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2@c %start of fragment
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4@node GtkStatusIcon
5@chapter GtkStatusIcon
6Display an icon in the system tray
7
8@section Overview
9The "system tray" or notification area is normally used for transient icons that
10indicate some special state. For example, a system tray icon might appear to
11tell the user that they have new mail, or have an incoming instant message, or
12something along those lines. The basic idea is that creating an icon in the
13notification area is less annoying than popping up a dialog.
14
15A @code{<gtk-status-icon>} object can be used to display an icon in a "system
16tray". The icon can have a tooltip, and the user can interact with it by
17activating it or popping up a context menu. Critical information should not
18solely be displayed in a @code{<gtk-status-icon>}, since it may not be visible
19(e.g. when the user doesn't have a notification area on his panel). This can be
20checked with @code{gtk-status-icon-is-embedded}.
21
22On X11, the implementation follows the freedesktop.org "System Tray"
23@uref{http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Standards/systemtray-spec,specification}.
24Implementations of the "tray" side of this specification can be found e.g. in
25the GNOME and KDE panel applications.
26
27Note that a GtkStatusIcon is @emph{not} a widget, but just a @code{<gobject>}.
28Making it a widget would be impractical, since the system tray on Win32 doesn't
29allow to embed arbitrary widgets.
30
31@section Usage
32@include defuns-gtkstatusicon.xml.texi
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34@c %end of fragment
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