OBSOLETE - New Q! - Google Chrome Extension notifies you of new questions of interest and inbox messages

Question

Obsolete. Code last updated 7 years ago. Chrome store links are long dead. Source code still available though.

Screenshots

A new question notification in Chrome 6 in Windows XP

A new answer and a new question notification on Mac OS X.

New question and new answer notifications

About

New Q! is a Google Chrome browser extension that notifies you whenever:

Someone asks a question that interests you
Someone comments on your question
Someone comments on your answer
You receive a Careers message
You receive a chat message

Whenever these things happen you receive a desktop notification like the ones shown above. This means no more refreshing the page of your favorite SE sites to look for questions to answer or new inbox notifications. You just wait until you are notified and then click the notification and a new tab opens for you.

How to get started:

Download and install Google Chrome if you don't have it
Dead link: ~~Download and install New Q! from the Chrome Web Store~~
Right click on the New Q! button and click Options
On the options page you can create Search Profiles to be notified of new questions of interest. Search profiles contain:
- An SE site to monitor for New Questions (meta sites are fine too)
- Which tags to look for (space separated)
- Whether all those tags should be present or any of them
- Which tags to ignore (you will not be notified of questions with any ignored tag)

You can create as many Search Profiles as you like.

On the options page you can also connect to your SE account (or disconnect from it) which you need to do in order to receive inbox notifications (which include new answer notifications, new comment, etc.).

Options Page

As notifications come up you can click on them to open a new tab with the question, answer, comment, etc.

Notifications will disappear after a few seconds or after you click on them or dismiss them.

You can left click the NQ button to get a popup where you can see the last few questions that were shown in notifications. You can also stop and restart showing notifications (useful if you want some distraction free time) by clicking the button at the bottom of the pop-up.

New Q! pop-up

How it works

This is done with a Google Chrome extension which checks every minute or so for new questions with the desired tags using jQuery and the StackExchange API 2.0. If a new question or unread inbox item is found a Desktop Notification is sent up using WebKit's implementation of the HTML5 Desktop Notification system. The tags and site you are interested in are set using the options page which can be accessed by right clicking the new "New! Q" button. These settings are stored in HTML5 local storage. The UI for the options page and the popup use KnockoutJS, jQuery, and Bootstrap by Twitter.

License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Download

Dead Chrome Web Store link: ~~https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bffhpbgmmflmoacglmdnilfjkeeokkfn~~

Source Code: https://github.com/adamzr/New-Q-

Platform

Google Chrome (tested with 5.0.375.70, but probably works with slightly earlier versions) Windows/Mac/Linux

Contact

On GitHub at https://github.com/adamzr/New-Q-

Code

Written in JavaScript,jQuery, and HTML in a Google Chrome extension. This is a work in progress. Please feel free to improve it. https://sourceforge.net/projects/newq/files/

Git: git://github.com/adamzr/New-Q-.git

Change log

UPDATE to Version 2.1

This will fix a bug where some questions were missed for notification. Auto-closing of notifications is now an option on the options page and can be turned off and on. You can make a "badge" show up on the NQ icon with your reputation score. You can choose which site the score will be of on the Options page. This feature requires you to connect your StackExchange account.

UPDATE to Version 2.0

This is a big change. So, please bear with me through any problems there may be. This update now uses version 2.0 of the API. It allows you to search multiple sites at once. You can also get inbox notifications if you connect the app via OAuth. Notifications now dismiss themselves after a few seconds. The UI has been polished up a bit too. Existing users will have to re-input their settings, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Enjoy and as always feedback is appreciated.

UPDATE To Version 1.0

There is now a badge showing your reputation on the New Q! button. Clicking on the button now gives you a pop-up listing the questions and allowing you to pause/restart the notifications. This is useful if you need some distraction free time.

UPDATE To Version 0.9

This update as well as 0.8.1 and 0.8.5 were mostly bug fixes. A few new things: The logo of the website is displayed as the background in the notification. Some CSS improvements to the notifications. You can load in your favorite tags by clicking on the suggestion. The notification goes away when you click on the link in it as requested on the Chrome extension page.

UPDATE To Version 0.8

Fixed the bug where you received too many notifications when starting your browser. Your browser history is used to check what questions you've already viewed, so existing users must re-enable the extension for additional permissions. Tags that you use most often are suggested on the options page. Tags are shown in the notifications. Please tell me about any problems you find with this update. Thanks!

UPDATE To Version 0.7

Fixed several bugs. Added comment notification now if you enter you user ID on the options page you'll get notifications when people @reply to you in comments:

Neat! I'm trying it out in Chrome 5.0.375.70 beta in Ubuntu 10.04 - seems to work fine! Does it display 'new' questions or just ones with new activity? — Nathan Osman, Jun 23 '10 at 05:59
@George Great! It should be showing new questions, that is to say questions created most recently. How do the notifications look in Ubuntu? Would you mind posting a screenshot? Thanks. — Adam, Jun 23 '10 at 06:20
@Adam: Okay, I posted it as an answer. You probably should update your question to mention that it works on Linux. — Nathan Osman, Jun 23 '10 at 06:44
@Adam: Still using this every day and lovin' it! Please consider listing New Q! on StackList. — Nathan Osman, Jul 07 '10 at 04:13
@Adam 1 future request, configure the notification for multiple sites possible? — Achu, Mar 28 '11 at 14:18
@Achu - I'd like to add that too. It is possible, but will take some work. I'll try to do it the next chance I get to work on this extension again. — Adam, Mar 28 '11 at 16:09
Good stuff, but would be awesome if it looked at my favorite tags and gave me notifs!! — gideon, Feb 05 '12 at 15:12
sadly it doesn't show my reputation anymore in the chrome button, will this feature come back again? — oers, Mar 21 '12 at 15:31
@oers Well there were some reviews that thought it cluttered the button. But, I agree that I would like to see my rep. However, now that the extension is multi-site, which site do I show the rep for? I'm also considering showing notifications or rep changes. Perhaps optionally through a setting on the options page. What do you think? — Adam, Mar 23 '12 at 19:40
Yeah, a setting sounds great (so you can choose, which account/side to show). I liked this feature because it gave me instant feedback, that I got upvoted or accepted, without the need to visit the site :D — oers, Mar 24 '12 at 08:49
Thank you very much for this extension. For me personally - New Q is the most valuable SO third party tool. Unfortunately after recent update (version 2.0) some features are gone. I can't see my reputation badge near the extension icon anymore (I connected it to my StackExchange account, but I still can't see it). Desktop notification are not working properly. They do not appear when new questions are asked. I can see some of them only once - when I first starting the browser. After this I don't see any notifications at all. — tenshi, Apr 24 '12 at 19:26
I also liked the fact, that Desktop Notifications are not disappearing until I close them manually, so that I don't miss new questions accidentally. All these features are very important to me. I would be very grateful if you will add them back. Is it possible? If not, maybe you can publish old version of the extension as separate extension?(something like "New Q Classic" :) — tenshi, Apr 24 '12 at 19:35
@tenshi I'm glad you enjoy the extension. I am also noticing issues where I think I am not getting notified about some questions. Obviously that is a serious bug and I'll have to look into it. Self closing comments was a feature some people asked for, but I think I can make it configurable. I can also work on the reputation badge. It may take me some time to get these all in. — Adam, Apr 25 '12 at 00:50
@tenshi Just released version 2.1. The bug where some questions were missed should now be fixed. You should also be able to set an "autoclose" option on the Options page to close notifications after a few seconds or to have them stay up forever. — Adam, May 04 '12 at 18:33
@oers Just released version 2.1. There is now a dropdown list on the options page where you can decide which site's reputation score you want on your badge. — Adam, May 04 '12 at 18:34
@Adam: Thanks a lot! I will test it for some time and than will give you some feedback. — tenshi, May 04 '12 at 19:43
@Adam it does not work. The setting is not saved. I select stackoverflow from the dropdown. And then nothing changes. When I open the options again my selection is reverted. I used the Save button to save. — oers, May 05 '12 at 12:09
@Adam: new version is brilliant! everything works as expected. I noticed, that my my activity at stackoverflow is dramatically decreased when New Q had these issues, but seems that now it should be ok. Thank you very much! — tenshi, May 06 '12 at 18:29
@oers Sorry, I am not experiencing that problem. But, I am guessing it is an issue related to upgrading the extension. I released an update today, as soon as your extension autoupdates to version 2.1.1 you'll be able to test and see if it works now. You'll have to restart Chrome. Please let me know if it helps as I cannot test it since I can't reproduce the bug. Thanks! — Adam, May 07 '12 at 16:48

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 09 '10 at 01:13

5

UPDATE

I've made some improvments:

You can now monitor meta.stackoverflow and stackapps
You can choose on the options page whether you only want to see questions that contain ALL of the tags you specified or to show questions that contain ANY of the tags (like SO's Interesting Tags feature)
I've made some stylistic changes to the options page (fonts, CSS, etc.)

I've already updated the extension on the Google Extension gallery so existing users will be automatically updated shortly. The source code changes are in the sourceforge SVN repository.

If anyone has any ideas for additional improvements I'd love to hear them!

Thanks!

answered Jun 09 '10 at 01:13

Adam

809
8
14

I've updated again. Now at version 0.3 which has ignored tags. Questions with ignored tags are not included in notifications. – Adam Jun 11 '10 at 05:38
1

you should edit the body of your post rather than creating "answers" – Jeff Atwood Jul 13 '10 at 06:20
Translate for multi-languaje? – ArtEze Sep 20 '16 at 22:08

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 22 '19 at 08:37

5

Here is a screenshot on Ubuntu, as requested:

Looks pretty similar to Windows :)

edited Jan 22 '19 at 08:37

Glorfindel

6,772
3
20
46

answered Jun 23 '10 at 06:43

Nathan Osman

23,286
11
60
107

Thanks! That's the older version, the new one looks like the screenshots I've posted now. You should get the new update automatically, but you might need to go to the Chrome extension page and re-enable if it has more permissions than the version you have installed. – Adam Jun 23 '10 at 16:06
@Adam: Ya, it just popped up a message saying that and offered to re-enable. Very simple. I'm still impressed by how good this extension works :) – Nathan Osman Jun 24 '10 at 04:45
@NathanOsman I am on ubuntu13.04. Not getting that extension in my Google chrome browser. Any help please! – Priti Jul 07 '13 at 19:40
I just got it - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/new-q/bffhpbgmmflmoacglmdnilfjkeeokkfn?hl=en :) – Priti Jul 07 '13 at 19:41

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:39

It is surprisingly poor written to me. This are some of the thing that has to be changed:

input tag is self closing - options.html
When using jQuery you should not use document.getElementById, innerHTML - notification.html
function pausecomp(millis) seems like "busy waiting" - background.html
html tags interpreted ( wow )

Edit:

It is more of a must than can, actually w3. Inputs must be self closing unlike in the file options.html, where all of them are like:

<input>...</input>
When jQuery is used there is no reason to continue with the usage of:
1. document.getElementById - jQuery provides selector - $('#...')
2. innerHTML - jQuery provides method - $().html()
agreed.
If a question from Stackoverflow, for example like this, contains html tag with <>, the tag is interpreted. So you will receive this question with an actual input. Maybe I should write something there, like sanitize - http://xkcd.com/327/.

Something new to fix:

Using both new Array and [] is sign of bad style. You should chose one, and as Crocford and SO community strongly suggest it should be []

Update:

code style - a good practice is to use curly brackets, even if they are not needed now. This will produce a code which will be easier to update(options.html):

Use

if (condition)
{
// code ...
}else{
// code ...
}

instead of

if (condition)
   // code ...
else
   // code ...

Another optimization - for cycle, from MDN(notification.html)

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:24

3

Could the notifications time out after a certain length, so I don't have to click every single one?

Also, could it be possible to monitor more than one stack exchange site at a time? I watch both SO and UX.

answered Feb 02 '12 at 17:24

Kato

131
2

1

Done in version 2.0. Enjoy! – Adam Mar 02 '12 at 21:15
Yay! Off to the plugin page :) – Kato Mar 02 '12 at 22:34
Notifications still don't time out. – anonymous May 05 '12 at 15:03

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 24 '12 at 16:23

3

Please add the feature of removing or hiding a question. If you read a question, and found it irrelevant, You should be able to remove it. So the list will contain questions you are interested in.

answered Dec 24 '12 at 16:23

Luda

131
2

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 16 '13 at 07:10

3

I have using this for a long time , but I'm not getting any notifications now . I have tried with several tags no luck . I'm on Windows 7, chrome version Version 30.0.1599.69 .
And also I tried re installing...

answered Oct 16 '13 at 07:10

Jayantha Lal Sirisena

301
1
9

Sadly, it seems Chrome no longer allows HTML notifications. I will have to redo all the notifications to be text only. Chrome also made changes to the extension manifest which I have to make. All of this will take time, and I don't know when I'll next get a chance to do it. Sorry. – Adam Oct 16 '13 at 20:27
ah :( , Sad to hear.. Any alternatives that you know until new version ? – Jayantha Lal Sirisena Oct 17 '13 at 03:28

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 06 '10 at 18:32

1

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, but every time I start Chrome (in Ubuntu 10.04), it informs me of the same 3 questions and the same 3 comments. I click dismiss, close Chrome, and open it again. Same thing.

answered Aug 06 '10 at 18:32

Nathan Osman

23,286
11
60
107

I think I'm aware of that problem. The extension loses track of what you've already seen between sessions of Chrome, so it always shows you the 3 most recent questions and comments when you open Chrome. I plan on fixing this in a later version to do something like limit it to things that took place in the last hour. – Adam Aug 08 '10 at 04:45
@Adam: Please let me know when you fix it. I had to uninstall the extension because it was getting so annoying. – Nathan Osman Aug 08 '10 at 06:26
@George - Sorry. I'll try to do it soon. Quick question: In the fromdate parameter passed with unix time, what time zone is used? Can I use in JavaScript new Date().getTime() ? Thanks. – Adam Aug 09 '10 at 02:33
@Adam: I'm not positive, but I'm guessing UTC. – Nathan Osman Aug 09 '10 at 03:54
@George - Problem should be fixed in the new version 0.8. Tell me if it now works for you. Thanks. – Adam Aug 10 '10 at 01:22
@Adam: Okay. I installed it. I'll let you know within a couple days whether it works or not. – Nathan Osman Aug 10 '10 at 04:24

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 23 '10 at 06:01

1

UPDATE TO VERSION 0.4

Hosted by imgur.com

New in this version:

Answer count
Vote count
View count
Links to questions in notifications itself

This version involved changing to HTML notifications and passing the data to the page using a query string which is processed in JavaScript. If you find any problems be sure to let me know.

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

answered Jun 23 '10 at 06:01