In case anyone is still interested, I'm testing the following approach that uses PlistBuddy and, since we're only changing the plist, implies that we run this script on a daily basis.

#!/bin/bash



#List of the name of the bundles that need to be configured. Set to your needs.

bundlesToConfigure=('com.apple.FaceTime' 'com.apple.iCal' 'com.apple.FaceTime' 'com.apple.gamecenter' 'com.apple.mail' 'com.apple.iChat' 'com.apple.reminders' 'com.apple.Safari' 'com.apple.iTunes')



#Location of the notification center preferences plist for the current user

notificationsPLIST="$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist"



#Count of the bundles existing in the plist

count=$(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :apps" "$notificationsPLIST" | grep "Dict"|wc -l)



#Substracting one to run in a for loop

count=$((count - 1))



for index in $(seq 0 $count); do

    #Getting each bundle id with PlistBuddy

    bundleID=$(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print apps:$index:bundle-id" "$notificationsPLIST");



    #If the name of the current bundle is in our list of bundles to configure

    if [[ " ${bundlesToConfigure
} " == *" $bundleID "* ]]; then



        #Use PlistBuddy to set the value of flags to 4110 (hide in lock screen)

        /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :apps:${index}:flags 4110" "$notificationsPLIST"



    fi

done



exit 0

Of course, some work could be added to customize or combine the flags.

EDIT:

The values in the plist do change, but the configuration and the NC preference pane don't.

2nd EDIT:

After a reboot (or maybe only a new log in) the settings are in place.

Incorrect information deleted.

Thanks, @MrP, I'll try that out ASAP.

@bearzooka Changes to that plist under 10.13.1 do not stay across reboots, restart of the NotificationCenter, usernoted, or opening of the preferences panel for NC. All of those actions flip the values in the plist back to what they were before the script ran. The "app_info" table of my NC db has all flags set above 4096(the required value for disabling notifications at the lock screen), and is missing some of the apps, so I suspect that table is no longer in use. I couldn't find anything in the "db2" db for NC related to configurations. It appeared to be a staging area for triggers and notification states. I'm at a loss as to how to programmatically change this other than using an MCX and hoping users do not add other notification objects.

@bearzooka After a reboot of my test system the script works fine. I have no idea why my settings were getting clobbered yesterday by a restart of the NC processes. Anyway, I made some changes to your script that you or others may find useful.
1. It's designed to run as root/via the jamf agent
2. The bundlestoconfigure line pulls a list of all current 'bundles' and excludes system bundles which are not user configurable. This mitigates having to edit a static list, should you prefer it. Note that this required modifying the 'if' line as well to remove the spaces between the criteria and the quotes.
3. For whatever reason echo on the 'apps' count line was getting binary data from plist buddy on my system. I suspect you were working with an xml plist, as opposed to a binary. I had to split the line into two in order to get the data I wanted. This also could have been related to whatever was keeping the changes from taking before my reboot. shrug
4. Rather than statically setting the flags as 4110, it adjusts the flags dynamically by adding 4096 as needed, which is the value for disabling notification on lockscreen. This way no other check boxes/preferences are modified except that one.
5. If changes are made, it restarts the NotificationCenter and usernoted processes so they take effect.

Thanks again for the great script. Took most of the work out of it for me!

#!/bin/bash



IFS=$'

'



user=`ls -l /dev/console | cut -d " " -f 4`



#Location of the notification center preferences plist for the current user

notificationsPLIST="/Users/$user/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist"



#List of the name of the bundles that need to be configured. Set to your needs.

#bundlesToConfigure=('com.apple.FaceTime' 'com.apple.iCal' 'com.apple.FaceTime' 'com.apple.gamecenter' 'com.apple.mail' 'com.apple.iChat' 'com.apple.reminders' 'com.apple.Safari' 'com.apple.iTunes')

# Get list of all user manipulatable notification center objects 

bundlesToConfigure=`defaults read $notificationsPLIST  | grep bundle-id | awk -F " '{print $4}' | grep -v "_SYSTEM_CENTER_"` 





#Count of the bundles existing in the plist

apps=`/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :apps" "$notificationsPLIST"`

count=$(echo "$apps" | grep "bundle-id"|wc -l)



#Substracting one to run in a for loop

count=$((count - 1))



change=0

for index in $(seq 0 $count); do

    #Getting each bundle id with PlistBuddy

    bundleID=$(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print apps:$index:bundle-id" "$notificationsPLIST");



    #If the name of the current bundle is in our list of bundles to configure

    if [[ "${bundlesToConfigure
}" == *"$bundleID"* ]]; then

        flag=`/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print apps:$index:flags" "$notificationsPLIST"`

        echo Current value:  $index:$bundleID $flag

        if [ $flag -lt 4096 ]; then

            echo "  Flag is less than 4096.  Adding 4096 to disable notification/preview on lockscreen."

            flag=$((flag + 4096))

            change=1

            sudo -u $user /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :apps:${index}:flags ${flag}" "$notificationsPLIST"

            flag=`/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print apps:$index:flags" "$notificationsPLIST"`

            echo New Value: $index:$bundleID $flag

        fi

    fi

done



# Restart notification center to make changes take effect.

if [ $change == 1 ]; then echo "Changes made.  Restarting Notification Center for them to take effect.";killall sighup usernoted;killall sighup NotificationCenter; fi



exit 0

Thanks, @MrP. I like the tweaks that you're proposing. I will test them out as soon as I am done with some other to-do's.

I've determined what was providing inconsistent results. If I run either of our scripts as the logged in user, directly(not using sudo -u or launchctl asuser), the settings are kept/applied after a restart of the NC binaries. If run my script as root, even though I am applying settings using "sudo -u", and I've tried "launchctl asuser", the plist is updated, but then over-written with the old settings when the NC binaries are restarted. This happens 19 out of 20 times. Once in a while the settings will stick when running the script as root/under the jamf agent. I have no idea what condition takes place that allows the settings to be applied so randomly. I've tried killing the binaries as the user/notroot using sudo and launchctl to see if that made a difference and it did not. I've monitored the plist ownership and permissions thinking that perhaps when running the script as root that it was flipping permissions causing NC to buck, but they do not change when the file is modified.

If anyone has a solid idea as to what is happening in the different user contexts to cause this behavior I'd like to get a better understanding. As is I cannot find any reason for the different behavior given that I've tried doing everything as the user from root under "sudo -u" or "launchctl asuser".

I see two options. Deploy the script and a launch agent to run it as the user, or run the script regularly across all user directories, using existence of the list in the user directory as criteria to run it, whether or not any user is logged in. This would set it for all users profiles on the system, and presumably since the user wouldn't be logged in at some point during one of the iterations, it would eventually successfully lock down the settings. The first option is more sound but I really hate deploying launchagents/daemons because that means just another workflow to document, and they don't give me any feedback in the JSS logs like running from a policy would. Also given that this is a security concern, I don't want to enforcement to be something users has permission to unload should they want to.

I know this is a pretty old thread now. But on Mojave i'm not sure if this works 100% any more. The previous logic to check for 4096+ doesn't seem to work any more. Going to look at the data some more, but it looks like i have 12,622 now with everything checked except for notifications on the lock screen and 8206 for everything checked. Probably just needs a value update, but i'm not sure if anyone else has more data already.

Thanks

Bump on this anyone? I'm also having some issues setting notifications settings to be set to not show lock screen notifications for certain apps, or even all apps would do.

Please advise!
Thanks

Joe

@joepopson looks like someone posted here: https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/9630/disabling-show-notifications-on-lock-screen-in-system-prefs#responseChild178859

This thread might be old but setting up notification settings for different apps on Mojave is still a chore.
I’ve been having success with the following script:

#!/bin/sh



#Location of the notification center preferences plist for the current user

    notification_plist="$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist"



    #Count of the bundles existing in the plist

    count=$(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :apps" "${notification_plist}" | grep -c "bundle-id")



    for ((index=1; index<"${count}"; index++)); do

        #Getting each bundle id with PlistBuddy

        bundle_id=$(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print apps:${index}:bundle-id" "${notification_plist}");



        case "${bundle_id}" in

            # leave as is

            "com.apple.iChat"|"com.apple.mail"|*"_SYSTEM_CENTER_"*|*"_WEB_CENTER_"*|"com.apple.appstore"|"com.apple.TelephonyUtilities") ;;



            # Leave as alerts but don't show on lock screen.

            # To show on lock screen, but preview only when unlocked, use flags "22" (DOESN'T WORK)

            "com.apple.reminders"|"com.apple.iCal")

            /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :apps:${index}:flags 12310" "${notification_plist}";;



            # Disable completely

            "com.flexibits.fantastical2.mac")

            /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :apps:${index}:flags 28993" "${notification_plist}" ;;



            *)

            # 3rd party apps

                # set to banners, don't show on lock screen

                    # for apps that default to "Alerts" (1Password, Dropbox), use flags "12366"

                    # for apps that default to "Banners", use flags "12302"

                # To show on lock screen but preview only when unlocked (DOESN'T WORK)

                    # for apps that default to "Alerts" (1Password, Dropbox), use flags "78"

                    # for apps that default to "Banners", use flags "14"



                # Getting current value of "flags"

                flag=$(/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print apps:${index}:flags" "${notification_plist}")



                    # For 3rd party apps that default to "Alerts" (1Password, Dropbox)

                    if f  "${flag}" -eq 8214 ]] || |  "${flag}" -eq 8270 ]]; then

                        /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :apps:${index}:flags 12366" "${notification_plist}"



                    # For 3rd party apps that default to "Banners"

                    elif f  "${flag}" -eq 8206 ]]; then

                        /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :apps:${index}:flags 12302" "${notification_plist}"



                    # if an app was already set with proper values

                    elif f  "${flag}" -eq 12366 ]] || |  "${flag}" -eq 12302 ]]; then

                        :

                    else

                    # for undocumented cases

                    echo -e ${red}"An unknown flags value ${yellow}(${flag}) ${red}has been encountered for ${yellow}${bundle_id}${red}, manual check might be necessary."${nc}

                    fi

            esac

        done



    # Restart notification center to make changes take effect.

    killall sighup usernoted

    killall sighup NotificationCenter

I must admit, I didn’t get the whole “flags” thing completely figured out yet.
Moreover, I would ideally like that for every app, the:
“Show notification preview” would be ticked, but always with the “Show notification preview” option set to “when unlocked”. Presumably, the correct flag for this behavior — along with the other notification settings — is “22” (based on Apple’s Mail and Messages apps, whose default behavior is the one I would like to implement in nearly all of my apps).
However, using “22” in my script never works. Curiously enough, setting the “Show notification preview” to “when unlocked” through the GUI doesn’t work either! After logging out or restarting, that setting is always switched back to “always”, so I suspect this is a bug. Has anyone else experienced that?

Thanks!