CodeGuru content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Download
Source Code and Example
To put an icon in the task tray all an application has to
do is call Shell_NotifyIcon() to supply the icon, tool tip, callback message and a window
to send it to. Making an application that’s just a task tray applet is just a case of
creating a hidden window, calling Shell_NotifyIcon() and processing the messages. The
messages are your standard mouse click type messages. It’s not that difficult but it takes
a bit of time.
Creating a hidden window with a WndProc that responds to
Task Tray applet messages correctly and does all the right things can be cumbersome if all
you want to do is pop up a dialog box app from the task tray. The framework lets you
derive from an base class that handles all of that stuff for you. All you need to do is
override a few virtual functions and you have a dialog popping up! CJBTaskTrayApplet also
gives you multiple applets in one exe (with multiple separate icons in the task tray) and
automatic right button menu handling.
To implement your task tray applet you need to do the
following:
- include "TaskBarApplet.hpp" and
"TaskBarAppletMain.hpp" the later gives you a WinMain() implementation. - publicly derive a class from CJBTaskTrayApplet.
- implement the pure virtual functions GetTrayTip() and
GetIcon() to supply the basic require by the framework. - handle OnLeftDoubleClick() to do something when a user
double clicks on you. This is where you would generally show a dialog or something. - create an instance of your applet at global scope.
- link with TaskBarApplet.cpp.
So that this article and code can be kept up to date more easily I’ve provided a link
to where the article is located on my own web pages. Read the
full article and download the source code.
Last updated: 3 July 1998
