Java program running on task bar

[igwe kalu kalu ogba]

Hi, I've developed a swing application but would like to have it running with an icon on the task bar much like yahoo or msn messenger. If the user right clicks on the taskbar icon, a menu comes out. Does anyone have a tutorial or example of how this is done. THanks.

[Peter Chase]

You need native code for this. I did it by writing a Windows C++ program that does the necessary taskbar setup stuff then invokes Java via the Java Invocation Interface.

The right-click menu on the taskbar also requires native code. The native code can call into the already-running Java program, via Java Native Interface (JNI).

Google for examples.

[igwe kalu kalu ogba]

Thanks, i'll do just that.

[William A White]

It's far easier and more portable to use JDIC - https://jdic.dev.java.net/

[igwe kalu kalu ogba]

Wow, where did that come from? Thanks a lot.

[igwe kalu kalu ogba]

William can jdic allow me to display msn messenger type alerts that come up from the system tray?

[William A White]

Yes, it's pretty flexible. I haven't used it for much beyond simple menus, but I believe that it's just a generic GUI component and you can pretty much display whatever you want in there. I have a couple small applications that do things like display different graphics in the pop-up depending on the state of other programs, and I have had it pop up by itself when a condition is met.

I don't think you can control things like the speed of the windows appearance, and it probably has to be contained in a rectangle.