I started messing with this once, although I didn't get very far. The ActivePerl PPM package of Win32::GUI doesn't seem to install the same docs that you can find on CPAN, but there are some tutorials included with that particular distribution.

Part 4 of the tutorial covers system tray icons, and the example script there did work for me under 2000. Here's my (very slightly) paraphrased version:

use Win32::GUI;

my $main = Win32::GUI::Window->new(
    -name    =>    'main',
    -text    =>    'test',
    -width    =>    150,
    -height =>    150
);

my $icon = Win32::GUI::Icon->new('test.ico');

my $tray = $main->AddNotifyIcon(
    -name    =>    'tray',
    -icon    =>    $icon,
    -tip    =>    'test'
);

Win32::GUI::Dialog();


sub tray_Click
{
    $main->Enable();
    $main->Show();
    1;
}

sub main_Terminate
{
    -1;
}

sub main_Minimize
{
    $main->Disable();
    $main->Hide();
    1;
}
[download]

Now, if you want to run this as a service, I have no idea how portable it is. Let us know if you get it to work.

-jehuni

# Test Icons from http://www.royaltyfreeart.com/favicons.html

use Win32::GUI;
use strict;

my $okIcon = new Win32::GUI::Icon("info1.ico");
my $badIcon = new Win32::GUI::Icon("info2.ico");

my $lastState = 1;      # start off ok
my $iconCounter = 1;    # maintain an icon count

my $main = Win32::GUI::Window->new();
DoIcon($okIcon, $iconCounter);        # set the initial icon


while(1){
  if (int rand 2)  # Yeah, This is how I do system monitoring!
  {

        unless ($lastState) 
        {
          # Everything's ok now - it wasn't last time round
            changeIcon($okIcon);
            $lastState = 1;
      }
  } else {
      if ($lastState)
      {
          # Something's gone down - everything was ok last check
          changeIcon($badIcon);
          $lastState = 0;
      }
  }
  
  sleep(5);
    
}

sub DoIcon
{
    my ($icon, $id) = @_;
    $main->AddNotifyIcon(
        -name => "Tray",
        -tip  => $id,
        -icon => $icon,
        -id   => $id,
    );
}

sub changeIcon
{
  my $icon = shift;
  DoIcon($icon, $iconCounter); # Clear the old Icon
  DoIcon($icon, ++$iconCounter);  # Set the new one and incriment coun
+ter
}
[download]

The latest version of Win32::GUI is 0.0.558. Download PPM or source at SourceForge:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/perl-win32-gui

/J

There is a small bug in this program. The tray icon does not disappear
+ immediately when the program terminates. Instead, it remains in the 
+system tray until you point the mouse cursor at it, when it disappear
+s. This is a bug in Win32::GUI - when you close your program, you sho
+uld explicitly remove any system tray icons you still have displayed.
+ Win32::GUI does not (yet) have a way of removing a tray icon. Hopefu
+lly, this will be fixed in a later version.
[download]

I think that this bug actually leaves the icon there even when the app that placed it there has exited. However, at least under 2000, this bug no longer seems to be present.

-jehuni

I am running 2000 and I still get this bug. However this doesn't really answer the question of "changing" the icon. The documentation already mentioned says : <blockquot>Win32::GUI does not (yet) have a way of removing a tray icon As far as I can see, there is no way of "changing" the icon either. All you can do is add a new one. But if you can't delete the old one, that's no use either. Try out this code and tell me if the icons still disappear\change as they should (It doesn't on my system):

use Win32::GUI;

my $main = Win32::GUI::Window->new();

my $icon = Win32::GUI::Icon->new('test.ico');

my $tray = $main->AddNotifyIcon(
    -name    =>    'tray',
    -icon    =>    $icon,
    -id        =>    0,
    -tip    =>    'icon1'
);

sleep 5; # hover mouse over icon to see tooltip

undef $tray; # try and get rid of old icon

$tray = $main->AddNotifyIcon(
    -name    =>    'tray',
    -icon    =>    $icon,
    -id        =>    0,
    -tip    =>    'icon2'
);

sleep 5; # hover mouse over new icon again
[download]



Simon Flack ($code or die)
$,=reverse'"ro_';s,$,\$,;s,$,lc ref sub{},e;$,
=~y'_"' ';eval"die";print $_,lc substr$@,0,3;

Don't know how supported it is but this is what I had to do is call Win32::GUI::NotifyIcon::Modify directly (it is located in the GUI.xs file for those with the source). Example works off the click on the tray icon.

Don't forget to get the -id bit the same across all calls.... Other problem I came across was the limit of 63 chars for the -tip windows doesn't like it and the good doctor will come and visit if you make it too long.

- snipped example -

      Win32::GUI::NotifyIcon::Modify(
         $win, 
         -id => 1, 
         -icon => $icoDis, 
         -tip => "Not Recording",
[download]

I would imagine this is the most "correct" way of changing the icon.

Also, you can't sleep() within a Win32::GUI program, that will freeze the UI for the user.

What you do is call Win32::GUI::Dialog(), then wait for some event to happen. There is a timer control. Return -1 from an event handler to exit the main event loop.

/J

Yeah, OK, this is old, but if I found it someone else may also. Now it's a wiki.

In current form (ActiveState 5.8.8), the 'Win32::GUI::NotifyIcon::Modify' method is gone and so is the '-id' option. Use of the former will fail and use of the latter will produce a warning.

'ModifyIcon' has been replaced by a 'Change' method. So to do smooth animation - like what was being attempted here, you do something like:

our $ni;

$ni = $win->AddNotifyIcon (
 -icon => $ico[0],
 -tip => "Look both ways before crossing the street",
);
[download]

Then in the timer:

$ni->Change( -icon => $ico[$index] );
[download]

Sean

Consider MS KB Article Q162613. In it, there's a description of the API as seen through visual basic. The difference between an "Add", "Change" and "Remove" in the API appears to be 1 argument. The VB call is to "Shell_NotifyIcon" which looks an awful lot like the "NotifyIcon" method call that Win32::GUI uses. Can someone (who can get this to work) hack at the API a little bit to see if these are indeed the same call. And if possible change the argument of "0" (ADD) to "1" (MODIFY). It might get you some of the way there...