Popover NSStatusItem

Question

I'm playing around with an idea and basically I want a NSStatusItem with a NSPopoverController. I read about all the problem people had but I just want to try it. Is there a clean way to do it by now? All the versions I've seen are at least 1 year old and suuuuper hacky.

This was my approach so far but if I click my app in the statusbar nothing happens...

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(NSNotification *)aNotification
{
    self.statusItem = [[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:NSVariableStatusItemLength];

    //[self.statusItem setView:view];
    [self.statusItem setTitle:@"Test"];
    [self.statusItem setHighlightMode:YES];
    [self.statusItem setAction:@selector(activatePopover:)];

}


-(IBAction)activatePopover:(id)sender
{
    BOOL isEnabled = NO;

    if (isEnabled) {
        [self.popover showRelativeToRect:NSMakeRect(0, 0, 50, 50) ofView:statusItem.view preferredEdge:NSMinYEdge];

    } else {
        [self.popover close];
    }
}

Any ideas how to get this running?

Thanks

`showRelativeToRect:ofView:preferredEdge` is never called because `isEnabled` is set to NO. — Frank, Apr 29 '14 at 04:09
`2014-04-29 17:14:08.377 Aves[610:303] -[NSPopover showRelativeToRect:ofView:preferredEdge:]: nil view provided. You must supply a view.` — Constantin Jacob, Apr 29 '14 at 15:16
I have defined `popover`as `@property (strong) IBOutlet NSPopover *popover;` — Constantin Jacob, Apr 29 '14 at 15:19
Look at this http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7837439/how-do-i-make-a-menubar-application-with-a-nspopover/7906025#7906025 — Varun Oberoi, Jan 22 '15 at 16:45

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered May 04 '14 at 12:31

This will not work without using a custom view on the status item. If you don't set a custom view, the view property will be empty (it only returns custom views, not whatever view NSStatusItem uses internally when you just use setTitle).

Unfortunately, as per Apple's docs, you'll need to provide your own view and handle clicks yourself if you want to use NSPopover.

I haven't seen a complete example that encompasses correct handling of this (the default implementation of status items does rather a lot which you will have to do all manually), and also fixes popover wonkynesses:

NSPopover, by default, won't become the key window (some controls won't work), unless you overwrite canBecomeKeyWindow of NSPopover's window
Correctly dismissing menus of other status items (you can call popUpStatusItemMenu with an empty menu to correctly focus your status item)
Drawing the highlighted background with drawStatusBarBackgroundInRect
Reacting to both left and right mouse clicks
Using NSRunningApplication.currentApplication.activateWithOptions to make sure all windows of your status item become active (otherwise your popover will, erratically, not be the receiver of keyboard input)
Dismissing the NSPopover with NSEvent.addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask (the built-in dismissal mechanism popovers come with doesn't work with status items)
Removing the status item on termination with NSStatusBar.systemStatusBar.removeStatusItem

I hope to have a blog post about this out sometime soon (note: I'm using RubyMotion, not Objective-C), that explains all these issues and hopefully provides an easier base to create menulets. I'll update this comment if I write that post.

MY HOLY GOD!!! Why Objective C and OS X development are SOOOOO strong and hard to understand? — Serge Velikan, Jun 09 '14 at 21:13
Calling [NSRunningApplication.currentApplication activateWithOptions:NSApplicationActivateIgnoringOtherApps]; after showRelativeToRect worked for me. — dlinsin, Jun 12 '15 at 13:57
Your answer seems to contain some helpful hints—however, it would be great if your were able to provide a complete solution. I wasn’t able to implement everything / get it work. — ixany, Jan 04 '19 at 18:34

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 16 '20 at 12:54

Code:

-(void)initializeStatusBarItem
{
    self.statusItem = [[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:NSSquareStatusItemLength];
    NSImage* image = [NSImage imageNamed:@"image"];
//    [image setTemplate:YES];
    self.statusItem.button.image = image;
    self.statusItem.highlightMode = NO;
    self.statusItem.button.action = @selector(statusBarItemDidClick:);
}

- (void)statusBarItemDidClick:(NSStatusBarButton *)sender{
    MainViewController *mainView = [[MainViewController alloc] init];
    self.popoverView = [[NSPopover alloc] init];
    [self.popoverView setContentViewController:mainView];
    self.popoverView.contentSize = CGSizeMake(300, 400);
    self.popoverView.behavior = NSPopoverBehaviorTransient;
    [self.popoverView showRelativeToRect:sender.bounds ofView:sender preferredEdge:NSMaxYEdge];
}

Ever since a StatusItem received the `button` property, this example works. Make sure to NOT set the `menu` of the statusItem though, otherwise the action is not being called and the menu opens. — Karsten, May 08 '22 at 17:54

Popover NSStatusItem

2 Answers2