Notifications Quick Start Guide

Get up and running with MERA notifications in minutes.

🚀 Basic Setup

1. Configuration Files

Create these files in your home directory:

Email (optional) - ~/email.txt:

your.email@example.com

Zulip (optional) - ~/zulip.txt:

bot-email@zulip.yourdomain.com
YOUR-API-KEY
https://zulip.yourdomain.com

2. Essential Usage

⚠️ Important:

• notifyme() only sends notifications if you've created config files above
• Without configuration, it runs silently
• Sends to ALL configured methods - if both email.txt and zulip.txt exist, you get both email AND Zulip messages
• Windows support: Not tested on Windows systems

# Basic notification (email/Zulip if configured, otherwise silent)
notifyme("Calculation finished!")

# Audio notification (always works, no setup needed)
bell()  # Plays local sound

# Share research results with team
notifyme("Galaxy temperature analysis complete!", 
         zulip_channel="research", 
         zulip_topic="Temperature Study - Aug 2024")

# Attach plots and data automatically
notifyme("Density profile plots ready!", 
         image_path="density_profile.png")

# Monitor system resources during computation
notifyme("Memory usage after galaxy loading:", 
         capture_output=`free -h`)

# Track execution time
start_time = time()
# ... run your analysis ...
notifyme("Parameter sweep finished!", start_time=start_time)

✅ Test Your Setup

Verify notifications work:

# Test audio (always works)
bell()  # Should hear a sound

# Test configured notifications
notifyme("Test notification - setup working!")
# With both email.txt and zulip.txt: Check BOTH your email AND Zulip
# With only one configured: Check that method only

Troubleshooting:

• No email received? Check ~/email.txt exists and system has mail command
• No Zulip message? Verify ~/zulip.txt has correct bot credentials
• Silent operation? This is normal if no config files exist

📋 Function Overview

The notifyme function supports:

• Text messages - Basic notifications
• File attachments - Images, data files, reports
• Output capture - Commands, functions, shell operations
• Time tracking - Automatic timing information
• Exception handling - Error notifications with stack traces
• Progress tracking - Long-running computation updates

🔗 Next Steps

• Setup Guide - Detailed configuration
• File Attachments - Images and data sharing
• Output Capture - System monitoring
• Advanced Features - Timing, progress, exceptions
• Examples - Real-world use cases

💡 Research Workflow Tips

1. Organize by project - Use channels like galaxy-research, simulations, data-analysis
2. Use descriptive topics - "Temperature Analysis - Aug 2024" not just "Results"
3. Start simple - Test with basic messages before adding attachments
4. Monitor long computations - Use timing features for overnight runs
5. Share results efficiently - Images auto-optimized (≤1024px), 25MB file limit

⚡ Common Research Patterns

# Long-running simulation with progress
tracker = create_progress_tracker(1000, task_name="Galaxy Formation")
for i in 1:1000
    simulate_timestep(i)
    update_progress!(tracker, i)
end
complete_progress!(tracker, "All timesteps completed!")

# Error-prone computation with safety
result = safe_execute("Critical density calculation") do
    calculate_critical_densities(data)
end

# Send multiple plots from analysis
send_results("Paper figures ready!", "./plots/", 
             zulip_channel="publications", 
             zulip_topic="Paper 1 - Figures")