Artem Ananiev's Blog

Using JPopupMenu in TrayIcon

What's the problem?

Use JPopupMenu instead

    TrayIcon trayIcon = new TrayIcon(someImage, "Tooltip", null);

    JPopupMenu jpopup = new JPopupMenu();

    JMenuItem javaCupMI = new JMenuItem("Example", new ImageIcon("javacup.gif"));
    jpopup.add(javaCupMI);

    jpopup.addSeparator();

    JMenuItem exitMI = new JMenuItem("Exit");
    jpopup.add(exitMI);

    trayIcon.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
        public void mouseReleased(MouseEvent e) {
            if (e.isPopupTrigger()) {
                jpopup.setLocation(e.getX(), e.getY());
                jpopup.setInvoker(jpopup);
                jpopup.setVisible(true);
            }
        }
    });

Magic?

Comments

• I saw a question about this in the forums awhile back, remarkable your solution looks fairly simple.

  leouser

  Posted by: leouser on May 04, 2006 at 06:29 AM

• Could you post a link to the forum where this problem was discussed and their solution, please?

  Posted by: ixmal on May 04, 2006 at 06:56 AM

• Ill have to do some digging, but I don't think they came up with a solution. It was more of a "hey why can't we use a JPopupMenu with the TrayIcon" kind of thread. I remember speculating on a possibility, but I like your idea better.

  leouser

  Posted by: leouser on May 04, 2006 at 08:05 AM

• It was this thread: http://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=14279&tstart=30

  and as I said, no real solutions presented.

  leouser

  Posted by: leouser on May 04, 2006 at 08:08 AM

• 
  This is not enough!

  The JPopupMenu should be poping up on top of the taskbar, as native popups do.
  

  Posted by: cowwoc on May 05, 2006 at 08:06 AM

• Please vote for http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6285881 to fix this problem.

  Posted by: cowwoc on May 05, 2006 at 08:12 AM

• I tried under Linux and Netbeans 5.0. Works OK but got :
  java.lang.ClassCastException: java.awt.TrayIcon cannot be cast to java.awt.Component

  Posted by: dags on May 05, 2006 at 10:10 AM

• Thanks, dags, I have just got the exception. I think somewhere in the AWT/Swing code all the mouse events are supposed to be sent for Components, but TrayIcon is not a descendant of Component:( I will file a new bug about this.

  Posted by: ixmal on May 06, 2006 at 12:56 AM

• - When I use PopupMenu with TrayIcon then I cannot use Unicode but I can close popup that don't need click on its menuitems.
  - When I use JPopupMenu with TrayIcon then I can use Unicode but I can't close popup, I only close this popup when I click on its menuitems.

  Posted by: phubinh13 on October 26, 2006 at 11:43 PM

• - When I use PopupMenu with TrayIcon then I cannot use Unicode but I can close popup that don't need click on its menuitems.
  - When I use JPopupMenu with TrayIcon then I can use Unicode but I can't close popup, I only close this popup when I click on its menuitems.

  Posted by: phubinh13 on October 26, 2006 at 11:46 PM

• I am using the final release of JDK 1.6.0 and I am still getting the java.lang.ClassCastException: java.awt.TrayIcon cannot be cast to java.awt.Component error. Any luck or workarounds for this? I really prefer to use a Swing Jpopupmenu to a regular menu because I am using a javax.swing.Action framework and i don't see any way to use Actions in regular java.awt.PopupMenu's. Hope there is some workaround!

  Posted by: elefkof on December 27, 2006 at 10:24 AM

• Hi... I also get the "java.awt.TrayIcon cannot be cast to java.awt.Component" error. Please tell me what to do...

  Posted by: geertjan on February 23, 2007 at 10:32 AM

• Hello. I can make JPopupWindow above MS-Windows task bar ( SwingUtilities.windowForComponent( JPupupMenu ).window.setAlwaysOnTop( true ) ) , but how to get keyboard focus/input ????

  Looking back to normal PopupMenu ... when it is pop up -> it blocks Event Dispatch Thread (EDT) (even if I fire it manually .show() from new Thread , I also tryed install new EventQueue ).

  I spent last 10 days to solwe those problems, no success :(((((.

  Posted by: kermitas on February 24, 2007 at 03:44 AM

• Like kermitas, I can get JPopupMenu to show on top of taskbar, but I cannot make it go away (dismiss) if click on anywhere except on my Java app frame and on JPopupMenu itself.

  The java.lang.ClassCastException happens if user invoke the popup again when the it is already visible (but maybe hidden behind other windows).

  For popup location, I prefer popping it higher :

  popupmenu.setLocation(e.getX(), e.getY()-popupmenu.getPreferredSize().height);

  I guess until Sun fixes the 'java.lang.ClassCastException' bug, I will go back to using jeans' TrayIcon (http://jeans.studentenweb.org/java/trayicon/trayicon.html)

  Posted by: pk_thoo on March 15, 2007 at 06:55 AM

• One more thing, self invoking doesn't work on at least 2 LAF packs : SkinLF and Substance. You'll get StackOverflow error.

  Posted by: pk_thoo on March 16, 2007 at 01:30 AM

• Hello,

  i think i wrote some example on how to fix all that issues, Also my impl. fly over the taskbar.
  Take a look at (Forum is german): Swing Based Tray Icon with Java 6

  - Jens
  

  Posted by: mac_systems on November 29, 2007 at 08:18 AM

• Try this ugly hack to fix a problem with exceptions:

  
  Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getSystemEventQueue().push( new PopupFixQueue(jpopup) );

  ...

  public class PopupFixQueue extends EventQueue {

  private JPopupMenu popup;

  public PopupFixQueue(JPopupMenu popup) {
  this.popup = popup;
  }

  protected void dispatchEvent(AWTEvent event) {
  try {
  super.dispatchEvent(event);
  } catch (Exception ex) {
  if (event.getSource() instanceof TrayIcon) {
  popup.setVisible(false);
  }
  }
  }
  }
  

  Posted by: nick_fedorov on March 18, 2008 at 12:52 AM

• @nick_fedorov Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou.... This fix worked a charm, and moreover, I can see why it works as well. The best kinds of fix!

  Posted by: davyboyhayes on March 31, 2008 at 03:28 PM

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.