Tk window to the front of all application windows

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

A program I wrote pops up with a Tk window as an error dialog. Works nicely although I've noticed it often doesn't bring itself to the VERY front of all my other applicaton windows. As an error dialog this isn't desirable. Below is the code for the error dialog which I call from main. The "withdraw/popup" methods centre it on the screen, which I want to keep. The "focus" method I thought would bring it to the front but no such luck. I've also tried "raise". Does anyone know how to force it to the front on a Win32 system? Thanks

sub dying {
    my ($error) = @_;
    
    if (!$error) {
        $error = "(none given)";
    }
    my $text;
    $text .= "\n\nTARsync Error:\n\nFailed during:\n$message\n\nReason
+:\n$error";
    if ($poperr) {
        my $box = new MainWindow(-title => "ZIPsync failed!",
                    -bg => 'yellow',
                    -bd => 4,
                    -relief => 'ridge');
        $box->overrideredirect(1);
    
        my $label = $box->Label(
                    -textvariable=> \$text,
                    -bg=> 'yellow',
                    )->pack(-fill=>'both',
                        -padx => 40,
                        );
        Win32::Sound::Play('SystemExclamation');
        my $ok = $box->Button(-text => "OK",
                    -command => [sub{$box->destroy;
                            exit;
                            } ]
                    )->pack(-padx => 20,
                        -pady => 20
                        );
    
        $box->withdraw;
        $box->Popup;
        $box->focus;
        MainLoop;
}
[download]

Dean
The Funkster of Mirth
Programming these days takes more than a lone avenger with a compiler. - sam
RFC1149: A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers

Comment on Tk window to the front of all application windows Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Tk window to the front of all application windows by rinceWind (Monsignor) on Apr 12, 2004 at 23:34 UTC
See "Always on top" with Win32 and Tk. SuperSearch rules. -- I'm Not Just Another Perl Hacker	[reply]
Re: Tk window to the front of all application windows by saintmike (Vicar) on Apr 12, 2004 at 21:46 UTC
Interesting, this seems to be a shortcoming on `perlTk` for Win32 systems only -- it works fine on Linux. Also, the `Tk::focus` manual page mentions `focusForce()` which claims to force the focus on the application if it doesn't have it, but that doesn't work either on Win32.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Tk window to the front of all application windows by eserte (Deacon) on Apr 13, 2004 at 09:23 UTC
With Tk804.027 you could try the new `$mw->attributes(-topmost => 1)` method call.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Tk window to the front of all application windows by crabbdean (Pilgrim) on Apr 13, 2004 at 20:02 UTC
A SOLUTION: I awoke during the night recalling a method I'd seen in the Win32Util module about "always keep ontop". Its a bruteforce way of forcing your Tk Window to the front and keeping it there even if you maximise other windows. See the amended code below. (Note: setting the optional flag to 1 forces it ontop, setting it to 0 disables it. The mind of a programmer never sleeps! :-) ## Insert these into main use Win32::Sound; use Win32Util; ## subroutine for dying sub dying { my ($error) = @_; if (!$error) { $error = "(none given)"; } my $text; $text .= "\n\nTARsync Error:\n\nFailed during:\n$message\n\nReason +:\n$error"; if ($poperr) { my $box = new MainWindow(-title => "TARsync failed!", -bg => 'yellow', -bd => 4, -relief => 'ridge'); $box->overrideredirect(1); my $label = $box->Label( -textvariable=> \$text, -bg=> 'yellow', )->pack(-fill=>'both', -padx => 40, ); Win32::Sound::Play('SystemExclamation'); my $ok = $box->Button(-text => "OK", -command => [ sub{$box->destroy; exit; } ] )->pack(-padx => 20, -pady => 20 ); $box->withdraw; $box->Popup; Win32Util::keep_on_top($box, 1); MainLoop; } } [download] Dean The Funkster of Mirth Programming these days takes more than a lone avenger with a compiler. - sam RFC1149: A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers	[reply] [d/l]