Application

GtkApplication is a high-level API for writing applications.

It supports many aspects of writing a GTK application in a convenient fashion, without enforcing a one-size-fits-all model.

Currently, GtkApplication handles GTK initialization, application uniqueness, session management, provides some basic scriptability and desktop shell integration by exporting actions and menus and manages a list of toplevel windows whose life-cycle is automatically tied to the life-cycle of your application.

While GtkApplication works fine with plain [class@Gtk.Window]s, it is recommended to use it together with [class@Gtk.ApplicationWindow].

Automatic resources

GtkApplication will automatically load menus from the GtkBuilder resource located at "gtk/menus.ui", relative to the application's resource base path (see g_application_set_resource_base_path()). The menu with the ID "menubar" is taken as the application's menubar. Additional menus (most interesting submenus) can be named and accessed via [method@Gtk.Application.get_menu_by_id] which allows for dynamic population of a part of the menu structure.

It is also possible to provide the menubar manually using [method@Gtk.Application.set_menubar].

GtkApplication will also automatically setup an icon search path for the default icon theme by appending "icons" to the resource base path. This allows your application to easily store its icons as resources. See [method@Gtk.IconTheme.add_resource_path] for more information.

If there is a resource located at "gtk/help-overlay.ui" which defines a [class@Gtk.ShortcutsWindow] with ID "help_overlay" then GtkApplication associates an instance of this shortcuts window with each [class@Gtk.ApplicationWindow] and sets up the keyboard accelerator <kbd>Control</kbd>+<kbd>?</kbd> to open it. To create a menu item that displays the shortcuts window, associate the item with the action win.show-help-overlay.

A simple application

A simple example

is available in the GTK source code repository

GtkApplication optionally registers with a session manager of the users session (if you set the [property@Gtk.Application:register-session] property) and offers various functionality related to the session life-cycle.

An application can block various ways to end the session with the [method@Gtk.Application.inhibit] function. Typical use cases for this kind of inhibiting are long-running, uninterruptible operations, such as burning a CD or performing a disk backup. The session manager may not honor the inhibitor, but it can be expected to inform the user about the negative consequences of ending the session while inhibitors are present.

Constructors

this this(GtkApplication* gtkApplication, bool ownedRef): Sets our main struct and passes it to the parent class.
this this(string applicationId, GApplicationFlags flags): Creates a new GtkApplication instance.

Members

Functions

addOnQueryEnd gulong addOnQueryEnd(void delegate(Application) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags): Emitted when the session manager is about to end the session.
addOnWindowAdded gulong addOnWindowAdded(void delegate(Window, Application) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags): Emitted when a [class@Gtk.Window] is added to application through [method@Gtk.Application.add_window].
addOnWindowRemoved gulong addOnWindowRemoved(void delegate(Window, Application) dlg, ConnectFlags connectFlags): Emitted when a [class@Gtk.Window] is removed from application.
addWindow void addWindow(Window window): Adds a window to application.
getAccelsForAction string[] getAccelsForAction(string detailedActionName): Gets the accelerators that are currently associated with the given action.
getActionsForAccel string[] getActionsForAccel(string accel): Returns the list of actions (possibly empty) that accel maps to.
getActiveWindow Window getActiveWindow(): Gets the “active” window for the application.
getGtkApplicationStruct GtkApplication* getGtkApplicationStruct(bool transferOwnership): Get the main Gtk struct
getMenuById Menu getMenuById(string id): Gets a menu from automatically loaded resources.
getMenubar MenuModel getMenubar(): Returns the menu model that has been set with [method@Gtk.Application.set_menubar].
getStruct void* getStruct(): the main Gtk struct as a void*
getWindowById Window getWindowById(uint id): Returns the [class@Gtk.ApplicationWindow] with the given ID.
getWindows ListG getWindows(): Gets a list of the [class@Gtk.Window] instances associated with application.
inhibit uint inhibit(Window window, GtkApplicationInhibitFlags flags, string reason): Inform the session manager that certain types of actions should be inhibited.
listActionDescriptions string[] listActionDescriptions(): Lists the detailed action names which have associated accelerators.
removeWindow void removeWindow(Window window): Remove a window from application.
setAccelsForAction void setAccelsForAction(string detailedActionName, string[] accels): Sets zero or more keyboard accelerators that will trigger the given action.
setMenubar void setMenubar(MenuModel menubar): Sets or unsets the menubar for windows of application.
uninhibit void uninhibit(uint cookie): Removes an inhibitor that has been previously established.

Static functions

getType GType getType()

Variables

gtkApplication GtkApplication* gtkApplication;: the main Gtk struct