System tray applications (or menu bar applications) can be useful for making common functions or information available in a small number of clicks. For full desktop applications they're a useful shortcut to control apps without opening up the whole window.
Python-dotenv will be installed should you want to use the -env-file option. PyYAML will be installed to allow you to provide a.yaml file to -log-config, if desired. Create an application, in example.py.
Qt provides a simple interface for building cross-platform system tray (Windows) or menu bar (MacOS) apps.
Minimal example
Below is a minimal working example for showing an icon in the toolbar/system tray with a menu. The action in the menu isn't connected and so doesn't do anything yet.
- Installers are available for the latest Python 3 and Python 2 releases that will work on all Macs that run Mac OS X 10.5 and later. Python releases include IDLE, Python's built-in interactive development environment. If you download and install Python from the release page, you may also need to download and install a newer version of Tcl/Tk for.
- PYTHON ON WINDOWS/MAC DOWNLOAD When Python so the core path from the registry is used. Different “software paths” within the registry are all the time learn. Python and requires Python 2.7—you may’t run the MCDungeon undertaking with you’ll discover that almost all of them use 2.7.
You'll notice that there isn't a
QMainWindow
, simply because we don't actually have any window to show. You can create a window as normal without affecting the behaviour of the system tray icon. You'll need an icon for this example — I recommend the fugue icon set. Browser app to download photos and videos mac os.
The default behaviour in Qt is to close an application once all the active windows have closed. This won't affect this toy example, but will be an issue in application where you do create windows and then close them. Setting `app.setQuitOnLastWindowClosed(False)` stops this and will ensure your application keeps running.
The provided icon shows up in the toolbar (you can see it on the left).
The system tray icon shown on the menu bar (as a poo emoticon)
Clicking on the icon shows the added menu.
System tray icon with menu expanded
This application doesn't do anything yet, so in the next part we'll expand this example to create a mini colour-picker.
Color tray
Below is a more complete working example using the built in
QColorDialog
from Qt to give a toolbar accessible color picker. The menu lets you choose to get the picked color as HTML-format #RRGGBB
, rgb(R,G,B)
or hsv(H,S,V)
.python
As in the previous example there is no
QMainWindow
for this example. The menu is created as before, but adding 3 actions for the different output formats. Each action is connected to a specific handler function for the format it represents. https://bqgjun.weebly.com/what-apps-are-slowing-down-my-mac.html. Each handler shows a dialog and, if a color is selected, copies that color to the clipboard in the given format.As before, the icon appears in the toolbar.
Color-picker icon on the Mac menu bar (left hand side)
Clicking the icon shows a menu, from which you can select the format of image you want to return.
Options to return chosen colour (hex, RGB or HSV)
Once you've chosen the format, you'll see the standard Qt color picker window.
PyQt provides access to system dialogs, such as this Mac colour picker
Select the colour you want and click OK. The chosen colour will be copied to the clipboard in the requested format. The formats available will product the following output:
Suggestions for improvements
One simple and nice improvement would be to make the previously-selected colours available to re-copy in other formats. You could do this by storing the colour result value from the existing menu. Then add 3 more options, which show (on the menu) their return values — clicking these just copies that value to the clipboard.
Python for Mac OS X
Python comes pre-installed on Mac OS X so it is easy to startusing. However, to take advantage of the latest versions ofPython, you will need to download and install newer versionsalongside the system ones. The easiest way to do that is toinstall one of the binary installers for OS X from thePython Download page. Installers areavailable for the latest Python 3 and Python 2 releases thatwill work on all Macs that run Mac OS X 10.5 and later.
Python releases include IDLE, Python's built-in interactivedevelopment environment. If you download and install Pythonfrom the release page, you may also need to download and installa newer version of Tcl/Tk for OS X. See theIDLE and Tkinter on OS X page formore information.
You can run a Python interpreter by double-clicking onApplications / Utilities / Terminal and typing python3 (if you'veinstalled a version of Python 3) or python (to use Python 2) inthe window that opens up. You can also launch IDLE for the Pythonversion you have installed by double-clicking its icon inthe appropriate Python version folder in the Applications folderor you can also just type idle3 or idle in a terminal window.
There are many thousands of additional Python software packagesavailable through PyPI, the PythonPackage Index. We recommend you use thepip tool to simplifyinstalling and managing additional packages. pip is includedwith Python 3.4 releases; for earlier releases, follow the pipinstall instructions.
Among the packages available through PyPI are some that arespecifically for OS X environments. Among these are:
- pyobjc which providesa bridge between Python and Objective-C, allowing you to writefull-featured native Cocoa applications in pure Python.
- py2app which allowsyou to make standalone OS X double-clickable application bundlesand plugins from Python scripts.
For more information about Python on OS X, see the mailing list and archivesfor thePython-Macintosh Special Interest Group.
Alternative Packages for Mac OS X.
Python For Mac
- ActiveState ActivePython(commercial and community versions, including scientific computing modules).
- Enthought Python DistributionThe Enthought Python Distribution provides scientists with a comprehensive setof tools to perform rigorous data analysis and visualization.
Python Apps Examples
Python and a comprehensive set of third-party packages and libraries are alsoavailable from several open source package manager projects for OS X,including: