Quick and easy: trayicon with python?

Question

I'd just need a quick example on how to easily put an icon with python on my systray. This means: I run the program, no window shows up, just a tray icon (I've got a png file) shows up in the systray and when I right-click on it a menu appears with some options (and when I click on an option, a function is run). Is that possible? I don't need any window at all...

Examples / code snippets are REALLY appreciated! :D

What OS? If linux, I'd look into say the source code of gmail-notify.py. See http://gmail-notify.sourceforge.net/download.php — dr jimbob, Jun 17 '11 at 17:41
I guess it didn't really matter as fogglebird's wx code works fine in linux (specifically gnome system panel). — dr jimbob, Jun 17 '11 at 18:33

score 63 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 04 '15 at 22:46

63

For Windows & Gnome

Here ya go! wxPython is the bomb. Adapted from the source of my Feed Notifier application.

import wx

TRAY_TOOLTIP = 'System Tray Demo'
TRAY_ICON = 'icon.png'


def create_menu_item(menu, label, func):
    item = wx.MenuItem(menu, -1, label)
    menu.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, func, id=item.GetId())
    menu.AppendItem(item)
    return item


class TaskBarIcon(wx.TaskBarIcon):
    def __init__(self):
        super(TaskBarIcon, self).__init__()
        self.set_icon(TRAY_ICON)
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_TASKBAR_LEFT_DOWN, self.on_left_down)

    def CreatePopupMenu(self):
        menu = wx.Menu()
        create_menu_item(menu, 'Say Hello', self.on_hello)
        menu.AppendSeparator()
        create_menu_item(menu, 'Exit', self.on_exit)
        return menu

    def set_icon(self, path):
        icon = wx.IconFromBitmap(wx.Bitmap(path))
        self.SetIcon(icon, TRAY_TOOLTIP)

    def on_left_down(self, event):
        print 'Tray icon was left-clicked.'

    def on_hello(self, event):
        print 'Hello, world!'

    def on_exit(self, event):
        wx.CallAfter(self.Destroy)


def main():
    app = wx.PySimpleApp()
    TaskBarIcon()
    app.MainLoop()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

edited Aug 04 '15 at 22:46

Jonathan

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answered Jun 17 '11 at 17:50

FogleBird

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No problem. Use `item.SetBitmap(wx.Bitmap(path))` in `create_menu_item` if you want icons on your menu items too. (Just to make it look nice.) – FogleBird Jun 17 '11 at 17:59
3

I'd also look into using PyEmbeddedImage: http://www.wxpython.org/docs/api/wx.lib.embeddedimage.PyEmbeddedImage-class.html – K. Brafford Jun 17 '11 at 18:12
2

The icon doesn't appear on the Ubuntu 12.10 Unity tray.. Got no error, just can't see it.. – James T Snell Jun 05 '13 at 02:35
1

Unity uses appindicator instead of the freedesktop.org System Tray Protocol which wxWidgets requires. http://docs.wxwidgets.org/trunk/classwx_task_bar_icon.html – mr.freeze Dec 31 '13 at 23:13
Hey I'm getting the following output : "Segmentation fault 11" Any idea how to fix this ? I'm running a Mac OS X – Shonu93 Feb 23 '14 at 14:08
I made an ubuntu post as well, below – Jonathan Aug 04 '15 at 22:02
2

I got AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'TaskBarIcon'. My python version is 2.7 – SKG Apr 15 '16 at 11:38
wxPython is a huge, heavy library. I am not sure this response can validly address the part of the question that says "... to *easily* put an icon with python on my systray." – WhyWhat Jul 23 '20 at 07:06
SyntaxError: Missing parentheses in call to 'print'. Did you mean print(...)? – webs Aug 13 '22 at 11:24

score 18 · Answer 2 · edited May 12 '18 at 21:46

2018 version

import wx.adv
import wx
TRAY_TOOLTIP = 'Name' 
TRAY_ICON = 'icon.png' 


def create_menu_item(menu, label, func):
    item = wx.MenuItem(menu, -1, label)
    menu.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, func, id=item.GetId())
    menu.Append(item)
    return item


class TaskBarIcon(wx.adv.TaskBarIcon):
    def __init__(self, frame):
        self.frame = frame
        super(TaskBarIcon, self).__init__()
        self.set_icon(TRAY_ICON)
        self.Bind(wx.adv.EVT_TASKBAR_LEFT_DOWN, self.on_left_down)

    def CreatePopupMenu(self):
        menu = wx.Menu()
        create_menu_item(menu, 'Site', self.on_hello)
        menu.AppendSeparator()
        create_menu_item(menu, 'Exit', self.on_exit)
        return menu

    def set_icon(self, path):
        icon = wx.Icon(path)
        self.SetIcon(icon, TRAY_TOOLTIP)

    def on_left_down(self, event):      
        print ('Tray icon was left-clicked.')

    def on_hello(self, event):
        print ('Hello, world!')

    def on_exit(self, event):
        wx.CallAfter(self.Destroy)
        self.frame.Close()

class App(wx.App):
    def OnInit(self):
        frame=wx.Frame(None)
        self.SetTopWindow(frame)
        TaskBarIcon(frame)
        return True

def main():
    app = App(False)
    app.MainLoop()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Why is the frame needed? Why self.Destroy() instead of self.Close() as in the wxPython basic tutorial? — Xaser, Nov 06 '18 at 09:26

score 16 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 11 '15 at 19:54

wx.PySimpleApp deprecated, here's how to use wx.App instead

Took me while to figure this out so I thought I'd share. wx.PySimpleApp is deprecated in wxPython 2.9 and beyond. Here's FogleBird's original script using wx.App instead.

import wx

TRAY_TOOLTIP = 'System Tray Demo'
TRAY_ICON = 'icon.png'

def create_menu_item(menu, label, func):
    item = wx.MenuItem(menu, -1, label)
    menu.Bind(wx.EVT_MENU, func, id=item.GetId())
    menu.AppendItem(item)
    return item

class TaskBarIcon(wx.TaskBarIcon):
    def __init__(self, frame):
        self.frame = frame
        super(TaskBarIcon, self).__init__()
        self.set_icon(TRAY_ICON)
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_TASKBAR_LEFT_DOWN, self.on_left_down)

    def CreatePopupMenu(self):
        menu = wx.Menu()
        create_menu_item(menu, 'Say Hello', self.on_hello)
        menu.AppendSeparator()
        create_menu_item(menu, 'Exit', self.on_exit)
        return menu

    def set_icon(self, path):
        icon = wx.IconFromBitmap(wx.Bitmap(path))
        self.SetIcon(icon, TRAY_TOOLTIP)

    def on_left_down(self, event):
        print 'Tray icon was left-clicked.'

    def on_hello(self, event):
        print 'Hello, world!'

    def on_exit(self, event):
        wx.CallAfter(self.Destroy)
        self.frame.Close()

class App(wx.App):
    def OnInit(self):
        frame=wx.Frame(None)
        self.SetTopWindow(frame)
        TaskBarIcon(frame)
        return True

def main():
    app = App(False)
    app.MainLoop()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Running this code returns: AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'TaskBarIcon' — Pitto, Aug 11 '17 at 08:15
@Pitto Same here, but I discovered that some classes and constants have been moved to a subpackage called wx.adv so instead of `wx.TaskBarIcon` you should use `wx.adv.TaskBarIcon`. Same for `EVT_TASKBAR_LEFT_DOWN` — Clayton A. Alves, Jan 19 '18 at 18:54
This solution works on Gnome 3.26 (Ubuntu 18.04) and + if the extension TopIcon is enabled. The system tray is gone in modern Gnome and application indicators replace them. Anybody knows how to create application indicators with WX? This [link](https://askubuntu.com/questions/833760/how-to-add-a-script-as-an-icon-in-topbar) shows how to do one, without WX though. — Hans Deragon, Mar 31 '19 at 11:54

score 6 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:17

For Ubuntu

class TrayIcon:
    def init():


iconPath = {"Windows":os.path.expandvars("%PROGRAMFILES%/MyProgram/icon.png"),
                  "Linux":"/usr/share/icons/myprogramicon.png"}        
    if platform.system()=="Linux":
        import gtk
        import appindicator # Ubuntu apt-get install python-appindicator 

    # Create an application indicator
    try:
        gtk.gdk.threads_init()
        gtk.threads_enter()
        icon = iconPath[platform.system()]
        indicator = appindicator.Indicator("example-simple-client", "indicator-messages", appindicator.CATEGORY_APPLICATION_STATUS)
        indicator.set_icon(icon)
        indicator.set_status (appindicator.STATUS_ACTIVE)
        indicator.set_attention_icon ("indicator-messages-new")
        menu = gtk.Menu()

        menuTitle = "Quit"   
        menu_items = gtk.MenuItem(menuTitle)
        menu.append(menu_items)
        menu_items.connect("activate", TrayIcon.QuitApp, menuTitle)
        menu_items.show()

        menuTitle = "About My Program"
        menu_items = gtk.MenuItem(menuTitle)
        menu.append(menu_items)
        menu_items.connect("activate", TrayIcon.AboutApp, menuTitle)
        menu_items.show()   

        indicator.set_menu(menu)    
    except:
        pass

    # Run the app indicator on the main thread.
    try:

        t = threading.Thread(target=gtk.main)
        t.daemon = True # this means it'll die when the program dies.
        t.start()
        #gtk.main()

    except:
        pass
    finally:
        gtk.threads_leave()     

@staticmethod
def AboutApp(a1,a2):
    gtk.threads_enter()
    dialog = gtk.Dialog("About",
                        None,
                        gtk.DIALOG_MODAL | gtk.DIALOG_DESTROY_WITH_PARENT,
                        (gtk.STOCK_OK, gtk.RESPONSE_ACCEPT))
    label = gtk.Label("My Program v0.0.1, (C)opyright ME 2015. All rights reserved.")
    dialog.vbox.pack_start(label)
    label.show()
    label2 = gtk.Label("example.com\n\nFor more support contact me@gmail.com")
    label2.show()
    dialog.action_area.pack_end(label2)
    response = dialog.run()
    dialog.destroy()
    gtk.threads_leave()

@staticmethod
def QuitApp(a1, a2):
    sys.exit(0)

Cross-Platform

See PyQt: Show menu in a system tray application

In Ubuntu 16.04 there is a `python-appindicator` apt package but no `python3-appindicator` package. So for "modern" Ubuntu 22.04 a different solution may be needed. — WinEunuuchs2Unix, Jul 25 '22 at 13:30

score 6 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

6

If you can guarantee windows and you do not want to introduce the heavy dependencies of wx, you can do this with the pywin32 extensions.

Also see this question.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:25

Community

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answered Jun 17 '11 at 19:58

Mark

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@kbec, thanks for the heads up. I updated my answer with some newer links. It also looks like I duplicated an older answer, so I'm included to delete mine, but I'll leave it here for Google's sake. – Mark Feb 26 '13 at 15:00

score 4 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 18 '22 at 01:19

4

There is a package called pystray (bad name, just say it out loud) but works like a charm and is more lightweight than wx or Qt. These are the links:

https://pystray.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
https://pypi.org/project/pystray/

edited Apr 18 '22 at 01:19

James Wong

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answered Oct 05 '20 at 17:13

abladze

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 15 '18 at 19:26

Yes. There is a cross-platform example on wiki.wxpython.org that I've tested with python 2.7 (minconda install) on macOS High Sierra (10.13.3), Windows 7, and gnome 3/centos7. It is here (ignore the page title): https://wiki.wxpython.org/Custom%20Mac%20OsX%20Dock%20Bar%20Icon

Small mods are needed for python 3.6:

you must import wx.adv
wx.TaskBarIcon becomes wx.adv.TaskBarIcon
wx.IconFromBitmap becomes wx.Icon

Gnome 3 required installation of TopIcons Plus.

Since you don't want to have the window display (" no window shows up, just a tray icon"), simply comment out the following line (though you still want to keep the wx.Frame parent):

frame.Show(True)

And since you want to use your own .png icon, remove the WXPdemo image and embeddedimage stuff and replace

icon = self.MakeIcon(WXPdemo.GetImage())

with, for example

icon = wx.Icon('icon.png')

In my experience, this will provide a good start for adapting or extending further.

score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 14 '13 at 17:13

1

An alternative if you are trying to run a python based program in the background you can run it as a service. Check out this active state recipe its pretty useful. I believe one of the options is to convert your application to exe with py2exe or pyinstall.

http://code.activestate.com/recipes/551780/

answered Nov 14 '13 at 17:13

jkdba

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is it possible to have a GUI run as a service? – ISquared Jul 31 '20 at 09:58
@Isquare1 my python knowledge is a bit dated but [this](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3343793/starting-a-gui-process-from-a-python-windows-service) SO question seems to answer it. – jkdba Jul 31 '20 at 17:11

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Mar 07 '18 at 22:52

1

For an example, refer to this thread -> wx question.

wxPython "classic" -> [new API] wxPython 'Phoenix' (Py3)

edited Mar 07 '18 at 22:52

8-Bit Borges

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answered Mar 07 '18 at 21:35

viteck

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Quick and easy: trayicon with python?

9 Answers9

For Windows & Gnome

wx.PySimpleApp deprecated, here's how to use wx.App instead

For Ubuntu

Cross-Platform

Linked

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