Cannot get QSystemTrayIcon to work correctly with activation reason

Question

I am using Ubuntu 12.04 and, while I can create a tray icon with a usable menu, I cannot control its actions:

    trayIcon = new QSystemTrayIcon(this);
    trayIcon->setIcon(QIcon(":/icons/Pictures/icon.png"));
    trayIcon->setToolTip(QString("Hello there..."));

    connect(trayIcon,SIGNAL(activated(QSystemTrayIcon::ActivationReason)),this,SLOT(clickSysTrayIcon(QSystemTrayIcon::ActivationReason)));
    connect(this,SIGNAL(minimized()),this,SLOT(hide()),Qt::QueuedConnection);

    QMenu *changer_menu = new QMenu;
    Show_action = new QAction(tr("S&how"),this);
    Show_action->setIconVisibleInMenu(true);
    connect(Show_action, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(showClicked()));
    changer_menu->addAction(Show_action);
    changer_menu->addSeparator();
    Quit_action = new QAction(tr("&Quit"), this);
    Quit_action->setIconVisibleInMenu(true);;
    connect(Quit_action, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(close_minimize()));
    changer_menu->addAction(Quit_action);

    trayIcon->setContextMenu(changer_menu);
    trayIcon->show();

The clickSysTrayIcon(QSystemTrayIcon::ActivationReason) is the following:

void MainWindow::clickSysTrayIcon(QSystemTrayIcon::ActivationReason reason)
{
    //reason is a variable that holds the type of activation or click done on the icon tray
    qDebug() << "I'm in!";
}

and, defined at the header file as:

private Q_SLOTS:
    void clickSysTrayIcon(QSystemTrayIcon::ActivationReason reason);

However, I cannot get the "I'm in!" message to be shown. I've tried to make it work with left/right clicks, with middle click and with mouse wheel, but I never see this message being outputed.

What is wrong?

EDIT: It seems that something's wrong with the specific system, Ubuntu 12.04, because it doesn't use tray icons any more and only indicators. So, there's a program which uses the tray icons and they convert them into indicators. But, then the features of indicators are gone. I know that it's the system to blame, because the same program, under the very same code, works perfectly under Lubuntu 12.04 with the LXDE desktop.

I blame Ubuntu for this. The sni-qt package doesn't do a very good migration from tray icons to indicators, providing that indicators can interact on click, on roller etc. It's a shame! Any solutions to this problem?

My bounty ends, so if there's someone who can address the problem I would be thankful!

Isotonic

Do you have debugger output or anything else which may refer to the problem source? – Jorge

I don't exactly get what you want? – Isotonic

Do you receive some debug output (errors, etc.) I have tested testing it after that, but it worked on Kubuntu, also, so I was unable to reproduce the problem. – Jorge

I tested it under Lubuntu and it worked as well. But on ubuntu it fails, because it has the sni-qt package which does the conversion 'Tray Icon' -> 'Indicator', but the tray icon loses some features like the one I described above. I mean that it just becomes a simple clickable indicator with no features. Other distributions like K/Xubuntu don't use the sni-qt package and accept tray icons as well. – Isotonic

I know for Ubuntu had decided to write their GUI based on Gnome, which had caused a lot of problems related to it. As far as I see, this is a confirmed bug and some people achived success with removing that package - sni-qt. I don't know if it is applicable in your case. – Jorge

It is not applicable, because this application is not for personal use. – Isotonic

Answer 1

Bring up the issue to the people that have the most influence on the projects.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#How_to_report_bugs

https://bugreports.qt.io/

Work-Around

I would make a floating frameless qwidget on top of the indicator area where your indicator gets painted, and then add the appropriate mouseEvent functions on to it.

Here is starting point for this style of work-around. I don't know how kosher this is, but it works pretty well in Windows. I know there are some UI tweaks and tools for Windows that use this style of layered elements, like DisplayFusion and TeamViewer. I haven't tested it in Ubuntu yet, but it should work the same way.

#include <QtGui/QWidget>
#include <QMenu>
#include <QSystemTrayIcon>
#include <QMouseEvent>
#include <QPixmap>
#include <QAction>
#include <QDebug>
#include <QPaintEvent>
#include <QPainter>
#include <QApplication>
#include <QTimerEvent>

class Widget : public QWidget
{
    Q_OBJECT

public:
    Widget(QWidget *parent = 0)
        : QWidget(parent)
    {
        // setup this widget to be borderless, transparent around the image
        // and always on top
        // and not to have a presence in the "visible window list"
        this->setWindowFlags( Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint |
                              Qt::FramelessWindowHint | Qt::Tool);
        this->setAttribute(Qt::WA_TranslucentBackground);

        // necessary if you want to track when you enter and leave the widget's rect with the mouse
        this->setMouseTracking(true);

        m_trayIcon = new QSystemTrayIcon(this);
        m_trayIcon->setIcon(QIcon("icon1.ico"));
        m_trayIcon->setToolTip(QString("Hello there..."));

        m_changer_menu = new QMenu;

        m_show_action = new QAction(tr("S&how"),this);
        m_show_action->setIconVisibleInMenu(true);

        connect(m_show_action, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(showClicked()));

        m_changer_menu->addAction(m_show_action);
        m_changer_menu->addSeparator();

        m_quit_action = new QAction(tr("&Quit"), this);
        m_quit_action->setIconVisibleInMenu(true);;

        connect(m_quit_action, SIGNAL(triggered()), this, SLOT(close_minimize()));

        m_changer_menu->addAction(m_quit_action);

        m_trayIcon->setContextMenu(m_changer_menu);
        m_trayIcon->show();

        QPixmap p("icon2.ico");
        m_pix = p.scaled(QSize(m_trayIcon->geometry().width(),
                                   m_trayIcon->geometry().height()),
                             Qt::IgnoreAspectRatio,
                             Qt::SmoothTransformation);
        this->move(m_trayIcon->geometry().x() ,m_trayIcon->geometry().y());
        this->resize(m_trayIcon->geometry().width(), m_trayIcon->geometry().height());

//        qDebug() << m_trayIcon->geometry();
//        qDebug() << this->geometry();
        // This assumes that the notification is stationary.  If you want it to move
        // with the tray icon underneath, you will need to subclass QSystemTrayIcon
        // and track its move and resize and probably also its show and hide events

        // raise itself 15x a second
        this->startTimer(1000/15);
    }

    ~Widget(){ }

public slots:
    void mouseDoubleClickEvent(QMouseEvent *)
    {
        qDebug() << Q_FUNC_INFO;
    }

    void mouseReleaseEvent(QMouseEvent * me)
    {
        qDebug() << Q_FUNC_INFO;
        switch(me->button())
        {
        case Qt::LeftButton:
            qDebug() << "Left Click";
            break;
        case Qt::RightButton:
            qDebug() << "Right Click";
            m_changer_menu->popup(this->geometry().topLeft() + me->pos());
            break;
        default:
            qDebug() << "other click";
            break;
        }
    }

    void showClicked()
    {
        qDebug() << Q_FUNC_INFO;
    }

    void close_minimize()
    {
        qDebug() << Q_FUNC_INFO;
        qApp->exit();
    }

    void paintEvent(QPaintEvent *)
    {
        QPainter aPainter(this);
        aPainter.drawPixmap(rect(), m_pix);
    }

    void timerEvent(QTimerEvent *)
    {
        if(!m_changer_menu->isVisible())
            this->raise();
    }

private:
    QPixmap m_pix;
    QSystemTrayIcon * m_trayIcon;
    QMenu * m_changer_menu;
    QAction * m_quit_action;
    QAction * m_show_action;
};

and here is the main function...

#include <QtGui/QApplication>
#include "widget.h"

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);
    Widget w;
    w.show();

    return a.exec();
}

Malarkey