Using JUCE with TUIO, I'm developing a multi-touch utility to send "hot keys" commands to other applications (I am using a usb touch frame that sends TUIO messages). For instance, I provide an interface through which users can touch-and-hold to program a key combo and then tap that button to send the programmed key combo to another app. They way I accomplish this on OSX is by running my utility as a "background only" application (NSApplicationActivationPolicyProhibited). I use [NSWindow setCanHide: NO] so the GUI of my utility is visible even though it runs as a background app.
It works well except in the case that a window from another application is on top of mine. What happens is that touches get passed through that other app into mine- causing unintentional button pushes in my app. Normally, I could have my app only listen to the TUIO touch callback whenever is is the active application, [NSApp isActive]. But, since my app is background only, it is never active and I have no way to tell if another window is covering it to prevent touches.
So, is there any way for a "background only" app to be able to tell if it is on top of all other windows? Or, is there a way from within my app to get a list of all Cocoa windows from other applications and be able to tell if they are appearing on top of my "background only" app?
Also, does anyone know how I would go about all of the above in Windows? In other words, what is the Windows equivalent of NSApplicationActivationPolicyProhibited and would I be able to tell if it is covered by other applications' windows?
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I'm working on a cross-platform command-line application (in C++ on
Win/Linux and ObjC++ on OSX) which sometimes creates an OpenGL
context. The OpenGL context and window creation code is obviously
different for the different platforms, but on OSX it's done through
NSOpenGLView and NSWindow. There's no nib, and it's not built with
Xcode (it uses a cross-platform build script).
On OSX, the window is created and works fine, but the OpenGL window
doesn't show up in the Application Switcher (Cmd-Tab). This means
that it's tricky to find the window if you 'lose it' behind other
windows, and can often only be found by going to Mission
Control/Expose.
My question is: is there a programmatic way (i.e. a message to send to
the NSWindow object or NSApplication) to ensure that a (unix-style)
command line application will show up in the Cmd-Tab list once the
window is created?
You need to transform the process from an accessory to a regular app. Call [NSApp setActivationPolicy:NSApplicationActivationPolicyRegular].
Once you do that, though, the app will also have a menu bar when it's active. This is good because it's what users expect. However, you probably need to add appropriate items to the menus in that menu bar to get a decent user experience.
Your app will appear in the Dock as well as the Command-Tab application switcher. By default, an unbundled executable will get an icon that looks like a CRT display showing the word "exec". You can use [NSApp setApplicationIconImage:someImage] to set a better icon, although the Dock will revert to showing the generic executable icon briefly as the process exits.
My application is a fullscreen window which is rendering a designated other window (from dwm), for example Google Chrome. I would like to know if it's possible to send events (such as mouse keyboard events) to the specified window.
Of course the designated window has to stay in background, and my current application on the foreground.
My application is written in C++. I'm working on Windows 7/8.
Just to put it into an answer.
Based on this question Does any program/language/library that interacts with windows do it via the WIN32 API? you should be able to use the windows API to send a windows message to any window. All you need to get is that windows handle, or you could do a broadcast to all windows.
The specific function http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644950(v=vs.85).aspx
Though that function will block until the windows responds and processes the message, this could hurt GUI performance. If you notice issues try implementing http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644951(v=vs.85).aspx instead.
If I have a program running in the background and it needs the user to see it (like a dialog box) when it pops up, can I take the user out of Metro Mode (in Windows 8) for him to be able to see this notification?
I highly doubt it, such a capability would spawn a bunch of apps that would essentially try to take over and be very jarring for the user. Your desktop app though could generate a toast notification that would alert the user there is some action to take, see this MSDN topic for details.
I agree with Jim: switching context automatically from the desktop to Metro (or whatever they're calling it now) would be visually jarring and user-hostile. I realize the OS itself does this, like when you launch a desktop app from the Start screen. That doesn't make it good design.
Besides, when it does it, the user (presumably) wanted to interact with the newly-launched application. That's not necessarily the case when you're just showing a notification. There may not even be action required.
Instead, I recommend that you use Toast, the notification framework designed explicitly for this purpose. There's a sample application available for download: Sending toast notifications from desktop apps.
Note, however, that in order for Toast notifications to work from desktop applications, you must install a shortcut to your desktop application in the Start screen, with a System.AppUserModel.ID. This should be handled by your installer. More information is here.
Of course, the user can disable this by either turning off notifications or removing your app's shortcut from their Start screen. That's perfectly okay—if they take either of these actions, you can assume that they no longer want to receive notifications from your app.
I've been searching forever for a solution to this, so I thought I'd seek out the brainpower of greater minds than mine. I'm developing a Cocoa app that uses the Accessibility API to manipulate another program (it's a hotkey app). The app I'm controlling typically has multiple windows open, with some hidden behind others. What I would like to do, if it's possible, is to send mouse events to windows using the Accessibility API in a way that presses a button in the window without bringing it to the foreground (interact with the window but don't activate it). The reason I'm trying to do this is that sending the mouse event to this other window will force it to the foreground and disrupt the user's interaction with the foremost window.
This is possible on Windows - apparently, because apps similar to mine do it there - but I'm getting the feeling that this isn't possible with Cocoa, given the way the window manager works. Am I mistaken?
Accessibility is higher-level than that. You send, for example, AXPress actions to AXButton objects, but “press” is not necessarily a click—pressing the space bar while a view is focused, for example, is also a “press”. AXPress is a high-level action that means “do your thing”, which obviously has meaning for some views (such as buttons) and not others (such as fields).
Accessibility activating the application does make sense when you look at it from its intended purpose: Assistive devices for disabled users. If the user “presses” something by whatever means, they probably intend to activate the application and work in it.
Quartz Event Services will get you almost there: You can create an event tap for the process you want to control, and you can forge events and send them to a tap. The catch is that you can only send events to a tap when the tap fires—i.e., when the application already has an event to deal with. When it doesn't, you're stuck.
I'd like to show another app's windows under my app's taskbar button. It's a background app that reports another process's windows as my app's own. Is there any universal way to do this, e.g. each "new" window, alert glow, progressmeter, and other taskbar features, show under my own app's button?
For example, Winfox runs under its own process and steals Firefox's windows. It also adds features, but that's irrelevant -- I just want to support another app's existing taskbar features under my own app's button -- multiple windows, progressmeter, alert flashing, error flashing, mini-icons, etc. Is there a near-universal way to steal an app, or is it largely app-specific? Thanks!
You should be able to use SetParent() to take ownership of a window, but I'm not sure how much this will help you in your attempt to add taskbar features to the legacy app.