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The Taskbar and System Tray desktop locations on Windows OS give you easy access to applications and application windows. The Dock is an analogous desktop feaure on Mac OS X. Although the APIs are similar, they are sufficiently different that support for these desktop convenience features requires platform specific implemention.
The Windows taskbar contains buttons for active applications and windows. To show your application in the task bar, use mApplication.showOnTaskBar(). This command will add a button in the taskbar containing the name of your application. You can add a seperate task bar button for sub-launched child windows, by calling mWindow.showOnTaskBar() in the child swf.
The Alert User sample shows how to flash the Windows taskbar button.
The Windows System Tray is generally used to add easy access to always-on utility applications running as background processes. You can add your application to the System Tray using mApplication.setSystemTrayIcon() and mApplication.showInSystemTray(). mApplication.setSystemTrayIcon() sets a region in your swf from which the icon will be drawn. Animating this region will animate your system tray icon.
The Alert User sample shows how to animate the Windows system tray icon.
The Mac OS X Dock show icons of applications, folders, and documents. Applications are shown on the left of the Dock. Folders and documents appear on the right. mProjector gives several ways to control icons in Dock.
mProjector Mac builds two types of Mac OS X application - widgets and regular applications. The first thing to know is that widgets, by Apple’s definition, do not have application menu bars (across the top of the screen) and their icons do not appear in the Dock. A Mac widget is generally a light-weight utility playing in a small window. The EarthShaker sample, on our web site, is a good example of a widget made with mProjector. If you do not want your application’s icon in the Dock, check the Widget checkbox in mProjector’s settings panel.
If you leave the Widget checkbox unchecked, mProjector produces a standard application. If a user drags your application onto the dock, your icon will appear on the right side of the Dock. When your user minimizes your mProjector application’ windows, they will shrink and appear on the left side of the Dock.
You can change the Dock icon using mApplication.setDockIconbadge() and mApplication.showInSystemTray().
The command mProjector.bounceDockIcon() bounces the icon in the Mac OS X Dock. Use this command to alert the user that your application needs attention. The icon does not bounce if your application is already the active application.
The command mApplication.setDockIconbadge() adds a text message to the Dock icon.
The Alert User sample shows how to bounce the Mac OS X Dock icon.
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