Notification unresponsive after ~40s of inactivity

[alexanderturinske]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.
  Relates to: feat: allow Linux/Windows users to set notification timeout #20153, Notification Duration #11690, Timeout parameter for Notification for Linux #12458, eb#1604
  Documentation: https://electronjs.org/docs/api/notification#new-notificationoptions-experimental, which conflicts with https://electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/notifications a little

Issue Details

• Electron Version:
  • v6.0.8
• Operating System:
  • macOS 10.14.6
• Last Known Working Electron version:
  • N/A

Expected Behavior

1. Open app
2. Click Check for update menu item
3. Update is found and starts downloading
4. On download Notification pops up giving option to restart and install new version
5. User waits ~40s because they were in the middle of something or whatever. Notification continues to show
6. User clicks on notification to restart app
   • EXPECTED: App restarts and installs the new version OR the notification disappears when it no longer will register actions
   • ACTUAL: Notification disappears and the app remains

To Reproduce

// Pulled from Issue #1604
function ensureSafeQuitAndInstall() {
    app.removeAllListeners('window-all-closed');
    const browserWindows = BrowserWindow.getAllWindows();
    browserWindows.forEach(browserWindow => {
        browserWindow.removeAllListeners('close');
    });
    dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `no error, just closing`);
    autoUpdater.quitAndInstall();
}

/**
 * Shows the update available notification and restarts the app on acceptance
 * @returns {void} void
 */
autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', () => {
    const notif = new Notification({
        title: 'Update Downloaded',
        body: 'Click to reload the application',
    });

    // Reload the app if clicked on
    notif.on('click', ev => {
        dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `no error, just clicked ${ev}`);
        try {
            ensureSafeQuitAndInstall();
        } catch (e) {
            dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `error: ${e}`);
        }
    });

    // Never called
    notif.on('close', ev => {
        dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `no error, closing action ${ev}`);
    });

    // Never called
    notif.on('error', err => {
        dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `error ${err}`);
    });

    notif.show();
});

Workaround

Create a setTimeout that automatically closes the Notification after ~30s

[MarshallOfSound]

@alexanderturinske This is expected behavior, your notif object has been garbage collected (there is nothing retaining it?). You can easily work around this by doing global.notif = or otherwise holding a reference to the notification object till you are done with it

[alexanderturinske]

🤦‍♂ Ah, thank you. That is not a problem I encounter very often.

[Crazie-ash]

@alexanderturinske Have u found a way to set timeout for notifications which last more than 5secs? Guide me if u found one pls!

[alexanderturinske]

As discussed above, my issue was that my variable was being garbage collected, so I created a top-level variable to retain it as suggested.

// THIS IS THE CHANGE
// MAKE notif A TOP-LEVEL VARIABLE
let notif; 

// Pulled from Issue #1604
function ensureSafeQuitAndInstall() {
    app.removeAllListeners('window-all-closed');
    const browserWindows = BrowserWindow.getAllWindows();
    browserWindows.forEach(browserWindow => {
        browserWindow.removeAllListeners('close');
    });
    dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `no error, just closing`);
    autoUpdater.quitAndInstall();
}

/**
 * Shows the update available notification and restarts the app on acceptance
 * @returns {void} void
 */
autoUpdater.on('update-downloaded', () => {
    notif = new Notification({
        title: 'Update Downloaded',
        body: 'Click to reload the application',
    });

    // Reload the app if clicked on
    notif.on('click', ev => {
        dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `no error, just clicked ${ev}`);
        try {
            ensureSafeQuitAndInstall();
        } catch (e) {
            dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `error: ${e}`);
        }
    });

    // Is now called
    notif.on('close', ev => {
        dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `no error, closing action ${ev}`);
    });

    // Is now called
    notif.on('error', err => {
        dialog.showErrorBox('Error', `error ${err}`);
    });

    notif.show();
});