Android/Google TV Client - No Notifications

Channels Android TV Troubleshooting
#1

I'm playing around with notifications on Android/Google TV clients and I'm 99% sure I've got code that works.

Code a couple of different ways

Windows Command Line

curl http://10.255.1.168:57000/api/notify -H "Content-Type: application/json" -X POST -d "{'title': 'Alert', 'message': 'Dad is home'}"

Python

...

                json_data = { "title": local_channels_client_notify_title_input, "message": local_channels_client_notify_message_input }
                response = post_url(url, json_data, retries, delay)

...

def post_url(url, json_data, retries, delay):
    timeout_duration = 120

    for attempt in range(retries):
        try:
            if json_data:
                response = requests.post(url, headers=url_headers, json=json_data, timeout=timeout_duration)
            else:
                response = requests.post(url, headers=url_headers, timeout=timeout_duration)

            if response.status_code == 200:
                return response
            else:
                raise Exception(f"HTTP Status Code {response.status_code}")
            
        except Exception as e:
            if attempt < retries - 1:
                print(f"\n{current_time()} WARNING: For '{url}', encountered an error ({e}). Retrying in {delay} seconds...")
                time.sleep(delay)
            else:
                notification_add(f"\n{current_time()} ERROR: For '{url}', after {retries} attempts, could not resolve error ({e}). Skipping...")
No matter the method, I get positive responses...

From curl

{"Success":"Notification sent."}

From Client Log

  02-17 19:26:56.072 26111  8248 I ApiServer: REQUEST: POST /api/notify
  02-17 19:26:56.074 26111  8248 I ApiServer: notify payload: {"title":"Test Title","message":"This is a test message with some words"}

However, despite that, I never seem to get a notification to pop up. As such, I'm quite sure the problem is something I've set on the client side in some type of option or blocker, but I'm not sure what. Anyone have any idea what I can look into? As far as I can tell, I've allowed the Channels app to give notifications, so I feel this has to be something system-level or something I'm just not thinking of...

#2

Here's what I send in OliveTin for client notifications:

curl -v --header "Content-Type: application/json" http://$client:57000/api/notify -d '{"title": '"$messageTitle"', "message": '"$messageContent"'}'

EDIT: Also, I believe notifications only work when you're actively watching something.

#3

D'oh! Therein lies the issue! I swear during my testing I did do this at one point, but it didn't work, so something else must have been amiss at the time.

Also, I thought I had read in one of the earlier threads it only required Channels to be open or recently opened in the background (of course I can't find it now), but maybe that was out-of-date info. I can see in the documentation it specifically says "when Channels is playing".

Anyway, working with curl and Python now, so all good. Got something cooking... :grin: Thanks!

PS
FYI, the only difference between the code you provided and what I posted above was the addition of the verbose logging.