Swift - How does one animate (pulse between opacity 0 and 1) a NSImage in the menu bar?

Question

I'm new at Swift and I can't seem to find any resource for what I'm trying to achieve. Most of what I find applies only to views.

I have a statusBarItem:

statusBarItem = NSStatusBar.system.statusItem(withLength: CGFloat(NSStatusItem.variableLength))

Which has an NSImage as the icon:

let img = NSImage(named: "\(appModel.selectedImage.rawValue)")
img?.size = CGSize(width: 22, height: 22)
statusBarItem.button?.image = img

And I'd like to animate the icon by making it pulse/fade in-out/animate opacity.

What's the best way of achieving this?

Thank you

I guess that's an option if everything else fails. I'd rather not have a .gif, but thanks for suggesting that. — Maxime Dupré, Nov 15 '21 at 18:21

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 15 '21 at 06:15

0

Look at the class hierarchy for what you're trying to achieve. A NSStatusBar is a NSObject, and does not know how to render. It has a NSStatusBarButton, which does. Haven't tried, but something like

UIView.animateWithDuration(0.2, delay:0, options: [.repeat], animations: {
    statusBarItem.button.opacity = 0
}, completion: {
    (value: Bool) in
statusBarItem.button.opacity = 1
})

answered Nov 15 '21 at 06:15

Walt

162
1
7

1

How do you use `UIImage`'s `animatedImage(with:duration:)` in Cocoa? – El Tomato Nov 15 '21 at 06:44
What do I need to import to have access to `UIView`? I get "Cannot find 'UIView' in scope" – Maxime Dupré Nov 15 '21 at 18:20
This seems to be part of `UIKit`, which is to build iOS apps, not macOS – Maxime Dupré Nov 15 '21 at 18:22

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 15 '21 at 18:52

Based on @Walt 's answer, I could figure out the macOS equivalent:

    func animateMenubarIcon() {
        NSAnimationContext.runAnimationGroup { context in
            context.duration = 1
            self.statusBarItem?.button?.animator().alphaValue = 0
        } completionHandler: {
            NSAnimationContext.runAnimationGroup { context in
                context.duration = 1
                self.statusBarItem?.button?.animator().alphaValue = 1
            } completionHandler: {
                self.animateMenubarIcon()
            }
        }
    }

This will animate the button on a loop

Swift - How does one animate (pulse between opacity 0 and 1) a NSImage in the menu bar?

2 Answers2