Feature Request: Single application tray window - test.

[blue-devil-93]

Hi, i tried to work on some shell experiments for windows to. See it here: https://gitlab.com/bluedxca93/11-shell-gtk/-/tree/main/0-5-beta?ref_type=heads . But im not able to show the system tray. Then i found out that retrobar (that uses managed shell) is the only application that can display the notification area without explorer. Is tehre any method to start a sirt of retrobar with a normal window that only shows the tray area?.

[dremin]

Hi! Yes, you can use ManagedShell to create a notification area without explorer running. Have you seen the quick start that shows how to get started? It is here: https://github.com/cairoshell/ManagedShell/wiki/Getting-Started

[blue-devil-93]

Not really, got some sort of progress while looking at retrbar:

<appbar:AppBarWindow x:Class="RetroBar.Taskbar"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:RetroBar.Controls"
        xmlns:converters="clr-namespace:RetroBar.Converters"
        xmlns:utilities="clr-namespace:RetroBar.Utilities"
        xmlns:appbar="clr-namespace:ManagedShell.AppBar;assembly=ManagedShell.AppBar"
        Title="RetroBar Taskbar" Height="450" Width="800">
    
    <!-- Set the DataContext to your view model, ensuring it exposes NotificationArea -->
    <appbar:AppBarWindow.DataContext>
        <!-- Replace 'TaskbarViewModel' with your actual view model if needed -->
        <utilities:TaskbarViewModel/>
    </appbar:AppBarWindow.DataContext>
    
    <Grid>
        <!-- Bind the NotifyIconList's NotificationArea property to the view model's NotificationArea -->
        <controls:NotifyIconList NotificationArea="{Binding NotificationArea}" />
    </Grid>
</appbar:AppBarWindow>

But thats is not what i want. The appbar class conflicts with my gtk shell. It gets tons of window placement errors. Is there a way to not use appbar but normal window decoration?

[dremin]

An AppBar is not needed to use it. Here is a rough basic code example to illustrate.

MainWindow.xaml:

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
    <ItemsControl x:Name="MyTrayUnpinnedItemsControl">
        <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
            <DataTemplate>
                <Image Source="{Binding Icon}" ToolTip="{Binding Title}" />
            </DataTemplate>
        </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
    </ItemsControl>
    <ItemsControl x:Name="MyTrayPinnedItemsControl">
        <ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
            <DataTemplate>
                <Image Source="{Binding Icon}" ToolTip="{Binding Title}" />
            </DataTemplate>
        </ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>
    </ItemsControl>
</StackPanel>

MainWindow.xaml.cs:

ShellManager shellManager = new ShellManager();
MyTrayPinnedItemsControl.ItemsSource = shellManager.NotificationArea.PinnedIcons;
MyTrayUnpinnedItemsControl.ItemsSource = shellManager.NotificationArea.UnpinnedIcons;

[blue-devil-93]

MainWindow.xaml.txt
MainWindow.xaml.cs.txt
I am impressed by your help, got a lot of things right already. Ned to fix the main window scaling and the context menu but i can now view what is active in tray..

need now to look how to handle the click events, maybe something like this?
` private void PropertiesNotifyIcon_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (sender is MenuItem menuItem && menuItem.Tag is NotifyIcon notifyIcon)
{
// Show properties for this icon
// This might involve showing a custom dialog, or calling a method on the NotifyIcon
notifyIcon.ShowProperties();
}
}

    private void CloseNotifyIcon_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (sender is MenuItem menuItem && menuItem.Tag is NotifyIcon notifyIcon)
        {
            // Close or hide the notify icon
            notifyIcon.Close();
        }
    }
}`

[dremin]

See this section for how to handle each of the mouse events: https://github.com/cairoshell/ManagedShell/wiki/Tray-Service#notification-area-icon-interaction

[kost00002-web]

sadly it does not work, showing up tons of errors.Retrobar works but it provides full panel and i want only the notification area. Tried now wven other approaches it seems that you need a compiler different from mingw to implement it. mingw can not use ths low level approach.. ups, writing from my art uniersity account

[dremin]

Could you provide a copy of your code? I can help figure out what is going on, it should work :)

[blue-devil-93]

WpfApp1.zip .. Hi, i had some months of work and was away from py cp. However here is my current code. I want to have somehow a fully or almost working working app that only displays the tray. Rest is working more or less. On Windows 11 25 h 2 i do not always need the tray. it was enough until now top temporaily load retrobar to have the tray but retrobar has some errors if explorer.exe is not present.

[dremin]

Here you go, I updated the code and it works for me. Hope this helps!

WpfApp1 (2).zip

[blue-devil-93]

it works on my Computer too. The Window size is a small issue left, but i'll try to look at what i can do. The Icons are stored correctly and now i can use it without Problems and even click on it. Thank you very much.