Featuring Philipp Heckel, creator of ntfy, the podcast explores the motivation behind building ntfy, a service that enables users to send notifications via scripts. They discuss the simplicity and usability of ntfy, including subscribing to topics and customizing notifications. The podcast also touches on message delivery in ntfy, the development process for Android and iOS, and the challenges of depending on a side project for income.
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Quick takeaways
ntfy is a simple HTTP-based service that allows users to send push notifications to their phone or desktop using scripts from any computer.
Convex is a TypeScript full-stack development platform that promotes clean abstractions, information hiding, and composability to make application development easier and scalable.
NTFY (Notify) is an open-source push notification service that provides a straightforward and convenient solution for casual users who want a quick and hassle-free way to receive push notifications.
Deep dives
Notify is a push notification service that allows sending notifications to phone or desktop
Notify is a simple H2B based service that enables users to send push notifications to their phone or desktop using scripts from any computer. It supports HTTP and PubSub and can be accessed via a simple HTTP request. Notification messages can be customized with titles, priorities, ringtones, persistent alerts, emojis, and tags. Notify can be used without creating an account and is aimed at developers and sysadmins who prefer a no-fuss solution for sending push notifications without extra tooling or subscriptions. Notify also integrates with other services like unified push for wider adoption.
The Zen of Convex: Building applications for scalability and simplicity
Convex is a TypeScript full-stack development platform that encourages developers to build applications in a scalable and simple way. The Zen of Convex is inspired by languages like Haskell and emphasizes clean abstractions, information hiding, and composability. Convex treats everything as a transaction and promotes deterministic execution of functions to enable caching and real-time updates. The goal is to make application development easier and scalable in the long run. While using Convex doesn't require understanding the Zen principles, the framework is designed to guide developers towards building applications in the right way.
NTFY: Building a simple open-source push notification service
NTFY (Notify) is an open-source push notification service that allows users to send push notifications to their phone or desktop using HTTP and PubSub. The service was created by Philip Heckle as a personal project to scratch his own itch of finding a simple and scriptable way to receive notifications. NTFY does not require an account and can be used with just an endpoint. It offers features like different priority levels, customizable ringtones, and persistent alerts. While NTFY is not as secure as authenticated services, it provides a straightforward and convenient solution for casual users who want a quick and hassle-free way to receive push notifications.
The challenges of scaling and maintaining a one-machine infrastructure for Notify
Notify currently runs on a single machine hosted on DigitalOcean and is built using the Go programming language for efficient concurrency. Despite handling significant traffic and processing millions of messages a day, Notify's one-machine infrastructure has proven reliable with high uptime. The server uses SQLite as its database, which helps manage the constant size of the messaging data. While there are plans to explore scaling options like distributed databases in the future, the current infrastructure has served well and ensures a simple, agile development process.
Striking a balance between open-source development and financial sustainability
Notify started as an open-source side project without any monetization plans. However, as the project gained popularity and incurred costs, Philip introduced paid plans and started accepting donations. Notify's financial sustainability relies on a combination of GitHub sponsors, paid plans, and community support. Philip acknowledges that financial dependence on Notify could change its perspective and affect the project's open-source nature. Currently, Notify's primary focus is providing a valuable tool for developers and sysadmins while maintaining transparency, simplicity, and a strong community-driven ethos.
This week Jerod goes solo with Philipp Heckel, creator of ntfy, to discuss this simple HTTP-based service that lets you send notifications to your phone or desktop via scripts from any computer. They discuss why he built it, how he built it, and what his plans are for the future of this beloved side hustle.
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