Courage has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear wise perlmonks!

Is it possible to create Toplevel widget for Perl-Tk GUI which will be above all other windows?

Thanks in advance,
Courage, the Cowardly Dog

  • Comment on stay-on-top property for Toplevel for Perl-Tk GUI

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Re: stay-on-top property for Toplevel for Perl-Tk GUI
by dree (Monsignor) on Oct 15, 2002 at 14:21 UTC
    Playing with groups.google.com I understand that <<Unix window managers do not have such a "Always on top" feature. To be more precise, most Unix window managers can do something like "Always on top", but there's no X11 standard.>> (from Slaven Rezic) From Slaven, the (untested) trick is: 
    $top->bind("<Visibility>" => sub { $top->raise });

    [download]

    For win32, with a trick by Toby Everett, for me works this: 
    use strict;
use Tk;
use Win32::API;

my $mw = new MainWindow;
use vars qw/$Button/;

$mw->Frame(-width=>200, height =>25);
$mw->update;
  Win32::API->new("user32","SetWindowPos",[qw(N N N N N N
N)],'N')->Call(hex($mw->frame()),-1,0,0,0,0,3);


$Button=$mw->Button(-text => "Button",
        -command => sub {
                &do_something;
            })
        ->pack();


MainLoop;

sub do_something {

    #sleep(10);
}

    [download]

    UPDATE:
    Always from Slaven Rezic, there is a trick for KDE2:

    If you're using KDE2 the you can write following ($w is your toplevel widget): 
        my($wrapper) = $w->toplevel->wrapper;
    $w->property('set', '_NET_WM_STATE', "ATOM", 32,
         ["_NET_WM_STATE_STAYS_ON_TOP"], $wrapper);

    [download]
    I think the _NET_WM_* stuff is also GNOME-compliant.
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[d/l]
[select]
      Exactly what I needed!

      Thanks a lot for your kind help!
      Courage, the Cowardly Dog

[reply]
Re: stay-on-top property for Toplevel for Perl-Tk GUI
by MZSanford (Curate) on Oct 15, 2002 at 13:14 UTC
    I am assuming you are looking to make a global grab ... somthing that will not let the user switch application's, correct ? Well, i never suggest this, as if your program hangs you may well roger the user ... After the warning, take a look at the $widget->grabGlobal() method. I do suggest the grab() method, as it is local. Adding this with the general focus methods/properties should do what you want.
    from the frivolous to the serious
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[d/l]
[select]
      No, I did not intended to have input only for my app, I was searching for a way to display a small button that will not be obscured by other applications, so a user will be able to see my button (and press it at any time) while being in another application. Something like floating button-bar.

      Courage, the Cowardly Dog

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Re: stay-on-top property for Toplevel for Perl-Tk GUI
by mce (Curate) on Oct 15, 2002 at 14:02 UTC
    Hi,

    Perhaps I can lead you in the right direction.

    You can call the method geometry on all other toplevels. Than you can type to determine the coordinates from these by taking the lowest X value and the lowest Y value, and add the X size=(highest X - lowest X) and the same for the Y size.

    Than you can call the method geometry on the newly created Toplevel with these new parameters.

    In most window managers, the newly created Toplevel will than be above the older onces.

    I hope that is what you wanted

    ---------------------------
    Dr. Mark Ceulemans
    Senior Consultant
    IT Masters, Belgium

[reply]
      No, I was trying to display a small button that will not be obscured by other applications, something of kind "stay-on-top"

      Courage, the Cowardly Dog

[reply]

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