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POGet users' attention when browser is minimized (cross-browser desktop notifications?)
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  1. POGet users' attention when browser is minimized (cross-browser desktop notifications?)
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    copied!<p>I'm working on a browser-based application that needs to be able to get users' attention when the user receives an incoming event, such as a message, even if the user has minimized the browser.</p> <p>Searching gave me some good results, but nothing cross-browser or firefox-specific. I need to be able to support IE 7+ and FF 3.6+ (specific to the user base).</p> <p>Here are the things I've looked at: </p> <ul> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4104016/are-there-any-javascript-library-for-cross-browser-desktop-notification">Are there any JavaScript library for cross browser desktop notification?</a> </li> <li><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/37122/make-browser-window-blink-in-task-bar">Make browser window blink in task Bar</a></li> </ul> <p>So far, we used a simple javascript alert to get the tray icon to flash, but that created an extra click in trying to respond to the notification (total of 3 clicks now, or a 33% degradation). Users are expected to do this 20-50 times a day, so it will get really annoying really quickly.</p> <p>Based on an example provided on Microsoft developers network, I made this simple prototype that worked well for IE, but it's IE-specific and will not work in other browsers:</p> <pre><code>&lt;HTML&gt; &lt;HEAD&gt; &lt;TITLE&gt;Popup Example&lt;/TITLE&gt; &lt;SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JScript"&gt; function timeMsg() { var t=setTimeout("ButtonClick()",5000); } var oPopup = window.createPopup(); function ButtonClick() { var oPopBody = oPopup.document.body; var myHeight = (window.screen.availHeight - 125); var myWidth = (window.screen.availWidth - 350); oPopBody.style.backgroundColor = "red"; oPopBody.style.border = "solid black 1px"; oPopBody.innerHTML = "Click outside &lt;B&gt;popup&lt;/B&gt; to close."; oPopup.show(myWidth, myHeight, 300, 75); } &lt;/SCRIPT&gt; &lt;/HEAD&gt; &lt;BODY&gt; &lt;BUTTON onclick="timeMsg()"&gt;Display alert in 5 seconds&lt;/BUTTON&gt; &lt;/BODY&gt; &lt;/HTML&gt; </code></pre> <p>Any suggestions on how to make this experience better without using an executable installed locally are greatly appreciated!</p>
 

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