If you are a Flutter developer looking to improve your desktop applications, you may find the windows_taskbar plugin particularly useful. This Flutter plugin serves utilities related to the Windows taskbar, allowing you to set progress, tooltips, and flash icons among other functionalities. This guide will take you through the installation process and the core capabilities of the plugin.

Installation

To get started with the windows_taskbar plugin, you need to add it to your project dependencies. Here’s how to do that:

dependencies:
  windows_taskbar: ^1.1.2

Guide to Using the Plugin

This plugin provides multiple utilities for managing your application’s representation in the Windows taskbar. Here’s a breakdown of its functionalities:

Contents

• Set Thumbnail Toolbar
• Remove Thumbnail Toolbar
• Set Progress Mode
• Set Progress
• Set Thumbnail Tooltip
• Flash Windows Taskbar App Icon
• Stop Flashing Windows Taskbar App Icon
• Set Overlay Icon (Badge)
• Remove Overlay Icon (Badge)
• Set Window Title (Taskbar Button Label)
• Reset Window Title (or Taskbar Button Label)
• Next Steps

Set Thumbnail Toolbar

To add a thumbnail toolbar to your taskbar icon, use the following code:

WindowsTaskbar.setThumbnailToolbar(
  [
    ThumbnailToolbarButton(
      ThumbnailToolbarAssetIcon(assets/camera.ico),
      'Turn On Camera',
      () {},
    ),
    ThumbnailToolbarButton(
      ThumbnailToolbarAssetIcon(assets/microphone.ico),
      'Mute',
      () {},
      mode: ThumbnailToolbarButtonMode.disabled | ThumbnailToolbarButtonMode.dismissionClick,
    ),
    ThumbnailToolbarButton(
      ThumbnailToolbarAssetIcon(assets/send_call.ico),
      'Disconnect',
      () {},
    ),
  ],
);

Remove Thumbnail Toolbar

To remove the previously set thumbnail toolbar:

WindowsTaskbar.resetThumbnailToolbar();

Set Progress Mode

For applications that have tasks with progress:

WindowsTaskbar.setProgressMode(TaskbarProgressMode.indeterminate);

Set Progress

To show how much of a task is completed, you can set a concrete progress:

WindowsTaskbar.setProgress(69, 100);

Set Thumbnail Tooltip

To give your icon a better description when hovered, set a tooltip like so:

WindowsTaskbar.setThumbnailTooltip('Awesome Flutter window.');

Flash Windows Taskbar App Icon

To grab user attention, you can flash the taskbar icon:

WindowsTaskbar.setFlashTaskbarAppIcon(
  mode: TaskbarFlashMode.all | TaskbarFlashMode.timer,
  timeout: const Duration(milliseconds: 500),
);

Stop Flashing Windows Taskbar App Icon

If you’ve flashed your icon to get attention, remember to stop it:

WindowsTaskbar.resetFlashTaskbarAppIcon();

Set Overlay Icon (Badge)

Overlay icons can provide supplementary information to the user:

WindowsTaskbar.setOverlayIcon(
  ThumbnailToolbarAssetIcon(assets/red_slash.ico),
  tooltip: 'Stop',
);

Remove Overlay Icon (Badge)

To remove any overlay icon that you added:

WindowsTaskbar.resetOverlayIcon();

Set Window Title (Taskbar Button Label)

To show a specific title on your taskbar icon:

WindowsTaskbar.setWindowTitle('Never Gonna Give You Up');

Reset Window Title (or Taskbar Button Label)

If you need to reset the title back to default, use:

WindowsTaskbar.resetWindowTitle();

Next Steps

After exploring the core functionalities, consider diving deeper into:

• The API reference for more specifics.
• Examining the source code of the example application for practical code samples.

Troubleshooting

If you encounter any issues while using the windows_taskbar plugin, consider the following:

• Ensure that your Flutter environment is properly set up and updated.
• Verify that the paths of your assets (like icons) are correctly specified in your project.
• Check for compatibility issues with your current version of Windows.

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