https://github.com/anaghsharma/ambar-xamarin

A macOS Menu Bar app built with Xamarin and C#
https://github.com/anaghsharma/ambar-xamarin

macos macos-app macos-menubar macosx popover popup xamarin xamarin-mac xamarin-macos

Last synced: 3 months ago
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A macOS Menu Bar app built with Xamarin and C#

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/anaghsharma/ambar-xamarin
• Owner: AnaghSharma
• License: mit
• Created: 2017-06-05T15:30:20.000Z (over 7 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2021-05-21T18:23:39.000Z (over 3 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-25T08:14:55.115Z (3 months ago)
• Topics: macos, macos-app, macos-menubar, macosx, popover, popup, xamarin, xamarin-mac, xamarin-macos
• Language: C#
• Homepage:
• Size: 521 KB
• Stars: 63
• Watchers: 5
• Forks: 8
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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README

        
# Ambar-Xamarin

Ambar is a macOS Menu Bar app developed with Xamarin and C#. This project aims to show developing a menu bar app for macOS in C#.

    

### Update

Using Ambar as the base, I was able to build [Carol - a minimal and beautiful lyrics app for macOS](https://github.com/AnaghSharma/Carol-Xamarin). Check it out.

## Why

It is for the folks wanting to start developing for macOS/iOS/tvOS/watchOS but do not want to delve into Swift/Obj-C and are already comfortable with C# and .Net technologies. 

## Tools Required

1. Visual Studio for Mac

2. Xcode

## Steps

Here is how you can do it - 

1. In Xcode, delete Window Controller Scene from `Main.storyboard` and provide Storyboard ID to View Controller.

2. Add new entry in info.plist - `Application is agent (UIElement)` with its value set to `Yes` to make the app behave as a ghost.

3. Create a Menu Bar status item using `CreateStatusItem()` method of `NSStatusBar`.

4. Handle status bar icon for dark and light theme using `Template` property of `NSImage`.

5. Handle event handling of status item using `Selector` class of `ObjCRuntime`.

6. Show a popover using `NSPopover` and its `Show()` method.

7. Make popover show on demand and hide when user moves on using `NSEvent` and a custom class.

8. In Xcode, add a button to View Controller and create an action `QuitApplication` by `control + drag`. In VS, call `Terminate` method of `NSApplication`.

Unless stated otherwise, everything is done in Visual Studio for Mac.

## To-do

- [x] Add a Contextual Menu to show options.

- [x] Add a **Launch at Login** setting.

- [x] Add a **About** window.

## Contribute

If you think this project can be improved to show more of what can be done using Xamarin and C#, you are welcome to contribute. If you build something epic using it, just let me [know](https://twitter.com/AnaghSharma).