GI.Gio.Objects.Application

A Application is the foundation of an application. It wraps some low-level platform-specific services and is intended to act as the foundation for higher-level application classes such as GtkApplication or MxApplication. In general, you should not use this class outside of a higher level framework.

GApplication provides convenient life cycle management by maintaining a "use count" for the primary application instance. The use count can be changed using applicationHold and applicationRelease. If it drops to zero, the application exits. Higher-level classes such as GtkApplication employ the use count to ensure that the application stays alive as long as it has any opened windows.

Another feature that GApplication (optionally) provides is process uniqueness. Applications can make use of this functionality by providing a unique application ID. If given, only one application with this ID can be running at a time per session. The session concept is platform-dependent, but corresponds roughly to a graphical desktop login. When your application is launched again, its arguments are passed through platform communication to the already running program. The already running instance of the program is called the "primary instance"; for non-unique applications this is the always the current instance. On Linux, the D-Bus session bus is used for communication.

The use of Application differs from some other commonly-used uniqueness libraries (such as libunique) in important ways. The application is not expected to manually register itself and check if it is the primary instance. Instead, the main() function of a Application should do very little more than instantiating the application instance, possibly connecting signal handlers, then calling applicationRun. All checks for uniqueness are done internally. If the application is the primary instance then the startup signal is emitted and the mainloop runs. If the application is not the primary instance then a signal is sent to the primary instance and applicationRun promptly returns. See the code examples below.

If used, the expected form of an application identifier is the same as that of of a D-Bus well-known bus name. Examples include: com.example.MyApp, org.example.internal_apps.Calculator, org._7_zip.Archiver. For details on valid application identifiers, see applicationIdIsValid.

On Linux, the application identifier is claimed as a well-known bus name on the user's session bus. This means that the uniqueness of your application is scoped to the current session. It also means that your application may provide additional services (through registration of other object paths) at that bus name. The registration of these object paths should be done with the shared GDBus session bus. Note that due to the internal architecture of GDBus, method calls can be dispatched at any time (even if a main loop is not running). For this reason, you must ensure that any object paths that you wish to register are registered before Application attempts to acquire the bus name of your application (which happens in applicationRegister). Unfortunately, this means that you cannot use applicationGetIsRemote to decide if you want to register object paths.

GApplication also implements the ActionGroup and ActionMap interfaces and lets you easily export actions by adding them with actionMapAddAction. When invoking an action by calling actionGroupActivateAction on the application, it is always invoked in the primary instance. The actions are also exported on the session bus, and GIO provides the DBusActionGroup wrapper to conveniently access them remotely. GIO provides a DBusMenuModel wrapper for remote access to exported GMenuModels.

There is a number of different entry points into a GApplication:

• via 'Activate' (i.e. just starting the application)
• via 'Open' (i.e. opening some files)
• by handling a command-line
• via activating an action

The startup signal lets you handle the application initialization for all of these in a single place.

Regardless of which of these entry points is used to start the application, GApplication passes some "platform data from the launching instance to the primary instance, in the form of a GVariant dictionary mapping strings to variants. To use platform data, override the beforeEmit or afterEmit virtual functions in your Application subclass. When dealing with ApplicationCommandLine objects, the platform data is directly available via applicationCommandLineGetCwd, applicationCommandLineGetEnviron and applicationCommandLineGetPlatformData.

As the name indicates, the platform data may vary depending on the operating system, but it always includes the current directory (key "cwd"), and optionally the environment (ie the set of environment variables and their values) of the calling process (key "environ"). The environment is only added to the platform data if the ApplicationFlagsSendEnvironment flag is set. Application subclasses can add their own platform data by overriding the addPlatformData virtual function. For instance, GtkApplication adds startup notification data in this way.

To parse commandline arguments you may handle the commandLine signal or override the local_command_line() vfunc, to parse them in either the primary instance or the local instance, respectively.

For an example of opening files with a GApplication, see gapplication-example-open.c.

For an example of using actions with GApplication, see gapplication-example-actions.c.

For an example of using extra D-Bus hooks with GApplication, see gapplication-example-dbushooks.c.

Since: 2.28

Exported types

newtype Application

Memory-managed wrapper type.

Constructors

Application (ManagedPtr Application)

Instances

Eq Application

Defined in GI.Gio.Objects.Application

Methods

(==) :: Application -> Application -> Bool

(/=) :: Application -> Application -> Bool

GObject Application

Defined in GI.Gio.Objects.Application

Methods

gobjectType :: IO GType

IsGValue Application

Convert Application to and from GValue with toGValue and fromGValue.

Defined in GI.Gio.Objects.Application

Methods

toGValue :: Application -> IO GValue

fromGValue :: GValue -> IO Application

HasParentTypes Application

Defined in GI.Gio.Objects.Application

type ParentTypes Application

Defined in GI.Gio.Objects.Application

type ParentTypes Application = '[Object, ActionGroup, ActionMap]

class (GObject o, IsDescendantOf Application o) => IsApplication o

Type class for types which can be safely cast to Application, for instance with toApplication.

Instances

(GObject o, IsDescendantOf Application o) => IsApplication o

Defined in GI.Gio.Objects.Application

toApplication :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m Application

Cast to Application, for types for which this is known to be safe. For general casts, use castTo.

noApplication :: Maybe Application

A convenience alias for Nothing :: Maybe Application.

Methods

Overloaded methods

activate

applicationActivate

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m ()

Activates the application.

In essence, this results in the activate signal being emitted in the primary instance.

The application must be registered before calling this function.

Since: 2.28

addMainOption

applicationAddMainOption

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: the Application

-> Text

longName: the long name of an option used to specify it in a commandline

-> Int8

shortName: the short name of an option

-> [OptionFlags]

flags: flags from OptionFlags

-> OptionArg

arg: the type of the option, as a OptionArg

-> Text

description: the description for the option in --help output

-> Maybe Text

argDescription: the placeholder to use for the extra argument parsed by the option in --help output

-> m ()

Add an option to be handled by application.

Calling this function is the equivalent of calling applicationAddMainOptionEntries with a single OptionEntry that has its arg_data member set to Nothing.

The parsed arguments will be packed into a VariantDict which is passed to handleLocalOptions. If ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is set, then it will also be sent to the primary instance. See applicationAddMainOptionEntries for more details.

See OptionEntry for more documentation of the arguments.

Since: 2.42

addMainOptionEntries

applicationAddMainOptionEntries

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> [OptionEntry]

entries: a Nothing-terminated list of GOptionEntrys

-> m ()

Adds main option entries to be handled by application.

This function is comparable to optionContextAddMainEntries.

After the commandline arguments are parsed, the handleLocalOptions signal will be emitted. At this point, the application can inspect the values pointed to by argData in the given GOptionEntrys.

Unlike OptionContext, Application supports giving a Nothing argData for a non-callback OptionEntry. This results in the argument in question being packed into a VariantDict which is also passed to handleLocalOptions, where it can be inspected and modified. If ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is set, then the resulting dictionary is sent to the primary instance, where applicationCommandLineGetOptionsDict will return it. This "packing" is done according to the type of the argument -- booleans for normal flags, strings for strings, bytestrings for filenames, etc. The packing only occurs if the flag is given (ie: we do not pack a "false" GVariant in the case that a flag is missing).

In general, it is recommended that all commandline arguments are parsed locally. The options dictionary should then be used to transmit the result of the parsing to the primary instance, where g_variant_dict_lookup() can be used. For local options, it is possible to either use argData in the usual way, or to consult (and potentially remove) the option from the options dictionary.

This function is new in GLib 2.40. Before then, the only real choice was to send all of the commandline arguments (options and all) to the primary instance for handling. Application ignored them completely on the local side. Calling this function "opts in" to the new behaviour, and in particular, means that unrecognised options will be treated as errors. Unrecognised options have never been ignored when ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is unset.

If handleLocalOptions needs to see the list of filenames, then the use of OPTION_REMAINING is recommended. If argData is Nothing then OPTION_REMAINING can be used as a key into the options dictionary. If you do use OPTION_REMAINING then you need to handle these arguments for yourself because once they are consumed, they will no longer be visible to the default handling (which treats them as filenames to be opened).

It is important to use the proper GVariant format when retrieving the options with g_variant_dict_lookup():

• for OptionArgNone, use b
• for OptionArgString, use &s
• for OptionArgInt, use i
• for OptionArgInt64, use x
• for OptionArgDouble, use d
• for OptionArgFilename, use ^ay
• for OptionArgStringArray, use &as
• for OptionArgFilenameArray, use ^aay

Since: 2.40

addOptionGroup

applicationAddOptionGroup

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: the Application

-> OptionGroup

group: a OptionGroup

-> m ()

Adds a OptionGroup to the commandline handling of application.

This function is comparable to optionContextAddGroup.

Unlike applicationAddMainOptionEntries, this function does not deal with Nothing argData and never transmits options to the primary instance.

The reason for that is because, by the time the options arrive at the primary instance, it is typically too late to do anything with them. Taking the GTK option group as an example: GTK will already have been initialised by the time the commandLine handler runs. In the case that this is not the first-running instance of the application, the existing instance may already have been running for a very long time.

This means that the options from OptionGroup are only really usable in the case that the instance of the application being run is the first instance. Passing options like --display= or --gdk-debug= on future runs will have no effect on the existing primary instance.

Calling this function will cause the options in the supplied option group to be parsed, but it does not cause you to be "opted in" to the new functionality whereby unrecognised options are rejected even if ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine was given.

Since: 2.40

bindBusyProperty

applicationBindBusyProperty

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a, IsObject b)

=> a

application: a Application

-> b

object: a Object

-> Text

property: the name of a boolean property of object

-> m ()

Marks application as busy (see applicationMarkBusy) while property on object is True.

The binding holds a reference to application while it is active, but not to object. Instead, the binding is destroyed when object is finalized.

Since: 2.44

getApplicationId

applicationGetApplicationId

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m Text

Returns: the identifier for application, owned by application

Gets the unique identifier for application.

Since: 2.28

getDbusConnection

applicationGetDbusConnection

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m DBusConnection

Returns: a DBusConnection, or Nothing

Gets the DBusConnection being used by the application, or Nothing.

If Application is using its D-Bus backend then this function will return the DBusConnection being used for uniqueness and communication with the desktop environment and other instances of the application.

If Application is not using D-Bus then this function will return Nothing. This includes the situation where the D-Bus backend would normally be in use but we were unable to connect to the bus.

This function must not be called before the application has been registered. See applicationGetIsRegistered.

Since: 2.34

getDbusObjectPath

applicationGetDbusObjectPath

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m Text

Returns: the object path, or Nothing

Gets the D-Bus object path being used by the application, or Nothing.

If Application is using its D-Bus backend then this function will return the D-Bus object path that Application is using. If the application is the primary instance then there is an object published at this path. If the application is not the primary instance then the result of this function is undefined.

If Application is not using D-Bus then this function will return Nothing. This includes the situation where the D-Bus backend would normally be in use but we were unable to connect to the bus.

This function must not be called before the application has been registered. See applicationGetIsRegistered.

Since: 2.34

getDefault

applicationGetDefault

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m)

=> m Application

Returns: the default application for this process, or Nothing

Returns the default Application instance for this process.

Normally there is only one Application per process and it becomes the default when it is created. You can exercise more control over this by using applicationSetDefault.

If there is no default application then Nothing is returned.

Since: 2.32

getFlags

applicationGetFlags

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m [ApplicationFlags]

Returns: the flags for application

Gets the flags for application.

See ApplicationFlags.

Since: 2.28

getInactivityTimeout

applicationGetInactivityTimeout

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m Word32

Returns: the timeout, in milliseconds

Gets the current inactivity timeout for the application.

This is the amount of time (in milliseconds) after the last call to applicationRelease before the application stops running.

Since: 2.28

getIsBusy

applicationGetIsBusy

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m Bool

Returns: True if application is currenty marked as busy

Gets the application's current busy state, as set through applicationMarkBusy or applicationBindBusyProperty.

Since: 2.44

getIsRegistered

applicationGetIsRegistered

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m Bool

Returns: True if application is registered

Checks if application is registered.

An application is registered if applicationRegister has been successfully called.

Since: 2.28

getIsRemote

applicationGetIsRemote

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m Bool

Returns: True if application is remote

Checks if application is remote.

If application is remote then it means that another instance of application already exists (the 'primary' instance). Calls to perform actions on application will result in the actions being performed by the primary instance.

The value of this property cannot be accessed before applicationRegister has been called. See applicationGetIsRegistered.

Since: 2.28

getResourceBasePath

applicationGetResourceBasePath

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m (Maybe Text)

Returns: the base resource path, if one is set

Gets the resource base path of application.

See applicationSetResourceBasePath for more information.

Since: 2.42

hold

applicationHold

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m ()

Increases the use count of application.

Use this function to indicate that the application has a reason to continue to run. For example, applicationHold is called by GTK+ when a toplevel window is on the screen.

To cancel the hold, call applicationRelease.

idIsValid

applicationIdIsValid

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m)

=> Text

applicationId: a potential application identifier

-> m Bool

Returns: True if applicationId is valid

Checks if applicationId is a valid application identifier.

A valid ID is required for calls to applicationNew and applicationSetApplicationId.

Application identifiers follow the same format as D-Bus well-known bus names. For convenience, the restrictions on application identifiers are reproduced here:

• Application identifiers are composed of 1 or more elements separated by a period (.) character. All elements must contain at least one character.
• Each element must only contain the ASCII characters [A-Z][a-z][0-9]_-, with - discouraged in new application identifiers. Each element must not begin with a digit.
• Application identifiers must contain at least one . (period) character (and thus at least two elements).
• Application identifiers must not begin with a . (period) character.
• Application identifiers must not exceed 255 characters.

Note that the hyphen (-) character is allowed in application identifiers, but is problematic or not allowed in various specifications and APIs that refer to D-Bus, such as Flatpak application IDs, the `DBusActivatable` interface in the Desktop Entry Specification, and the convention that an application's "main" interface and object path resemble its application identifier and bus name. To avoid situations that require special-case handling, it is recommended that new application identifiers consistently replace hyphens with underscores.

Like D-Bus interface names, application identifiers should start with the reversed DNS domain name of the author of the interface (in lower-case), and it is conventional for the rest of the application identifier to consist of words run together, with initial capital letters.

As with D-Bus interface names, if the author's DNS domain name contains hyphen/minus characters they should be replaced by underscores, and if it contains leading digits they should be escaped by prepending an underscore. For example, if the owner of 7-zip.org used an application identifier for an archiving application, it might be named org._7_zip.Archiver.

markBusy

applicationMarkBusy

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m ()

Increases the busy count of application.

Use this function to indicate that the application is busy, for instance while a long running operation is pending.

The busy state will be exposed to other processes, so a session shell will use that information to indicate the state to the user (e.g. with a spinner).

To cancel the busy indication, use applicationUnmarkBusy.

Since: 2.38

new

applicationNew

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m)

=> Maybe Text

applicationId: the application id

-> [ApplicationFlags]

flags: the application flags

-> m (Maybe Application)

Returns: a new Application instance

Creates a new Application instance.

If non-Nothing, the application id must be valid. See applicationIdIsValid.

If no application ID is given then some features of Application (most notably application uniqueness) will be disabled.

open

applicationOpen

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> [File]

files: an array of GFiles to open

-> Text

hint: a hint (or ""), but never Nothing

-> m ()

Opens the given files.

In essence, this results in the open signal being emitted in the primary instance.

nFiles must be greater than zero.

hint is simply passed through to the open signal. It is intended to be used by applications that have multiple modes for opening files (eg: "view" vs "edit", etc). Unless you have a need for this functionality, you should use "".

The application must be registered before calling this function and it must have the ApplicationFlagsHandlesOpen flag set.

Since: 2.28

quit

applicationQuit

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m ()

Immediately quits the application.

Upon return to the mainloop, applicationRun will return, calling only the 'shutdown' function before doing so.

The hold count is ignored. Take care if your code has called applicationHold on the application and is therefore still expecting it to exist. (Note that you may have called applicationHold indirectly, for example through gtk_application_add_window().)

The result of calling applicationRun again after it returns is unspecified.

Since: 2.32

register

applicationRegister

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a, IsCancellable b)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Maybe b

cancellable: a Cancellable, or Nothing

-> m ()

(Can throw GError)

Attempts registration of the application.

This is the point at which the application discovers if it is the primary instance or merely acting as a remote for an already-existing primary instance. This is implemented by attempting to acquire the application identifier as a unique bus name on the session bus using GDBus.

If there is no application ID or if ApplicationFlagsNonUnique was given, then this process will always become the primary instance.

Due to the internal architecture of GDBus, method calls can be dispatched at any time (even if a main loop is not running). For this reason, you must ensure that any object paths that you wish to register are registered before calling this function.

If the application has already been registered then True is returned with no work performed.

The startup signal is emitted if registration succeeds and application is the primary instance (including the non-unique case).

In the event of an error (such as cancellable being cancelled, or a failure to connect to the session bus), False is returned and error is set appropriately.

Note: the return value of this function is not an indicator that this instance is or is not the primary instance of the application. See applicationGetIsRemote for that.

Since: 2.28

release

applicationRelease

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m ()

Decrease the use count of application.

When the use count reaches zero, the application will stop running.

Never call this function except to cancel the effect of a previous call to applicationHold.

run

applicationRun

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Maybe [[Char]]

argv: the argv from main(), or Nothing

-> m Int32

Returns: the exit status

Runs the application.

This function is intended to be run from main() and its return value is intended to be returned by main(). Although you are expected to pass the argc, argv parameters from main() to this function, it is possible to pass Nothing if argv is not available or commandline handling is not required. Note that on Windows, argc and argv are ignored, and g_win32_get_command_line() is called internally (for proper support of Unicode commandline arguments).

Application will attempt to parse the commandline arguments. You can add commandline flags to the list of recognised options by way of applicationAddMainOptionEntries. After this, the handleLocalOptions signal is emitted, from which the application can inspect the values of its GOptionEntrys.

handleLocalOptions is a good place to handle options such as --version, where an immediate reply from the local process is desired (instead of communicating with an already-running instance). A handleLocalOptions handler can stop further processing by returning a non-negative value, which then becomes the exit status of the process.

What happens next depends on the flags: if ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine was specified then the remaining commandline arguments are sent to the primary instance, where a commandLine signal is emitted. Otherwise, the remaining commandline arguments are assumed to be a list of files. If there are no files listed, the application is activated via the activate signal. If there are one or more files, and ApplicationFlagsHandlesOpen was specified then the files are opened via the open signal.

If you are interested in doing more complicated local handling of the commandline then you should implement your own Application subclass and override local_command_line(). In this case, you most likely want to return True from your local_command_line() implementation to suppress the default handling. See [gapplication-example-cmdline2.c][gapplication-example-cmdline2] for an example.

If, after the above is done, the use count of the application is zero then the exit status is returned immediately. If the use count is non-zero then the default main context is iterated until the use count falls to zero, at which point 0 is returned.

If the ApplicationFlagsIsService flag is set, then the service will run for as much as 10 seconds with a use count of zero while waiting for the message that caused the activation to arrive. After that, if the use count falls to zero the application will exit immediately, except in the case that applicationSetInactivityTimeout is in use.

This function sets the prgname (setPrgname), if not already set, to the basename of argv[0].

Much like mainLoopRun, this function will acquire the main context for the duration that the application is running.

Since 2.40, applications that are not explicitly flagged as services or launchers (ie: neither ApplicationFlagsIsService or ApplicationFlagsIsLauncher are given as flags) will check (from the default handler for local_command_line) if "--gapplication-service" was given in the command line. If this flag is present then normal commandline processing is interrupted and the ApplicationFlagsIsService flag is set. This provides a "compromise" solution whereby running an application directly from the commandline will invoke it in the normal way (which can be useful for debugging) while still allowing applications to be D-Bus activated in service mode. The D-Bus service file should invoke the executable with "--gapplication-service" as the sole commandline argument. This approach is suitable for use by most graphical applications but should not be used from applications like editors that need precise control over when processes invoked via the commandline will exit and what their exit status will be.

Since: 2.28

sendNotification

applicationSendNotification

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a, IsNotification b)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Maybe Text

id: id of the notification, or Nothing

-> b

notification: the Notification to send

-> m ()

Sends a notification on behalf of application to the desktop shell. There is no guarantee that the notification is displayed immediately, or even at all.

Notifications may persist after the application exits. It will be D-Bus-activated when the notification or one of its actions is activated.

Modifying notification after this call has no effect. However, the object can be reused for a later call to this function.

id may be any string that uniquely identifies the event for the application. It does not need to be in any special format. For example, "new-message" might be appropriate for a notification about new messages.

If a previous notification was sent with the same id, it will be replaced with notification and shown again as if it was a new notification. This works even for notifications sent from a previous execution of the application, as long as id is the same string.

id may be Nothing, but it is impossible to replace or withdraw notifications without an id.

If notification is no longer relevant, it can be withdrawn with applicationWithdrawNotification.

Since: 2.40

setActionGroup

applicationSetActionGroup

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a, IsActionGroup b)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Maybe b

actionGroup: a ActionGroup, or Nothing

-> m ()

Deprecated: (Since version 2.32)Use the ActionMap interface instead. Never evermix use of this API with use of ActionMap on the same applicationor things will go very badly wrong. This function is known tointroduce buggy behaviour (ie: signals not emitted on changes to theaction group), so you should really use ActionMap instead.

This used to be how actions were associated with a Application. Now there is ActionMap for that.

Since: 2.28

setApplicationId

applicationSetApplicationId

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Maybe Text

applicationId: the identifier for application

-> m ()

Sets the unique identifier for application.

The application id can only be modified if application has not yet been registered.

If non-Nothing, the application id must be valid. See applicationIdIsValid.

Since: 2.28

setDefault

applicationSetDefault

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: the application to set as default, or Nothing

-> m ()

Sets or unsets the default application for the process, as returned by applicationGetDefault.

This function does not take its own reference on application. If application is destroyed then the default application will revert back to Nothing.

Since: 2.32

setFlags

applicationSetFlags

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> [ApplicationFlags]

flags: the flags for application

-> m ()

Sets the flags for application.

The flags can only be modified if application has not yet been registered.

See ApplicationFlags.

Since: 2.28

setInactivityTimeout

applicationSetInactivityTimeout

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Word32

inactivityTimeout: the timeout, in milliseconds

-> m ()

Sets the current inactivity timeout for the application.

This is the amount of time (in milliseconds) after the last call to applicationRelease before the application stops running.

This call has no side effects of its own. The value set here is only used for next time applicationRelease drops the use count to zero. Any timeouts currently in progress are not impacted.

Since: 2.28

setOptionContextDescription

applicationSetOptionContextDescription

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: the Application

-> Maybe Text

description: a string to be shown in --help output after the list of options, or Nothing

-> m ()

Adds a description to the application option context.

See optionContextSetDescription for more information.

Since: 2.56

setOptionContextParameterString

applicationSetOptionContextParameterString

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: the Application

-> Maybe Text

parameterString: a string which is displayed in the first line of --help output, after the usage summary programname [OPTION...].

-> m ()

Sets the parameter string to be used by the commandline handling of application.

This function registers the argument to be passed to g_option_context_new() when the internal OptionContext of application is created.

See g_option_context_new() for more information about parameterString.

Since: 2.56

setOptionContextSummary

applicationSetOptionContextSummary

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: the Application

-> Maybe Text

summary: a string to be shown in --help output before the list of options, or Nothing

-> m ()

Adds a summary to the application option context.

See optionContextSetSummary for more information.

Since: 2.56

setResourceBasePath

applicationSetResourceBasePath

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Maybe Text

resourcePath: the resource path to use

-> m ()

Sets (or unsets) the base resource path of application.

The path is used to automatically load various [application resources][gresource] such as menu layouts and action descriptions. The various types of resources will be found at fixed names relative to the given base path.

By default, the resource base path is determined from the application ID by prefixing '/' and replacing each '.' with '/'. This is done at the time that the Application object is constructed. Changes to the application ID after that point will not have an impact on the resource base path.

As an example, if the application has an ID of "org.example.app" then the default resource base path will be "/org/example/app". If this is a GtkApplication (and you have not manually changed the path) then Gtk will then search for the menus of the application at "/org/example/app/gtk/menus.ui".

See Resource for more information about adding resources to your application.

You can disable automatic resource loading functionality by setting the path to Nothing.

Changing the resource base path once the application is running is not recommended. The point at which the resource path is consulted for forming paths for various purposes is unspecified. When writing a sub-class of Application you should either set the Application:resource-base-path property at construction time, or call this function during the instance initialization. Alternatively, you can call this function in the ApplicationClass.startup virtual function, before chaining up to the parent implementation.

Since: 2.42

unbindBusyProperty

applicationUnbindBusyProperty

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a, IsObject b)

=> a

application: a Application

-> b

object: a Object

-> Text

property: the name of a boolean property of object

-> m ()

Destroys a binding between property and the busy state of application that was previously created with applicationBindBusyProperty.

Since: 2.44

unmarkBusy

applicationUnmarkBusy

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> m ()

Decreases the busy count of application.

When the busy count reaches zero, the new state will be propagated to other processes.

This function must only be called to cancel the effect of a previous call to applicationMarkBusy.

Since: 2.38

withdrawNotification

applicationWithdrawNotification

Arguments

:: (HasCallStack, MonadIO m, IsApplication a)

=> a

application: a Application

-> Text

id: id of a previously sent notification

-> m ()

Withdraws a notification that was sent with applicationSendNotification.

This call does nothing if a notification with id doesn't exist or the notification was never sent.

This function works even for notifications sent in previous executions of this application, as long id is the same as it was for the sent notification.

Note that notifications are dismissed when the user clicks on one of the buttons in a notification or triggers its default action, so there is no need to explicitly withdraw the notification in that case.

Since: 2.40

Properties

actionGroup

No description available in the introspection data.

clearApplicationActionGroup :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m ()

Set the value of the “action-group” property to Nothing. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

clear #actionGroup

constructApplicationActionGroup :: (IsApplication o, MonadIO m, IsActionGroup a) => a -> m (GValueConstruct o)

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “action-group” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

setApplicationActionGroup :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o, IsActionGroup a) => o -> a -> m ()

Set the value of the “action-group” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #actionGroup := value ]

applicationId

No description available in the introspection data.

clearApplicationApplicationId :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m ()

Set the value of the “application-id” property to Nothing. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

clear #applicationId

constructApplicationApplicationId :: (IsApplication o, MonadIO m) => Text -> m (GValueConstruct o)

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “application-id” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

getApplicationApplicationId :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m Text

Get the value of the “application-id” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #applicationId

setApplicationApplicationId :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> Text -> m ()

Set the value of the “application-id” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #applicationId := value ]

flags

No description available in the introspection data.

constructApplicationFlags :: (IsApplication o, MonadIO m) => [ApplicationFlags] -> m (GValueConstruct o)

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “flags” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

getApplicationFlags :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m [ApplicationFlags]

Get the value of the “flags” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #flags

setApplicationFlags :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> [ApplicationFlags] -> m ()

Set the value of the “flags” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #flags := value ]

inactivityTimeout

No description available in the introspection data.

constructApplicationInactivityTimeout :: (IsApplication o, MonadIO m) => Word32 -> m (GValueConstruct o)

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “inactivity-timeout” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

getApplicationInactivityTimeout :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m Word32

Get the value of the “inactivity-timeout” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #inactivityTimeout

setApplicationInactivityTimeout :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> Word32 -> m ()

Set the value of the “inactivity-timeout” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #inactivityTimeout := value ]

isBusy

Whether the application is currently marked as busy through applicationMarkBusy or applicationBindBusyProperty.

Since: 2.44

getApplicationIsBusy :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m Bool

Get the value of the “is-busy” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #isBusy

isRegistered

No description available in the introspection data.

getApplicationIsRegistered :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m Bool

Get the value of the “is-registered” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #isRegistered

isRemote

No description available in the introspection data.

getApplicationIsRemote :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m Bool

Get the value of the “is-remote” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #isRemote

resourceBasePath

No description available in the introspection data.

clearApplicationResourceBasePath :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m ()

Set the value of the “resource-base-path” property to Nothing. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

clear #resourceBasePath

constructApplicationResourceBasePath :: (IsApplication o, MonadIO m) => Text -> m (GValueConstruct o)

Construct a GValueConstruct with valid value for the “resource-base-path” property. This is rarely needed directly, but it is used by new.

getApplicationResourceBasePath :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> m (Maybe Text)

Get the value of the “resource-base-path” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

get application #resourceBasePath

setApplicationResourceBasePath :: (MonadIO m, IsApplication o) => o -> Text -> m ()

Set the value of the “resource-base-path” property. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

set application [ #resourceBasePath := value ]

Signals

activate

type ApplicationActivateCallback = IO ()

The activate signal is emitted on the primary instance when an activation occurs. See applicationActivate.

type C_ApplicationActivateCallback = Ptr () -> Ptr () -> IO ()

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

afterApplicationActivate :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationActivateCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the activate signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #activate callback

genClosure_ApplicationActivate :: MonadIO m => ApplicationActivateCallback -> m (GClosure C_ApplicationActivateCallback)

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

mk_ApplicationActivateCallback :: C_ApplicationActivateCallback -> IO (FunPtr C_ApplicationActivateCallback)

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationActivateCallback.

noApplicationActivateCallback :: Maybe ApplicationActivateCallback

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationActivateCallback.

onApplicationActivate :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationActivateCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the activate signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #activate callback

wrap_ApplicationActivateCallback :: ApplicationActivateCallback -> C_ApplicationActivateCallback

Wrap a ApplicationActivateCallback into a C_ApplicationActivateCallback.

commandLine

type ApplicationCommandLineCallback

Arguments

 = ApplicationCommandLine

commandLine: a ApplicationCommandLine representing the passed commandline

-> IO Int32

Returns: An integer that is set as the exit status for the calling process. See applicationCommandLineSetExitStatus.

The commandLine signal is emitted on the primary instance when a commandline is not handled locally. See applicationRun and the ApplicationCommandLine documentation for more information.

type C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback = Ptr () -> Ptr ApplicationCommandLine -> Ptr () -> IO Int32

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

afterApplicationCommandLine :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationCommandLineCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the commandLine signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #commandLine callback

genClosure_ApplicationCommandLine :: MonadIO m => ApplicationCommandLineCallback -> m (GClosure C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback)

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

mk_ApplicationCommandLineCallback :: C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback -> IO (FunPtr C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback)

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback.

noApplicationCommandLineCallback :: Maybe ApplicationCommandLineCallback

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationCommandLineCallback.

onApplicationCommandLine :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationCommandLineCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the commandLine signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #commandLine callback

wrap_ApplicationCommandLineCallback :: ApplicationCommandLineCallback -> C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback

Wrap a ApplicationCommandLineCallback into a C_ApplicationCommandLineCallback.

handleLocalOptions

type ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback

Arguments

 = VariantDict

options: the options dictionary

-> IO Int32

Returns: an exit code. If you have handled your options and want to exit the process, return a non-negative option, 0 for success, and a positive value for failure. To continue, return -1 to let the default option processing continue.

The handleLocalOptions signal is emitted on the local instance after the parsing of the commandline options has occurred.

You can add options to be recognised during commandline option parsing using applicationAddMainOptionEntries and applicationAddOptionGroup.

Signal handlers can inspect options (along with values pointed to from the argData of an installed GOptionEntrys) in order to decide to perform certain actions, including direct local handling (which may be useful for options like --version).

In the event that the application is marked ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine the "normal processing" will send the options dictionary to the primary instance where it can be read with applicationCommandLineGetOptionsDict. The signal handler can modify the dictionary before returning, and the modified dictionary will be sent.

In the event that ApplicationFlagsHandlesCommandLine is not set, "normal processing" will treat the remaining uncollected command line arguments as filenames or URIs. If there are no arguments, the application is activated by applicationActivate. One or more arguments results in a call to applicationOpen.

If you want to handle the local commandline arguments for yourself by converting them to calls to applicationOpen or actionGroupActivateAction then you must be sure to register the application first. You should probably not call applicationActivate for yourself, however: just return -1 and allow the default handler to do it for you. This will ensure that the --gapplication-service switch works properly (i.e. no activation in that case).

Note that this signal is emitted from the default implementation of local_command_line(). If you override that function and don't chain up then this signal will never be emitted.

You can override local_command_line() if you need more powerful capabilities than what is provided here, but this should not normally be required.

Since: 2.40

type C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback = Ptr () -> Ptr VariantDict -> Ptr () -> IO Int32

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

afterApplicationHandleLocalOptions :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the handleLocalOptions signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #handleLocalOptions callback

genClosure_ApplicationHandleLocalOptions :: MonadIO m => ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback -> m (GClosure C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback)

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

mk_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback :: C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback -> IO (FunPtr C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback)

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback.

noApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback :: Maybe ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback.

onApplicationHandleLocalOptions :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the handleLocalOptions signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #handleLocalOptions callback

wrap_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback :: ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback -> C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback

Wrap a ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback into a C_ApplicationHandleLocalOptionsCallback.

nameLost

type ApplicationNameLostCallback

Arguments

 = IO Bool

Returns: True if the signal has been handled

The nameLost signal is emitted only on the registered primary instance when a new instance has taken over. This can only happen if the application is using the ApplicationFlagsAllowReplacement flag.

The default handler for this signal calls applicationQuit.

Since: 2.60

type C_ApplicationNameLostCallback = Ptr () -> Ptr () -> IO CInt

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

afterApplicationNameLost :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationNameLostCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the nameLost signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #nameLost callback

genClosure_ApplicationNameLost :: MonadIO m => ApplicationNameLostCallback -> m (GClosure C_ApplicationNameLostCallback)

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

mk_ApplicationNameLostCallback :: C_ApplicationNameLostCallback -> IO (FunPtr C_ApplicationNameLostCallback)

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationNameLostCallback.

noApplicationNameLostCallback :: Maybe ApplicationNameLostCallback

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationNameLostCallback.

onApplicationNameLost :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationNameLostCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the nameLost signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #nameLost callback

wrap_ApplicationNameLostCallback :: ApplicationNameLostCallback -> C_ApplicationNameLostCallback

Wrap a ApplicationNameLostCallback into a C_ApplicationNameLostCallback.

open

type ApplicationOpenCallback

Arguments

 = [File]

files: an array of GFiles

-> Text

hint: a hint provided by the calling instance

-> IO ()

The open signal is emitted on the primary instance when there are files to open. See applicationOpen for more information.

type C_ApplicationOpenCallback = Ptr () -> Ptr (Ptr File) -> Int32 -> CString -> Ptr () -> IO ()

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

afterApplicationOpen :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationOpenCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the open signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #open callback

genClosure_ApplicationOpen :: MonadIO m => ApplicationOpenCallback -> m (GClosure C_ApplicationOpenCallback)

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

mk_ApplicationOpenCallback :: C_ApplicationOpenCallback -> IO (FunPtr C_ApplicationOpenCallback)

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationOpenCallback.

noApplicationOpenCallback :: Maybe ApplicationOpenCallback

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationOpenCallback.

onApplicationOpen :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationOpenCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the open signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #open callback

wrap_ApplicationOpenCallback :: ApplicationOpenCallback -> C_ApplicationOpenCallback

Wrap a ApplicationOpenCallback into a C_ApplicationOpenCallback.

shutdown

type ApplicationShutdownCallback = IO ()

The shutdown signal is emitted only on the registered primary instance immediately after the main loop terminates.

type C_ApplicationShutdownCallback = Ptr () -> Ptr () -> IO ()

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

afterApplicationShutdown :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationShutdownCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the shutdown signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #shutdown callback

genClosure_ApplicationShutdown :: MonadIO m => ApplicationShutdownCallback -> m (GClosure C_ApplicationShutdownCallback)

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

mk_ApplicationShutdownCallback :: C_ApplicationShutdownCallback -> IO (FunPtr C_ApplicationShutdownCallback)

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationShutdownCallback.

noApplicationShutdownCallback :: Maybe ApplicationShutdownCallback

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationShutdownCallback.

onApplicationShutdown :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationShutdownCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the shutdown signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #shutdown callback

wrap_ApplicationShutdownCallback :: ApplicationShutdownCallback -> C_ApplicationShutdownCallback

Wrap a ApplicationShutdownCallback into a C_ApplicationShutdownCallback.

startup

type ApplicationStartupCallback = IO ()

The startup signal is emitted on the primary instance immediately after registration. See applicationRegister.

type C_ApplicationStartupCallback = Ptr () -> Ptr () -> IO ()

Type for the callback on the (unwrapped) C side.

afterApplicationStartup :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationStartupCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the startup signal, to be run after the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

after application #startup callback

genClosure_ApplicationStartup :: MonadIO m => ApplicationStartupCallback -> m (GClosure C_ApplicationStartupCallback)

Wrap the callback into a GClosure.

mk_ApplicationStartupCallback :: C_ApplicationStartupCallback -> IO (FunPtr C_ApplicationStartupCallback)

Generate a function pointer callable from C code, from a C_ApplicationStartupCallback.

noApplicationStartupCallback :: Maybe ApplicationStartupCallback

A convenience synonym for Nothing :: Maybe ApplicationStartupCallback.

onApplicationStartup :: (IsApplication a, MonadIO m) => a -> ApplicationStartupCallback -> m SignalHandlerId

Connect a signal handler for the startup signal, to be run before the default handler. When overloading is enabled, this is equivalent to

on application #startup callback

wrap_ApplicationStartupCallback :: ApplicationStartupCallback -> C_ApplicationStartupCallback

Wrap a ApplicationStartupCallback into a C_ApplicationStartupCallback.