Tray

Class: Tray

Add icons and context menus to the system’s notification area.

Process: Main

Tray is an EventEmitter.

const { app, Menu, Tray } = require('electron')
let tray = null
app.whenReady().then(() => {
  tray = new Tray('/path/to/my/icon')
  const contextMenu = Menu.buildFromTemplate([
    { label: 'Item1', type: 'radio' },
    { label: 'Item2', type: 'radio' },
    { label: 'Item3', type: 'radio', checked: true },
    { label: 'Item4', type: 'radio' }
  ])
  tray.setToolTip('This is my application.')
  tray.setContextMenu(contextMenu)
})

Platform limitations:

• On Linux the app indicator will be used if it is supported, otherwise GtkStatusIcon will be used instead.
• On Linux distributions that only have app indicator support, you have to install libappindicator1 to make the tray icon work.
• App indicator will only be shown when it has a context menu.
• When app indicator is used on Linux, the click event is ignored.
• On Linux in order for changes made to individual MenuItems to take effect, you have to call setContextMenu again. For example:

const { app, Menu, Tray } = require('electron')
let appIcon = null
app.whenReady().then(() => {
  appIcon = new Tray('/path/to/my/icon')
  const contextMenu = Menu.buildFromTemplate([
    { label: 'Item1', type: 'radio' },
    { label: 'Item2', type: 'radio' }
  ])
  // Make a change to the context menu
  contextMenu.items[1].checked = false
  // Call this again for Linux because we modified the context menu
  appIcon.setContextMenu(contextMenu)
})

• On Windows it is recommended to use ICO icons to get best visual effects.

If you want to keep exact same behaviors on all platforms, you should not rely on the click event and always attach a context menu to the tray icon.

new Tray(image, [guid])

• image (NativeImage | string)
• guid string (optional) Windows - Assigns a GUID to the tray icon. If the executable is signed and the signature contains an organization in the subject line then the GUID is permanently associated with that signature. OS level settings like the position of the tray icon in the system tray will persist even if the path to the executable changes. If the executable is not code-signed then the GUID is permanently associated with the path to the executable. Changing the path to the executable will break the creation of the tray icon and a new GUID must be used. However, it is highly recommended to use the GUID parameter only in conjunction with code-signed executable. If an App defines multiple tray icons then each icon must use a separate GUID.

Creates a new tray icon associated with the image.

Instance Events

The Tray module emits the following events:

Event: ‘click’

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• bounds Rectangle - The bounds of tray icon.
• position Point - The position of the event.

Emitted when the tray icon is clicked.

Event: ‘right-click’ macOS Windows

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• bounds Rectangle - The bounds of tray icon.

Emitted when the tray icon is right clicked.

Event: ‘double-click’ macOS Windows

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• bounds Rectangle - The bounds of tray icon.

Emitted when the tray icon is double clicked.

Event: ‘balloon-show’ Windows

Emitted when the tray balloon shows.

Event: ‘balloon-click’ Windows

Emitted when the tray balloon is clicked.

Event: ‘balloon-closed’ Windows

Emitted when the tray balloon is closed because of timeout or user manually closes it.

Event: ‘drop’ macOS

Emitted when any dragged items are dropped on the tray icon.

Event: ‘drop-files’ macOS

Returns:

• event Event
• files string[] - The paths of the dropped files.

Emitted when dragged files are dropped in the tray icon.

Event: ‘drop-text’ macOS

Returns:

• event Event
• text string - the dropped text string.

Emitted when dragged text is dropped in the tray icon.

Event: ‘drag-enter’ macOS

Emitted when a drag operation enters the tray icon.

Event: ‘drag-leave’ macOS

Emitted when a drag operation exits the tray icon.

Event: ‘drag-end’ macOS

Emitted when a drag operation ends on the tray or ends at another location.

Event: ‘mouse-up’ macOS

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• position Point - The position of the event.

Emitted when the mouse is released from clicking the tray icon.

Note: This will not be emitted if you have set a context menu for your Tray using tray.setContextMenu, as a result of macOS-level constraints.

Event: ‘mouse-down’ macOS

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• position Point - The position of the event.

Emitted when the mouse clicks the tray icon.

Event: ‘mouse-enter’ macOS

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• position Point - The position of the event.

Emitted when the mouse enters the tray icon.

Event: ‘mouse-leave’ macOS

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• position Point - The position of the event.

Emitted when the mouse exits the tray icon.

Event: ‘mouse-move’ macOS Windows

Returns:

• event KeyboardEvent
• position Point - The position of the event.

Emitted when the mouse moves in the tray icon.

Instance Methods

The Tray class has the following methods:

tray.destroy()

Destroys the tray icon immediately.

tray.setImage(image)

• image (NativeImage | string)

Sets the image associated with this tray icon.

tray.setPressedImage(image) macOS

• image (NativeImage | string)

Sets the image associated with this tray icon when pressed on macOS.

tray.setToolTip(toolTip)

• toolTip string

Sets the hover text for this tray icon.

tray.setTitle(title[, options]) macOS

• title string
• options Object (optional)
  • fontType string (optional) - The font family variant to display, can be monospaced or monospacedDigit. monospaced is available in macOS 10.15+ and monospacedDigit is available in macOS 10.11+. When left blank, the title uses the default system font.

Sets the title displayed next to the tray icon in the status bar (Support ANSI colors).

tray.getTitle() macOS

Returns string - the title displayed next to the tray icon in the status bar

tray.setIgnoreDoubleClickEvents(ignore) macOS

• ignore boolean

Sets the option to ignore double click events. Ignoring these events allows you to detect every individual click of the tray icon.

This value is set to false by default.

tray.getIgnoreDoubleClickEvents() macOS

Returns boolean - Whether double click events will be ignored.

tray.displayBalloon(options) Windows

• options Object
  • icon (NativeImage | string) (optional) - Icon to use when iconType is custom.
  • iconType string (optional) - Can be none, info, warning, error or custom. Default is custom.
  • title string
  • content string
  • largeIcon boolean (optional) - The large version of the icon should be used. Default is true. Maps to NIIF_LARGE_ICON.
  • noSound boolean (optional) - Do not play the associated sound. Default is false. Maps to NIIF_NOSOUND.
  • respectQuietTime boolean (optional) - Do not display the balloon notification if the current user is in “quiet time”. Default is false. Maps to NIIF_RESPECT_QUIET_TIME.

Displays a tray balloon.

tray.removeBalloon() Windows

Removes a tray balloon.

tray.focus() Windows

Returns focus to the taskbar notification area. Notification area icons should use this message when they have completed their UI operation. For example, if the icon displays a shortcut menu, but the user presses ESC to cancel it, use tray.focus() to return focus to the notification area.

tray.popUpContextMenu([menu, position]) macOS Windows

• menu Menu (optional)
• position Point (optional) - The pop up position.

Pops up the context menu of the tray icon. When menu is passed, the menu will be shown instead of the tray icon’s context menu.

The position is only available on Windows, and it is (0, 0) by default.

tray.closeContextMenu() macOS Windows

Closes an open context menu, as set by tray.setContextMenu().

tray.setContextMenu(menu)

• menu Menu | null

Sets the context menu for this icon.

tray.getBounds() macOS Windows

Returns Rectangle

The bounds of this tray icon as Object.

tray.isDestroyed()

Returns boolean - Whether the tray icon is destroyed.