making a dock bar [closed] - objective-c

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Closed 10 years ago.
I want to make a dock bar which contains application's icons. If I click on any icon then that application should lunch and how can I hide that dock bar ?
I am new to cocoa and I have no idea about it .
so can any one give me basic idea to do it .
thanks in advance

Answer 1

There are several key elements here:
Like almost anything else on the screen, your Dock would have to be in a window. Presumably, you aren't imagining a window with the standard frame (title bar, stoplight, and resize handles), so you'd want a borderless window. It will have to be at a particular window level, namely this one.
Each icon would be a button to start with. You'd evolve this into custom views that are capable of bouncing, showing running state (as the Dock does with its LEDs), etc.
The Dock populates itself with three kinds of items: Running applications, bookmarked applications (those that stay in the Dock even when running), and bookmarked files (documents, folders, etc.). Applications go on the left side of the divider; bookmarked files and the Trash go on the right side.
Speaking of the Trash, if you want that, you'll need to use FSEvents to detect when any Trash becomes non-empty, NSWorkspace or an Apple Event to the Finder to open the Trash, and an Apple Event to the Finder to empty it.
When the user clicks on a bookmarked application that isn't running, you'll use NSWorkspace to launch that application.
For applications that are already running, you'll need to activate them (if not already active) or “reopen” them (if already active). I'd first try just launching them and seeing whether that Does the Right Thing in all three cases; if it doesn't, then you get to send Apple Events yourself when necessary.
Bookmarked folders can be perused in the Dock with one of three UIs: List (a menu), grid (a collection view), and “fan”. Menus are easy enough to make, but I'm not sure how to make one popover-styled. The grid UI would be a collection view in a HUD-styled popover. “Fan” is entirely custom, in a popover.
You'll need to detect when applications launch and terminate, in order to add them to your Dock (if not already there as bookmarks) and remove them from it (if they're not bookmarked then). NSWorkspace has notifications for this.
You probably can't get applications' custom Dock menus. That's all private stuff between Apple's Dock and AppKit.
Likewise, good luck implementing the “Assign to Desktop” menu items.
The other commands in each application's Dock menu correspond to NSRunningApplication methods.
You'll also want to handle drag and drop in your Dock-icon views, both to enable reordering and to handle the user dragging items off of the Dock to un-bookmark them. Remember to handle the case of un-bookmarking a running application (the Dock does un-bookmark it, but snaps the app back into place because it is still running). When un-bookmarking, play the poof effect when the user drops it.
When the user ⌘-drags any item out of the Dock, drag the file represented by that item. This doesn't work on the Finder (in Apple's Dock—you could do this if you want) or the Trash (it doesn't represent a single item). Do not remove the item from the Dock.
And, on the other end, you should highlight an icon when the user drags to it, if and only if the item represented by the icon can receive that drag.
When the user drags files to an application, highlight it if all of the files' types are among the application's document types. Complete the drag by using NSWorkspace to open the file URLs with that application.
When the user drags non-file URLs to an application, highlight it if all of the URLs' schemes are among the application's URL schemes. Complete the drag by using NSWorkspace to open the URLs with that application.
When the user drags content to an application, highlight it if the application has a service that can handle any of the content types on the drag pasteboard. Complete it by invoking that service. (I don't know of a public API to do this with a specific application—you'll need to just use the service name and hope for the best.)
When the user drags files to a folder, highlight it if the folder is writable or contains any folders. If the user hovers there for a certain amount of time, open the folder in the Finder (this feature is called spring-loaded folders). If the user drops the files on the folder in your Dock, complete the drag by moving or copying the files to the folder, or by creating aliases to them in the folder, depending on the state of the modifier keys.
The same goes for files to the Trash, but you'll need to determine the correct Trash for each file. If the file is within the Home folder, the correct Trash is the Home folder's Trash. Otherwise, it's the volume-level Trash of whatever volume the file is on.
When the user drags any volume(s) to the Trash, change its icon to an Eject icon (kEjectMediaIcon, used with iconForFileType:). Complete the drag by ejecting the volume(s). If the user completes the drag, cancels it, or drags away from the Trash, change the Trash's icon back.
Oh, and you'll need to handle dragging between items, including before and after the divider, to add items. This will overlap with the dragging to reorder that I mentioned above.
For auto-hiding, you'll need to have a 1-pt-tall/-wide borderless window, of the same width/height as the real Dock, at the edge of the screen that bears the Dock (ordinarily the first screen, if there are any). When the user mouses over this window, show the Dock (which should cover up the thin window). When the user moves the mouse outside of the Dock, hide it.
The Dock has a contextual menu containing various options on its divider.
Ideally, you should anticipate supporting theming at some point, since the Dock has at least two themes already (the default “glass” theme and the 2D HUD-style theme).
Let me know if I missed anything.