App

Application class.

Modulerequire("gui")
TypeClass

This class represents current app and provides app wide APIs.

This class can not be created by user, you can only receive its global instance from the app property of the module:

gui.app.getApplicationMenu()

Methods

setName(name)

Set the name of current app.

The app name should be something like "My App", it will be used in vairous places, such as folder name when storing user data, or key name when writing registry.

You should always call this API at the beginning of your app.

On macOS it is strong recommended to use the same name with the CFBundleName field of app bundle's Info.plist file.

Parameters

getName()

Return current app's name.

If app.setName(name) has never been called, this API will try to guess a name from existing information, for example the executable's version info, or the app bundle information, or the executable file's base name.

Return

String

setID(id) Windows Linux

Set the application ID.

The application ID must be globally unique, and it is recommended to use something like "org.myself.myapp".

On macOS the application ID is the app bundle ID, and there is no way to change it at runtime.

On Linux the application ID will be used in various places, such as the name of the .desktop file, or the base name of GSettings schemas.

On Windows the application ID is AppUserModelID, it is mainly used to recognize which app a process belongs to. For UWP/Desktop Bridge apps, Windows will assign an AppUserModelID to the app and this API should not be used.

Parameters

getID()

Return the application ID.

On macOS if the app is bundled, the app bundle ID will be returned, otherwise empty string will be returned.

On Linux the ID set by setID will be returned.

On Windows the AppUserModelID will be returned. If neither you or Windows ever assigned an ID to the app, empty string will be returned.

Return

String

setApplicationMenu(menu) macOS

Set the application menu bar.

Parameters

getApplicationMenu() macOS

Return the application menu bar.

Return

MenuBar

setDockBadgeLabel(label) macOS

Set the label to be displayed in dock’s badging area.

Parameters

getDockBadgeLabel() macOS

Get the label displayed in dock’s badging area.

Return

String

isRunningAsUWP() Windows

Return whether app is running as UWP/Desktop Bridge.

On Windows the Win32 apps can run as UWP apps by using Desktop Bridge, which is required for submitting Win32 apps to Microsoft Store.

There are a few runtime differences when running apps as UWP, and this API can be used to detect the environment.

Return

Boolean

createStartMenuShortcut(options) Windows

Create a start menu shortcut for current user linking to current process.

This API will write the AppUserModelID and ToastActivatorCLSID to the shortcut file, and the shortcut file's name will be the app's name, so it is recommended to call app.setID(id) and app.setName(name) before using this API.

Note that on Windows you should generally not write start menu shortcut automatically, by convention the file is commonly created by installers or users themselves. This API is usually used for testing purpose.

Parameters

Return

Boolean

getStartMenuShortcutPath() Windows

Return file path to the shortcut created by the app.createStartMenuShortcut(options) API.

Return

String

activate(force) macOS

Make current app the active app.

The force parameter is normally set to false. When the Finder launches an app, using a value of false for force allows the app to become active if the user waits for it to launch, but the app remains unobtrusive if the user activates another app. Regardless of the setting of flag, there may be a time lag before the app activates—you should not assume the app will be active immediately after sending this message.

Parameters

deactivate() macOS

Deactivate current app.

isActive() macOS

Return whether current app is the active app.

Return

Boolean

setActivationPolicy(policy) macOS

Modify the app's activation policy.

Parameters

getActivationPolicy() macOS

Return app's activation policy.

Return

App::ActivationPolicy