[GH-ISSUE #1452] Docs: Document topic length requirements and add generator #1022

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opened 2026-05-07 00:29:38 +02:00 by BreizhHardware · 0 comments

BreizhHardware commented

2026-05-07 00:29:38 +02:00

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Originally created by @rugk on GitHub (Sep 30, 2025).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1452

💡 Idea

Docs page I talk about: https://docs.ntfy.sh/publish/

I've split the doc ideas from https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1451, these are:

"the topic is essentially a password" should IMHO be a bigger warning (like GitHub's markdown warning block as I had to read the page a little more than needed to find that doc snippet. And it's important, because if this gets more popular I'd bet many people – in the worst case – use the default string mentioned in the docs .
(added) Add a note about them maximum length of topics!
to ease the UX even more and convince people this (= security) is actually a good idea, you cold even add a little generator for your topic URL that locally i the client (via JS), generates a topic like topicname_somelonghash. Have a big button "generate topic name" and I guess this will easily lead to people using it.
Also, this makes it easier for new users like me that first have to understand the doc what a "topic" actually is/refers to. As I came from that third-party application linking to you with a text like this, it may be a good idea to have it:

For ntfy, you need to create a topic on your preferred ntfy instance. This is pretty easy. Please visit the steps in the docs and follow the instructions.

If you want to make it even better, you could create a separate page or even workflow for a "generate URL and return to third-party" (like OAuth) that simplifies the UX to simply pressing button to generate that and return it to the client.

💻 Target components

web (but docs, not the web app!)

Originally created by @rugk on GitHub (Sep 30, 2025). Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1452  :bulb: **Idea**  Docs page I talk about: https://docs.ntfy.sh/publish/ I've split the doc ideas from https://github.com/binwiederhier/ntfy/issues/1451, these are: * "the topic is essentially a password" should IMHO be a bigger warning (like [GitHub's markdown warning block](https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/16925) as I had to read the page a little more than needed to find that doc snippet. And it's important, because if this gets more popular I'd bet many people – in the worst case – use the default string mentioned in the docs . * (added) Add a note about them maximum length of topics! * to ease the UX even more and convince people this (= security) is actually a good idea, you cold even add a little generator for your topic URL that locally i the client (via JS), generates a topic like `topicname_somelonghash`. Have a big button "generate topic name" and I guess this will easily lead to people using it. Also, this makes it easier for new users like me that first have to understand the doc what a "topic" actually is/refers to. As I came from that third-party application linking to you with a text like this, it may be a good idea to have it: > For ntfy, you need to create a topic on your preferred ntfy instance. This is pretty easy. Please visit the steps in the [docs](https://docs.ntfy.sh/publish/) and follow the instructions. If you want to make it even better, you could create a separate page or even workflow for a "generate URL and return to third-party" (like OAuth) that simplifies the UX to simply pressing button to generate that and return it to the client. :computer: **Target components**   web (but docs, not the web app!)