adding Mac OS X like Application Behaviour to your Air Application
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009In Mac OS X when you close the window of an application the app usually keeps running in the dock. Wheter this is a good thing or not is totally different story, but for apps like mail and ical it certainly is since I want my mail app to keep checking for new mail without the window cluttering up my screen. So what if I want to add such behaviour to an Adobe Air Application.
var appIsPersistant:Boolean=false
var app=NativeApplication.nativeApplication
var window=stage.nativeWindow;
public function set appPersistant(b:Boolean):void{ // adding a simple property to your app b:Boolean whether its stays on or not
appIsPersistant=b
if(b){
if(app!=null){
app.autoExit=false // preventing the app to exit if all windwows are closed
window.addEventListener(Event.CLOSING,hideWindow) // listening for the closing event of the main window
app.addEventListener(InvokeEvent.INVOKE,initWindow) // listening for the invoke event if the user clicks on the dock icon
app.addEventListener(Event.EXITING,appClose) // listening if the app should be terminated, to prevent the hiding of the window and allow termination
}
}else{
if(app!=null){
app.autoExit=true // if app is not persistant the app can close just as usual
}
}
}
public function appClose(e:Event):void{
window.removeEventListener(Event.CLOSING,hideWindow) // if the app should terminate with command + Q we have to remove the listener for the Closing event. Otherwise only the window will close but the app will not terminate
}
public function hideWindow(e:Event):void{
if(window.visible){ // if the window is visible the event behaviour is canceld and the window is hidden
e.preventDefault()
window.visible=false
}
}
function initWindow(e:Event=null):void{
window.activate() // if the user clicks on the dock icon the window commes back up
}
public function get appPersistant():Boolean{
return appIsPersistant // just the getter for the appPersistant propery
}
by adding these few methods your app will exit just fine with command + Q but if you click the close button only the window will close and the app keeps running and comes back up if you click the dock icon
