DBus listener which looks for Evolution new mail and calendar reminder notifications and plays audio in repsonse

evolution-audio-notify.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import os
import sys
import dbus
import pygame
import argparse
import datetime

from gi.repository import GLib
from dbus.mainloop.glib import DBusGMainLoop

class NotificationMonitor:
    def __init__(self, newmail_file, reminder_file):
        # Setup audio players
        pygame.mixer.init()
        self.newmail_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound(newmail_file)
        self.reminder_sound = pygame.mixer.Sound(reminder_file)

        # Connect to DBus Session Bus
        DBusGMainLoop(set_as_default=True)
        self.bus = dbus.SessionBus()

        # Process all DBus signals to look for calendar reminders
        self.bus.add_signal_receiver(self.reminder_handler)

        # Process signals from Evolutions mail component to look for new mail notifications
        self.bus.add_match_string_non_blocking("interface='org.gnome.evolution.mail.dbus.Signal'")
        self.bus.add_message_filter(self.newmail_handler)


    def reminder_handler(self, *args):
        try:
            source, data, _ = args

            if source == "org.gnome.evolution.dataserver.Source" and 'Data' in data and '[Calendar]' in data['Data']:
                print(f"{datetime.datetime.now().isoformat()}::{source}::Calendar Reminder")
                self.reminder_sound.play()

        except ValueError:
            pass

    def newmail_handler(self, bus, message):
        if message.get_member() is not None and message.get_member().strip().lower() == "newmail":
            print(f"{datetime.datetime.now().isoformat()}::{message.get_interface()}::{message.get_member()}")
            self.newmail_sound.play()

    def run(self):
        loop = GLib.MainLoop()

        try:
            loop.run()
        except KeyboardInterrupt:
            pygame.mixer.quit()
            sys.exit(0)

def main():
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Monitor DBus notifications and play sounds')
    parser.add_argument('--newmail', required=True, help='Path to sound file to play when new mail arrives')
    parser.add_argument('--reminder', required=True, help='Path to sound file to play when calendar reminders are sent')
    
    args = parser.parse_args()
    
    if not os.path.exists(args.newmail):
        print(f"Error: Sound file {args.newmail} not found")
        sys.exit(1)

    if not os.path.exists(args.reminder):
        print(f"Error: Sound file {args.reminder} not found")
        sys.exit(2)

    
    monitor = NotificationMonitor(args.newmail, args.reminder)
    monitor.run()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

This application is probably not needed if you run Gnome, but I couldn't get Evolution's audio notifications working on Plasma Desktop, hence this gist. The following systemd user service is useful to run this while logged in:

[Unit]
Description=Evolution Audio Notifications

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python /path/to/evolution-audio-notify.py --newmail /path/to/newmail.wav --reminder /path/to/calendar-reminder.wav
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target