About the Notification Manager
This topic covers how to apply routines that let you tell users there is
something happening they need, or want, to be aware of. Notification Manager
(for System 6.0 and later) can be set to asynchronously (for more
information, see Async I/O) produce a sound, flash a dialog box, or
periodically swap the [Missing image] the menu bar with a different Small Icon to let the
user know something needs attention. A small may ( optionally) appear on
the Apple menu next to the application or DA the Notification references.
(Under System 7, the small appears in the Application menu next to the
application or DA the Notification references. See the section
About the Notification Manager and System 7.0 for more
information.) Lastly, the Notification Manager should call a response
procedure.
The small next to the affected application and the Small Icon rotating with
the [Missing image]n the menu bar remain until your application removes the notification
request from the queue. The sound and the dialog box each occur one time.
Note: Under System 7, the Small icon may appear over the application menu icon (to the right of the menu bar) instead of the [Missing image]on if you
details. Also the small will appear next to the name of the
application or DA that needs attention in the application menu.
Using the Notification Manager requires a call to SysEnvirons (or Gestalt
Manager) to test the System Software version. If the user isn't running at least
System 6.0 and the Notification Manager routines are not present, your
application should let them know they need to upgrade their operating system
version by displaying an alert and then exiting.
While there's no limit to the number of notifications you can queue in an
NMRec for any application, DA, or device driver, you should also be aware that multiple notifications in the queue will result in multiple messages.
The Notification Manager NMRec is a standard Macintosh queue and contains information describing each notification request. Supply a pointer to a queue
element describing the type of notification you desire.