I created a status bar app for the mac a few weeks ago. However, whenever I run the app, the dock icon shows up alone with the item in the status bar. Is there a way to keep the app from appearing in the dock?
I can't write comments but to what #Michael Dautermann wrote I'd suggest using the LSUIElement key.
You've said that it's a status bar app, so it has a UI.
LSUIElement (String - OS X) specifies whether the app runs as an agent app. If this key is set to “1”, Launch Services runs the app as an agent app. Agent apps do not appear in the Dock or in the Force Quit window. Although they typically run as background apps, they can come to the foreground to present a user interface if desired. A click on a window belonging to an agent app brings that app forward to handle events.
The Dock and loginwindow are two apps that run as agent apps.
Despite what the docs say it is a String so you can also set this as bool.
Yes, set the LSBackgroundOnly key in your app's "Info.plist" file.
Related
I have a foreground application that shows a NSStatusItem along with a menu (via NSStatusItem setMenu:(NSMenu *)menu). However, this menu does not display when I am looking at another app in fullscreen mode (say Safari) in Lion.
I know that I can make it work by setting NSBGOnly to true in the Info.plist file (or NSUIElement), but both methods will make my app icon disappear from the task switcher as well as hide the main menu once I manage to focus my app.
Finally, I have tried setting NSUIElement to true and do the following in my app upon startup (see also How to hide the Dock icon):
ProcessSerialNumber psn = { 0, kCurrentProcess };
TransformProcessType(&psn, kProcessTransformToForegroundApplication);
This made the menubar appear again as well as the dock icon but the original problem (status item menu does not show up in another fullscreen app) is visible again. Whatever I try, I can't win.
Any suggestions would be highly appreciated!
Unfortunately I think this is expected behaviour. Your app is considered a foreground app, so all its UI is disabled while another app is in full screen. You should file a bug if you feel that status items in foreground apps should still be available to other apps in full screen mode.
Probably the best solution would be to split your app into two parts, an agent app which has LSUIElement set to true, which creates and manages the status item and its menu, and your main foreground app which does most of the work and which launches and manages the agent app.
There are a variety of inter-process communication methods that you can use to get the two apps talking to each other, such as Distributed Objects or Apple Events.
I'm working on a Menu Bar app and I've added the LSUIElement so the icon won't appear in the dock when the app is in use (And also to remove the File, Edit, View etc at the left of the menu bar).
The problem is that I want the app to be launched by the Icon and by adding the LSUIElement the only way to luanch the app is thru xcode.
I've seen that in the Mac app Caffiene it launches by the icon but it doesn't appear in the dock that it's running etc which is excatly what I want/need.
So I was wondering if you guys know how to do this.
Thank you in advance!
If you want to have a dock icon but not show the app as running in the Dock, simply create two applications:
Status Menu Application
This is the actual application that sets up the menu and contains the application's logic. It has LSUIElement set.
Launcher Application
This application has a dock icon. It contains the status menu application in its bundle. Its sole job is to launch the status menu application and then quit itself.
There is a really simple way to do this without creating a separate launcher app. Build your application, which has a status item, as an app bundle. Then, add an entry to the application's Info.plist file
Key: NSUIElement
Value: Number, 1 or Boolean True
NSUIElement tells OSX if the app should display in the Dock or not.
I've submitted a helper application (using LSUIElement)to the Mac App Store. I was under the false impression that the App Store install process would put a dock icon for helper apps.
How can I create a dock icon that the user could remove, while the status bar app runs independently (like the popular app Caffeine)? Do I need to create a non-LSUIElement app that loads the LSUIElement app, or is there a better way?
Instead of using LSUIElement, use NSApplication's setActivationPolicy: method. By default, the application will have a dock icon, but by changing the activation policy to NSApplicationActivationPolicyAccessory, you get the same effect as LSUIElement while being able to change it programatically (the documentation for NSApplicationActivationPolicyAccessory says it is equivalent to LSUIElement=1).
- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSApplication *)app {
if([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] boolForKey:#"HideDockIcon"])
[NSApp setActivationPolicy:NSApplicationActivationPolicyAccessory];
}
Apparently I was misinformed by my app reviewer (two of them actually). The dock icon is created for you by the install process. Pressing the issue, I was able to get the app through the review process.
I have an application I'd like to build that starts when you start the mac and will appear in the dock.
I have some experience with Objective-C and iPhone dev but none with Mac dev, I'm also a PC user normally so I'm not au fait with the norms of Mac usage. Any guidance here is appreciated.
How do you get an application to autostart?
*edit Can you run an app in the status bar? (with the clock etc) or do apps only run in the dock?
To write a program in the Status Bar check out this great tutorial.
To get an application to auto start on login, look for information on launch daemon or just make your application installer to place an entry on /Library/StartupItems.
About the dock: usually, user controls what's on his/her dock. When your UI application is running, it will usually be in the dock. If you want the icon to stick there permanently, you will need the user dragging the icon from the Finder to the dock, or, right-click on the dock icon while is running in select Options->Keep In Dock menu option.
I'm creating a backgrounded cocoa application. The only thing that it's missing is the ability to take text inputs!
I'm making the application backgrounded by setting "Application is background only" in the Info.plist
But no matter what I do I can't make any window the keyWindow.
makeKeyWindow
makeKeyAndOrderFront
Both don't work...
I know apps can do this, anyone have any idea how you can get background application to have a key window?
Try using LSUIElement:
LSUIElement (String - Mac OS X) specifies whether the application runs as an agent application. If this key is set to “1”, Launch Services runs the application as an agent application. Agent applications do not appear in the Dock or in the Force Quit window. Although they typically run as background applications, they can come to the foreground to present a user interface if desired. [..]
If you switch the plist editor to raw keys you will see that "Application is background only" is LSBackgroundOnly which is used for faceless applications.