Have you ever forgotten a friend's birthday and then had to go through an awkward conversation later on? Well fear not, I got you! With Python, you can create a simple yet effective script to ensure you are the first person to wish the next year or at any rate get a reminder to wish them before the day ends. In this tutorial, we'll walk through creating a birthday reminder script from scratch which will notify you whenever a birthday is due.
Prerequisites
A windows 10/11 system (Sorry Linux folks)
Python installed in your system
Basic knowledge of Python programming.
winotify library installed (for Windows notifications). Install it by running:
pip install winotifyHere is the github documentation: https://github.com/versa-syahptr/winotify
Step 1: Plan of action
Let’s get brainstorming! Start by mapping out a flow chart to outline what the program will do, gather the necessary tools, and dive into coding.
For example, the app will:
Store birthday data: Use a dictionary to mimic a birthday database. Simple!
Check today’s date: Use Python’s
datetimemodule and conditional statements to find matches.Send a notification: Use the
winotifymodule to notify you on Windows when there’s a birthday match.
That’s it! Now, let’s code! 🎉
Step 2: Define the Birthday Data
We'll use a Python dictionary to store birthdays. Each key will be a date in MM-DD format, and the value will be the person's name. Here's an example:
birthdays = {
'02-07': 'Alex Johnson',
'02-18': 'Taylor Smith',
'03-01': 'Jordan Brown',
'04-01': 'Morgan Williams',
'04-17': 'Casey Davis',
}
Step 3: Write the Function to Check Today's Birthday
We'll use Python's datetime module to get today's date and match it against the dictionary keys. Here's the function:
def checkBirthday():
import datetime
today = datetime.date.today()
today_str = today.strftime('%m-%d') # Extract month and day
if today_str in birthdays.keys():
getName = birthdays[today_str]
sendNotificationInWindows(getName)
else:
print("No birthday today!") # Added for clarification. Can be removed
Curious about sendNotificationInWindows(getName)? Hold tight, we’ll get there soon!
Step 4: Create a Function to Send Notifications
Our final component! We'll use the winotify library to send Windows notifications. Create a function named sendNotificationInWindows that takes a name and displays a notification:
def sendNotificationInWindows(name):
from winotify import Notification, audio
notification = Notification(app_id="Birthday Reminder",
title=f"Today is {name}'s Birthday!",
msg="Wish him/her a very happy birthday!",
duration="long",
icon=r"C:\PycharmProjects\happy-birthday.png") # Update the path to your icon file
notification.set_audio(audio.LoopingCall2, loop=True)
notification.show()
Breakdown of the code:
This function uses winotify to create and display the notification with a custom title, message, and icon. The icon image can be any image file but you must include the path in icon .
Notification(app_id, title, msg, duration, icon):app_id: A unique identifier for the notification (e.g., "Birthday Reminder").title: The title of the notification, dynamically including the person's name.msg: The message body, which can include wishes or any other text.duration: Defines how long the notification stays on the screen (e.g.,"long"or"short").icon: Path to the icon file displayed with the notification. You can remove this if you prefer.
set_audio(audio.LoopingCall2, loop=True):- Sets a looping audio effect to the notification. You can find other audio options here: https://github.com/versa-syahptr/winotify/blob/master/winotify/audio.py
show():- Displays the notification.
Step 5: Run the Script
Finally, set up the script to execute the checkBirthday function when the script runs:
if __name__ == "__main__":
checkBirthday()
Run the script from your code editor or from the command prompt using: python birthday_reminder.py. Replace birthday_reminder.py with the file name you have given to your script.
If today's date matches a birthday, a notification will pop up. Otherwise, you'll see "No birthday today!" in the console.
What if two people share the same birthday?
Ask yourself: Will this script work if two or more people have the same birthday? Currently, it assumes only one person can have a birthday on a given day. But let’s be honest, who wants to keep it simple when you can have a birthday bash with a whole group? 🎉
To handle multiple birthdays on the same date, we’ll need to spice up both the dictionary and the checkBirthday function.
Step 7: Update the Dictionary to Handle Multiple Birthdays
If multiple people have the same birth date, put their names in a list.
birthdays = {
'02-07': 'Alex Johnson',
'02-18': 'Taylor Smith',
'03-01': 'Jordan Brown',
'04-01': ['Morgan Williams', 'Casey Davis'],
'04-17': 'Bailey Miller',
}
Step 8: Update the checkBirthday function
We need to check if the getName variable is a list or string.
def checkBirthday():
import datetime
today = datetime.date.today()
today_str = today.strftime('%m-%d') # Extract month and day
if today_str in birthdays.keys():
getName = birthdays[today_str]
# check if multiple people has birthdays today
if isinstance(getName, list):
for i in range(1, len(getName)):
getName[0] += f"'s and {getName[i]}"
sendNotificationInWindows(getName[0])
else:
sendNotificationInWindows(getName)
else:
print("No birthday today!") # Added for clarification. Can be removed
The for loop concatenates the names into a single string and then the sendNotificationInWindows is called.
Test the functionality of this modification by running the script again. I have attached one screenshot of the notification popping up.
Final Notes
You can further enhance this program to allow you to add, edit or remove birthdays by taking input.
You can also perhaps automatically send birthday messages by integrating email or SMS programs.
Schedule this script in your Windows device to run automatically using the task schedular. (I’ll post a tutorial for this soon!)
Feel free to share your improvements and feedback!