Running java in the background

[PrasannaKumar Sathiyanantham]

hi guys,

I have developed a java application(an alarm which can be customised by the user). I want the application to run in the background(like utorrent). If the user pressed the exit button the application must not close down rather it must go to the system tray.

How can this be achieved .

Please help me

[Maneesh Godbole]

Is this a Swing application?

Check out http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/javase6/systemtray/

[Rob Spoor]

Minimizing to the system tray is done by adding an icon to the system tray, then calling setVisible(false) on your frame to hide it from the task bar. You may want to keep normal minimizing in there for the effect. The procedure is then like this (using a WindowListener):

public void windowIconified(WindowEvent e)
{
    // add to the system tray if not already done so
    e.getWindow().setVisible(false);
}

public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e)
{
    // no minimizing here
    // add to the system tray if not already done so
    e.getWindow().setVisible(false);
}

To show it again, turn off the minimized (iconified) state and show it again:

frame.setVisible(true);
// remove from the system tray if you want to
// the following three lines take the current state, remove the iconified flag from it, then sets the new state
int state = frame.getExtendedState();
state = state & ~Frame.ICONIFIED;
frame.setExtendedState(state);

To minimize in the closing event (which is called when you press the X) as well use the reverse for minimizing:

int state = frame.getExtendedState();
state = state | Frame.ICONIFIED;
frame.setExtendedState(state);

Keep in mind that this will cause another windowIconified event, so if you minimize in the closing event remove the hiding and the tray icon code from that event. The other event will handle that.


Moving to our Swing forum.

[PrasannaKumar Sathiyanantham]

Thank you Maneesh and Rob Prime. I will implement it today and get back to you guys.