Stay in menu bar not dock?

Feature requests for the Mac OS X version of Transmission
BrianRecchia
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Long Island, NY

Stay in menu bar not dock?

Post by BrianRecchia »

I personally thought it would be a good idea if Transmission could be kept in the Menu bar instead of the Dock. I like apps that I don't interact with much just staying in the menu bar. Example: Last.FM, being just a daemon, stays in the menu bar until I need it. GMail notifier stays there. If I get an email, GMail notifier tells me. If I wanna send one, I just click it and click Compose mail. I feel things would be easier at least for me if Transmission were like this, too. Especially since I have it set to watch my downloads folder for Torrent files and delete them when imported, and to then alert me via Growl when I'm done downloading whatever it is. Because of this along with the fact that I'm always seeding and have transmission open upon boot, it would only make sense to put it where my other little-to-no interaction apps are.
livings124
Transmission Developer
Posts: 3142
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2006 8:08 pm

Post by livings124 »

Transmission is a full, normal application, and therefore stays in the dock. There's nothing more to it.
BrianRecchia
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 12:15 am
Location: Long Island, NY

Post by BrianRecchia »

Thanks anyway, then. For me it runs more as a background app, though, which is why I asked.
hohesC
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:02 pm

Post by hohesC »

I am also interested in having Transmission in the menubar only.
As an optional feature to decide where Transmission should appear (dock, menu, or both) this would be great.

Like Brian I use Transmission quite like a "background application"
Transmission starts automatically, it grabs and trashes downloaded .torrent-files automatically, it seeds automatically, growl informs me automatically, and so on...

I don't need it in my dock

(Sorry for my bad english.)
JrWho
Posts: 104
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:02 am
Location: Plano, Illinois

Post by JrWho »

This would look terrible in the menu bar. There's no reason for the devs to work so hard (I'm assuming that it would be pretty hard to turn an app into a fully functional menu bar item) on something so little.
hohesC
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:02 pm

Post by hohesC »

This would look terrible in the menu bar.
sorry. why?
it only has to be a little icon to pop up the main window of transmission by clicking this icon.
the same behavior like the icon in the dock. one click on the icon and the main window of transmission appears. one click on the red window-button and it hides.
nothing more.
JrWho
Posts: 104
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 2:02 am
Location: Plano, Illinois

Post by JrWho »

hohesC wrote:sorry. why?
it only has to be a little icon to pop up the main window of transmission by clicking this icon.
the same behavior like the icon in the dock. one click on the icon and the main window of transmission appears. one click on the red window-button and it hides.
nothing more.
I meant the drop-down menu for it would look bad (since it would be big.) I've never heard of a menu bar icon used that way. Wouldn't that function just waste space?
hohesC
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 1:02 pm

Post by hohesC »

I meant the drop-down menu
there has no dropdown menu to be (for me)
who said anything in this way?

and why should this be a waste of space?
a waste of space in my eyes is an icon in the dock, that is nearly never used.

skype is also a good example for that. if i had the opportunity to disable the dock-icon for skype, i would do so, because i reach my skype-window from the menubar. thats all i need.
pope52
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2008 8:51 pm

Post by pope52 »

hohesC wrote:
This would look terrible in the menu bar.
sorry. why?
it only has to be a little icon to pop up the main window of transmission by clicking this icon.
the same behavior like the icon in the dock. one click on the icon and the main window of transmission appears. one click on the red window-button and it hides.
nothing more.
I support this idea, insofar as it is relatively simple. The menubar item need not display more information than the dock item:

X Seeding
Pause All
Resume All
Speed Limit
-----
Toggle Client (Shows/Hides the actual client)

This would be a great boon for those who leave torrents seeding in the background for days on end. I appreciate your efforts.
Jethryn Freyman
Posts: 695
Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2007 6:11 am
Location: Australia

Post by Jethryn Freyman »

A place in the menu bar is usually given to utilities that are frequently used to interact with the main components of the computer and operating system (e.g. displays, Airport, Time Machine, battery charge.)

Like livings said, it's not going to happen.
clintobean14
Posts: 59
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2007 5:51 pm

Post by clintobean14 »

I think it would go very well with this program just like Transmission does in Ubuntu. Why does it have a menubar icon in gtk but not in OS X?
franktinsley
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Sep 14, 2008 7:01 pm

Re: Stay in menu bar not dock?

Post by franktinsley »

I would like to also request this feature. OpenDNS started doing the same thing with their IP updating app and I much prefer it that way. I really enjoy that apps I almost never have to directly interact with be in the menu bar and not large icons on my dock. Thanks guys! =D
booshtukka
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:24 pm

Re: Stay in menu bar not dock?

Post by booshtukka »

Another request for this.

For people who are saying it would look bad, or is inappropriate UI - then don't use it! A computer experience is highly subjective, and that is how I personally want to use my computer. You can use yours however you like :)

An option to have it show in the dock, or run as a background application with a menubar icon is not that weird, and exactly what I want. The way something like Bluephone Elite works is perfect.

@hohesC: If you edit the info.plist in the package contents of an application, and add:

<key>LSUIElement</key>
<string>true</string>

...it disables the dock icon.
elictricocean
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:35 am

Re: Stay in menu bar not dock?

Post by elictricocean »

first, that LSUIElement wont work if the app is code signed

second, if you really want it, check this out: http://apphider.googlecode.com/ still in beta though and a new version should come out soon

-elictricocean
booshtukka
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:24 pm

Re: Stay in menu bar not dock?

Post by booshtukka »

That app looks like it might be really good. Obviously, inbuilt support would be better - but app hider looks like the start of something great. Now, if I could just get access to minimised apps somehow, I could do away with the dock altogether!

Thanks elictricocean.
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