Call Action when NSStatusBarButton is right-clicked - macos

Question

I am searching for a way to detect whenever the NSStatusBarButton is right-clicked (using Swift) and call an action.
I am currently setting it up this way:
let statusItem = NSStatusBar.systemStatusBar().statusItemWithLength(-1)
func applicationDidFinishLaunching(aNotification: NSNotification) {
// Insert code here to initialize your application
if let button = statusItem.button {
button.image = NSImage(named: "myImage")
button.alternateImage = NSImage(named: "myImage")
button.action = Selector("myAction")
}
}
I thought of using the button.rightMouseDown(<#theEvent: NSEvent#>) (Because there is no such "alternateAction") but unfortunately I did not manage to come up with something due to the fact that I just started programming Mac apps.
Update:
While searching for a way to do this I saw some threads telling to subclass a NSView but I don't se how this should work (This could be because I am really new to programming and don't even know how to "subclass"). Still I thought there was some easier way to use this since nearly every statusBar App that I know rects on right-clicks.

Answer 1

You can subclass and override the mouseDown method, but since Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), there has been an easier way: NSGestureRecognizer and its subclasses:
func applicationDidFinishLaunching(aNotification: NSNotification) {
// Insert code here to initialize your application
if let button = statusItem.button {
button.image = NSImage(named: "myImage")
button.alternateImage = NSImage(named: "myImage")
button.action = Selector("myAction")
// Add right click functionality
let gesture = NSClickGestureRecognizer()
gesture.buttonMask = 0x2 // right mouse
gesture.target = self
gesture.action = "myRightClickAction:"
button.addGestureRecognizer(gesture)
}
}
func myRightClickAction(sender: NSGestureRecognizer) {
if let button = sender.view as? NSButton {
// Handle your right click event here
}
}

Answer 2

I had the same problem as you with the accepted answer's method: it didn't work for buttonMask 0x2, only buttonMask 0x1. Regular NSButtons (but not NSStatusBarButtons) can handle NSClickGestureRecognizers, so perhaps that's what the answerer was thinking. Another solution I found suggested was to set the NSStatusItem's view to an instance of your own custom subclass of NSView, but as of OS X v10.10, getting or setting view is deprecated, so I didn't want to do that.
I solved this by adding a custom subclass of NSView as a subview of the NSStatusItem's button. My NSView implements -rightMouseUp: to receive the right mouse up event and then just passes that event to a block given to it by my class that wants to handle the right mouse click event.
Here's my custom subclass:
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
#interface TTRightClickDetector : NSView
#property (copy) void (^onRightMouseClicked)(NSEvent *);
#end
#import "TTRightClickDetector.h"
And the implementation:
#implementation TTRightClickDetector
- (void)rightMouseUp:(NSEvent *)theEvent
{
if(self.onRightMouseClicked)
{
self.onRightMouseClicked(theEvent);
}
}
#end
And here's how I use it:
self.statusItem = [[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:NSSquareStatusItemLength];
NSStatusBarButton *button = self.statusItem.button;
button.image = [NSImage imageNamed:#"image"];
button.action = #selector(leftMouseClicked:);
TTRightClickDetector *rightClickDetector = [[TTRightClickDetector alloc] initWithFrame:button.frame];
rightClickDetector.onRightMouseClicked = ^(NSEvent *event){
[self rightMouseClicked];
};
[button addSubview:rightClickDetector];

Answer 3

The swift version of commanda's answer (subclassing an NSView and implementing mouseDown).
NSView Subclass:
class RightMouseHandlerView: NSView {
var onRightMouseDown: (()->())? = nil
override func rightMouseDown(with event: NSEvent) {
super.rightMouseDown(with: event)
if onRightMouseDown != nil {
onRightMouseDown!()
}
}
}
Then adding it to the status bar button and setting the code block:
statusItem = NSStatusBar.system.statusItem(withLength: NSStatusItem.squareLength)
if let button = statusItem.button {
let rmhView = RightMouseHandlerView(frame: statusItem.button!.frame)
rmhView.rightMouseDown = {
// Do something when right mouse down on button
}
button.addSubview(rmView)
}