Windowless (not chromeless) Adobe AIR app - air

Question

What would be the best way to go about building an Adobe AIR app that doesn't have any windows (i.e. exists only in the system tray / dock)? I noticed that the default base tag in Flash Builder is <s:WindowedApplication> which seems to imply there'll be a window.
Should I just use <s:WindowedApplication> and call window.hide()? I saw there's another base class, <s:Application>, but I got the sense that was more for files that run in the browser. It seems like using window.hide() would briefly flash a window when the application starts which could confuse users. However I'd also ideally like to retain the ability to have the app open a window later if needed, or also to change the application from tray-only to windowed through an update.

Answer 1

You need to edit the app-config file to enable transparent chrome and visible = false. Then you need to change the WindowedApplication tag to and app your custom skin. You need to add control buttons for close etc, since that functionality isn't present in a web-app (since you have changed the tag). Also you need to add drag functionality. If you like to make your application re-sizable you need to add that too, manually.

Answer 2

In your manifest (-app.xml) file set systemChrome to none and transparent to true. The visible property is irrelevant, and the default is false anyway so ignore it.
you'll have to tweak this, import whatever classes are missing, etc... you could also do it as an mxml component and just set visible and enabled to false on the root tag. Fill up the trayImages array with the icons you want in the dock.
p
ackage{
import spark.components.WindowedApplication;
public class HiddenApplication extends WindowedApplication{
public function HiddenApplication(){
super();
enabled=false;
visible=false;
var trayImages:Array;
if(NativeApplication.supportsDockIcon||NativeApplication.supportsSystemTrayIcon){
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.activate();
var sep:NativeMenuItem = new NativeMenuItem(null,true);
var exitMenu:NativeMenuItem = new NativeMenuItem('Exit',false);
exitMenu.addEventListener(Event.SELECT,shutdown);
var updateMenu:NativeMenuItem = new NativeMenuItem('Check for Updates',false);
updateMenu.addEventListener(Event.SELECT,upDcheck);
var prefsMenu:NativeMenuItem = new NativeMenuItem('Preferences',false);
prefsMenu.addEventListener(Event.SELECT,Controller.showSettings);
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon.addEventListener(ScreenMouseEvent.CLICK,showToolBar);
if(NativeApplication.supportsSystemTrayIcon){
trayIcon = SystemTrayIcon(NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon);
setTrayIcons();
trayIcon.tooltip = "Some random tooltip text";
trayIcon.menu = new NativeMenu();
trayIcon.menu.addItem(prefsMenu);
trayIcon.menu.addItem(sep);
trayIcon.menu.addItem(updateMenu);
trayIcon.menu.addItem(exitMenu);
}
else{
dockIcon = DockIcon(NativeApplication.nativeApplication.icon);
setTrayIcons();
dockIcon.menu = new NativeMenu();
dockIcon.menu.addItem(prefsMenu);
dockIcon.menu.addItem(sep);
dockIcon.menu.addItem(updateMenu);
dockIcon.menu.addItem(exitMenu);
}
}
function setTrayIcons(n:Number=0):void{
if(showTrayIcon&&(trayIcon||dockIcon)){
Controller.debug('Updating tray icon');
if(NativeApplication.supportsSystemTrayIcon){
trayIcon.bitmaps = trayImages;
}
else if(NativeApplication.supportsDockIcon){
dockIcon.bitmaps = trayImages;
}
}
else if(trayIcon||dockIcon) trayIcon.bitmaps = new Array();
}
}
}