Swift: NSStatusItem menu behaviour in 10.10 (e.g. show only on right mouse click)

Question

I am writing a simple status bar app in Swift, and attempting to use the new NSStatusItem API introduced in OS X 10.10.

The interface I\'m aiming for is a simple left mo

Answer 1

Here's the solution I came up with. It works fairly well, though there's one thing I'm not happy with: the status item stays highlighted after you choose an option in the right-click menu. The highlight goes away as soon as you interact with something else.

Also note that popUpStatusItemMenu: is "softly deprecated" as of OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), and will be formally deprecated in a future release. For now, it works and won't give you any warnings. Hopefully we'll have a fully supported way to do this before it's formally deprecated—I'd recommend filing a bug report if you agree.

First you'll need a few properties and an enum:

typedef NS_ENUM(NSUInteger,JUNStatusItemActionType) {
    JUNStatusItemActionNone,
    JUNStatusItemActionPrimary,
    JUNStatusItemActionSecondary
};

@property (nonatomic, strong) NSStatusItem *statusItem;
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSMenu *statusItemMenu;
@property (nonatomic) JUNStatusItemActionType statusItemAction;

Then at some point you'll want to set up the status item:

NSStatusItem *item = [[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:29.0];
NSStatusBarButton *button = item.button;
button.image = [NSImage imageNamed:@"Menu-Icon"];
button.target = self;
button.action = @selector(handleStatusItemAction:);
[button sendActionOn:(NSLeftMouseDownMask|NSRightMouseDownMask|NSLeftMouseUpMask|NSRightMouseUpMask)];
self.statusItem = item;

Then you just need to handle the actions sent by the status item button:

- (void)handleStatusItemAction:(id)sender {

    const NSUInteger buttonMask = [NSEvent pressedMouseButtons];
    BOOL primaryDown = ((buttonMask & (1 << 0)) != 0);
    BOOL secondaryDown = ((buttonMask & (1 << 1)) != 0);
    // Treat a control-click as a secondary click
    if (primaryDown && ([NSEvent modifierFlags] & NSControlKeyMask)) {
        primaryDown = NO;
        secondaryDown = YES;
    }

    if (primaryDown) {
        self.statusItemAction = JUNStatusItemActionPrimary;
    } else if (secondaryDown) {
        self.statusItemAction = JUNStatusItemActionSecondary;
        if (self.statusItemMenu == nil) {
            NSMenu *menu = [[NSMenu alloc] initWithTitle:@""];
            [menu addItemWithTitle:NSLocalizedString(@"Quit",nil) action:@selector(terminate:) keyEquivalent:@""];
            self.statusItemMenu = menu;
        }
        [self.statusItem popUpStatusItemMenu:self.statusItemMenu];
    } else {
        self.statusItemAction = JUNStatusItemActionNone;
        if (self.statusItemAction == JUNStatusItemActionPrimary) {
            // TODO: add whatever you like for the primary action here
        }
    }

}

So basically, handleStatusItemAction: is called on mouse down and mouse up for both mouse buttons. When a button is down, it keeps track of whether it should do the primary or secondary action. If it's a secondary action, that's handled immediately, since menus normally appear on mouse down. If it's a primary action, that's handled on mouse up.