indicator.set_status(AppIndicator.IndicatorStatus.ACTIVE)

	def set_label(self, label):
		# Only for documentation purposes,
		# Will be overwritten on __init__()
		pass

	def log(self, msg):
		name = f"[{self}]"
		print(f"{name:>15s} {msg}")

	def _set_label(self, label, guide=''):
		self.indicator.set_label(label, guide)

	def _set_title(self, title):
		self.indicator.set_title(title)

	def __repr__(self):
		return self.__class__.__name__


class AppMenu(PanelWidget):
	def __init__(self, menu_file=None, root_name=None, show_tooltips=True):
		self.root_name = root_name
		#_, _, self.icon_size = Gtk.IconSize.lookup(Gtk.IconSize.MENU)

		# Initialize the menu
		self.tree = self._load_menu(menu_file)
		self.root = self.tree.get_root_directory()
		self.root_item = root = self.create_menu(self.root, menu=None)

		# Set up the indicator
		super().__init__(menu_root_icon, "Menu")
		self.set_label(root.label if not root_name else root_name)
		self.indicator.set_menu(root.get_submenu())

	def _load_menu(self, menu_file):
		choices = list()
		if menu_file:
			choices.append(menu_file)
		if 'XDG_MENU_PREFIX' in os.environ:
			choices.append(os.environ['XDG_MENU_PREFIX'] + 'applications.menu')
		choices.append('applications.menu')
		choices.append(menu_prefix + '-applications.menu')

		# TODO: use XDG_CONFIG_HOME/DIRS
		for file in sorted(os.listdir('/etc/xdg/menus/')):
			if file.endswith('applications.menu'):
				choices.append(file)

		for menu_file in choices:
			try:
				tree = GenericMenu.Tree.new(menu_file, GenericMenu.TreeFlags.NONE)
				tree.load_sync()
				return tree
			except Exception as e:
				continue
		raise Exception("No suitable applications.menu file found in /etc/xdg/menus/")

	def _create_entry(self, entry, is_dir=False):
		is_root = entry == self.root
		item = Gtk.MenuItem()

		tooltip = entry.get_generic_name()
		if tooltip:
			item.set_tooltip_text(entry.get_generic_name())

		if is_root and self.root_name:
			label = Gtk.Label(label=self.root_name)
		else:
			label = Gtk.Label(label=entry.get_name())

		icon = entry.get_icon()
		if icon:
			icon = Gtk.Image.new_from_gicon(icon, Gtk.IconSize.MENU)
		elif is_root and menu_root_icon:
			icon = Gtk.Image.new_from_icon_name(menu_root_icon, Gtk.IconSize.SMALL_TOOLBAR)
		else:
			icon = Gtk.Image.new_from_icon_name("unknown", Gtk.IconSize.MENU)
		# For some reason some theme combinations ignore the size
		# argument so we make it explicit by setting it manually.
		#icon.set_pixel_size(self.icon_size)

		box = Gtk.Box(orientation=Gtk.Orientation.HORIZONTAL, spacing=5)
		box.pack_start(icon, False, False, 0)
		box.pack_start(label, False, False, 0)
		item.add(box)
		if is_root:
			item.label = label.get_text()
			item.icon = icon
		if not is_dir:
			item.connect('button-release-event', self.handle_context_menu, entry.get_id())
			item.connect('activate', self.item_activate, entry.get_id())
		return item

	def item_activate(self, item, app_info_id):
		self.log(f"Launching {app_info_id}")
		app_info = Gio.DesktopAppInfo.new(app_info_id)
		app_info.launch(None, None)
		return True

	def handle_context_menu(self, item, event, app_info_id):
		self.log("should handle context menu")
		return True

	def create_menu(self, dir, menu, indent=2):
		item = self._create_entry(dir, is_dir=True)

		is_root = menu is None
		if not is_root:
			menu.append(item)

		menu = Gtk.Menu()
		menu.set_reserve_toggle_size(False)
		item.set_submenu(menu)

		iter = dir.iter()
		cur_type = None

		# TODO: Maybe implement Alias / Separator / Header
		while cur_type != GenericMenu.TreeItemType.INVALID:
			if cur_type == GenericMenu.TreeItemType.ALIAS:
				pass
			elif cur_type == GenericMenu.TreeItemType.DIRECTORY:
				dir = iter.get_directory()
				self.create_menu(dir, menu, indent=indent)
			elif cur_type == GenericMenu.TreeItemType.ENTRY:
				entry = iter.get_entry()
				info = entry.get_app_info()
				menu.append(self._create_entry(info))
			elif cur_type == GenericMenu.TreeItemType.HEADER:
				pass
			elif cur_type == GenericMenu.TreeItemType.SEPARATOR:
				pass
			elif cur_type is None:
				pass
			else:
				self.log("Got unknown cur_type:", cur_type)
			cur_type = iter.next()
		menu.show_all()

		if is_root:
			return item

if __name__ == '__main__':
	AppMenu()
	Gtk.main()

[bdantas]

echo "foo menu-add date Show the date on console" > "$SNI_BROKER"
echo "foo menu-add foot Start the foot terminal" > "$SNI_BROKER"

Hi Consolatis. These new menu features are working exactly as advertised. Very nice.

Technically we could add more things to the menu entries like icons and tooltips but then the parsing gets messy.

The way it is right now gets the job done perfectly. Adding icons and tooltips for the menu entries sounds like a big complication for diminishing returns.

I can't thank you enough for this little daemon. Because I have so many daemon-like shell scripts that rely on the systray to inform the user, not having something like yad --notification has been the biggest pain point for me since switching to wayland/labwc. As soon as I refactor my scripts to use this daemon, pain will be finally gone :)

I went ahead and packaged libayatana-appindicator and friends for Tiny Core Linux's repository. I will soon be packaging appindicator-broker as well. I am already the maintainer for labwc and sfwbar :)

I think the last loose end is making the icon's title ("tooltip") appear when user hovers over the icon with the cursor. Is this something that can be fixed on the daemon's end, or is this something that can only be solved on sfwbar's end?

[Consolatis]

I think the last loose end is making the icon's title ("tooltip") visible when hovering over the icon with the cursor. Is this something that can be fixed on the daemon's end, or is this something that can only be solved on sfwbar's end?

I'd need to find and check the actual SNI spec to answer that question. But libayatana at least doesn't seem to expose any toolttip property.

Another thing that could be added is something like foo scroll-action /some/random/script.sh but I didn't test if the signals are wired up in sfwbar.

Edit:
There is icon-desc though.. It is intended for accessibility and I don't know if panels show that one. I could just try to set it additionally to the title.

[LBCrion]

SNI spec has a fairly comprehensive tooltip property that includes and icon (name or bitmap), a tooltip title and tooltip text. If libayatana doesn't support it, I'm happy to use a title as a tooltip, but I'll need a way to detect libayatana items to do this.

…

On Sat, Jun 14, 2025 at 3:21 PM Consolatis ***@***.***> wrote: I think the last loose end is making the icon's title ("tooltip") visible when hovering over the icon with the cursor. Is this something that can be fixed on the daemon's end, or is this something that can only be solved on sfwbar's end? I'd need to find and check the actual SNI spec to answer that question. But libayatana at least doesn't seem to expose any toolttip property. Another thing that could be added is something like foo scroll-action /some/random/script.sh but I didn't test if the signals are wired up in sfwbar. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#384 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ASHPFFASVTJA6LKAPXBNML33DQVXFAVCNFSM6AAAAAB7GIUXG2VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTGNBWHE3DQMA> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Consolatis]

Maybe the title could be used if the tooltip is not set? That way it would work for all SNI clients which support the tooltip property and also for clients which don't support it.