7. Keep the application in the tray - fakeivchenko/lwjwae GitHub Wiki

A tray icon keeps the application running after its window is hidden. A global shortcut works while another application has the keyboard. In this step, closing the window hides it, and the tray menu or a shortcut brings it back.

  1. Save a 32 by 32 pixel PNG image as src/main/resources/app/tray.png.

  2. In Main.java, add .closeAction(CloseAction.HIDE) to the builder in main, before .build():

              .decorated(false)
          .closeAction(CloseAction.HIDE)
          .resource("app/index.html")

  3. At the end of setUp, add the tray icon and the shortcut:

    Application application = window.application();
application.tray(
    "app/tray.png",
    new TrayMenuItem("Show notes", window::focus),
    new TrayMenuItem("Quit", application::quit));
application.globalShortcut("CmdOrCtrl+Alt+N", window::focus);

  4. Add the imports:

    import dev.ivchenko.lwjwae.CloseAction;
import dev.ivchenko.lwjwae.tray.TrayMenuItem;

  5. Run the application and close the window. The application keeps running in the tray. Click Show notes in the tray menu, or press Ctrl+Alt+N (Command+Option+N on macOS), to bring the window back. Click Quit to end the application.

CmdOrCtrl stands for Command on macOS and Ctrl on other platforms. On Wayland, the desktop asks the user to confirm a global shortcut the first time. If another application holds the shortcut, globalShortcut throws ShortcutUnavailableException.

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