Difference between revisions of "How to use a TrayIcon"

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1. Create a traytest.rc resource script, like this:
 
1. Create a traytest.rc resource script, like this:
  
IDI_ICON1               ICON                    "icon1.ico"
+
<pre>
 +
101               ICON                    "icon1.ico"
 +
</pre>
  
 
2. Compile the resource script into a .res file with windres. Windres is supplied with Lazarus.
 
2. Compile the resource script into a .res file with windres. Windres is supplied with Lazarus.
Line 111: Line 113:
 
Now you can write the test program. Create a new program with 1 form. Go to your source file and add this on the interface section:
 
Now you can write the test program. Create a new program with 1 form. Go to your source file and add this on the interface section:
  
 +
<pre>
 
{$ifdef win32}
 
{$ifdef win32}
 
   {$R traytest.res}
 
   {$R traytest.res}
 
{$endif}
 
{$endif}
 +
</pre>
  
 
Next add a button to the form. Double click the button and add this code to it:
 
Next add a button to the form. Double click the button and add this code to it:

Revision as of 15:06, 24 January 2006

About

TrayIcon is a multiplatform System Tray component. It is expected to work on Windows and all UNIXes, including Mac OS X.

A difficulty on the development on this component is the many differences on the system tray implementation on varios OSes and even Window Managers on Linux. To solve this, the component tryes to implement the minimal set of features common to all target platforms. Bellow is a list of the features implemented on each platform:

Windows - Multiple system tray icons per application are supported. The image of the icon can be alterred using a HICON handle. Events to the icon are sent via a special message on the user reserved space of messages (>= WM_USER) to the Window witch owns the Icon. No paint events are sent to the Window.

Linux (Gnome, KDE, IceWM, etc) - Multiple system tray icons per application are supported. The image of the icon is acctually a very small Window, and can be painted and receive events just like any other TForm descendent.

Linux (WindowMaker, Openbox, etc) - Does not support system tray icons out-of-the-box. However, There are at least two softwares that provides support for it: Docker and WMSystray

Mac OS X - This system doesn´t really support System Tray Icons. However, all Mac OS X applications do have a Taskbar Icon witch behaves very much like a Systray Icon. It can receive messages and be painted at will. One and only one of these taskbar icons exist per application. On the next version, this component will try to abstract this Taskbar Icon into something compatible with Windows and Linux.

With this in mind a approach which supports almost all Platforms was created:

  • Only one Systray Icon is supported per application, and all applications that use the component have it initialized on the startup of the program. This way you will use the SystrayIcon object, and not it´s class. (Required by Mac OS X)
  • Painting is done via a TIcon object. (Required by Windows)

The following extra features are already available or will be, but they won´t work on all platforms.

  • Multiple Systray Icons. Won´t work on Mac OS X.
  • OnPaint event and Canvas property to draw the icon freely. Won´t work on Windows.

Quick Use Guide

Two interfaces are supplied, a visual component and a non-visual object. The object is compatible with Delphi, while the visual component isn´t. They have exactly the same features.

The non-visual object is called SystrayIcon, and the visual component is TTrayIcon.

Documentation

Bellow is a list of all methods, properties and events of the component. They have the same names and work the same way on the visual component and on the non-visual object.

A function works on all target platforms unless written otherwise.

Methods

Show

procedure Show;

Hide

procedure Hide;

Properties

Hint

property Hint: string;

works on: Only Windows

ShowHint

property ShowHint: Boolean;

works on: Only Windows

PopUpMenu

property PopUpMenu: TPopUpMenu;

Events

OnClick

OnDblClick

OnMouseDown

OnMouseUp

Screenshot

Author

Felipe Monteiro de Carvalho

Andrew

License

Modifyed LGPL.

Download

Status: Underconstruction

Installation

Demonstration program 1

This program will load a icon from a internal resource on Windows or from an external file on other platforms.

To create and link the icon resource to your Windows software you must:

1. Create a traytest.rc resource script, like this:

101               ICON                    "icon1.ico"

2. Compile the resource script into a .res file with windres. Windres is supplied with Lazarus.

windres -i traytest.rc -o traytest.res

Now you can write the test program. Create a new program with 1 form. Go to your source file and add this on the interface section:

{$ifdef win32}
  {$R traytest.res}
{$endif}

Next add a button to the form. Double click the button and add this code to it:

procedure MyForm.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
const
  IDI_ICON1         = 101;
begin
{$ifdef win32}
  SystrayIcon.Icon.Handle := LoadIcon(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_ICON1));
{$else}
  SystrayIcon.Icon.LoadFromFile('/path_to_icon/icon.ico');
{$endif}

  SystrayIcon.ShowHint := True;
  SystrayIcon.Hint := 'my tool tip';

  SystrayIcon.PopUpMenu := MyPopUpMenu;

  SystrayIcon.Show;
end;

Subversion

Located under components/trayicon/ on the latest subversion Lazarus.

Bug Reporting/Feature Request

Tests are necessary to verify if the component works on all Window Managers.

You can post Bug Reports / Feature Requests here:


Change Log

  1. 17/01/2006 - Available as a preview on the Lazarus subversion. Still under heavy construction, however.

Help

Help requests can be posted here: