FB9052637: NSStatusItem position is not perserved when using `.isVisible`

[sindresorhus]

• Date: 2021-03-24
• Resolution: Open
• Area: AppKit
• OS: macOS 11.2.3
• Type: Incorrect/Unexpected Behavior

Description

The docs for NSStatusItem#isVisible says:

The status item’s visiblity persists and restores automatically based on the value of autosaveName.

This however does not work. If you move the status bar item in the menu bar with Command+drag, then set .isVisible = false and then later .isVisible = true, the status bar item appears at the far left of the status bar instead of its previous position. This is clearly not the intended behavior.

Steps to reproduce:

• Open the attached test case project.
• Build and run.
• Command-drag the menu bar item to the far right of the menu bar.
• Click it to hide it.
• Wait 2 seconds.
• The menu bar item will reappear, but it will have lost its position.

The only way to ensure the position is preserved is to relaunch the app right after changing the position in the menu bar, which is not ideal.

Files

Test case project.zip

[curthard89]

My observations on this

Removing the item from the status bar, or simply making it .isVisible = false will remove the "NSStatusItem Preferred Position auto-save-name-here" from the defaults. This is where the problem lies, next time its added back into the bar, it simply has no position as its been removed.

Work around

1. When setting .isVisible = false, or removing the item from the bar, grab the current position from user defaults
2. Make sure we observe the user defaults for that specific key, as the OS will set it to null
3. Once the OS sets it to null, our observer can now just write back the last known value we got from step 1
4. Adding the item back in or setting .isVisible = true will now maintain correct position

[curthard89]

Workaround code for this:

https://gist.github.com/curthard89/884d5616850c295380b5a5bd6f4c3684

usage: StatusBarController.system.statusItem(autosaveName: "some-name", width: NSStatusItem.variableLength)

the controller will take care of keeping the preference, note the autosaveName is required and only way to get around this issue.

[qwertyyb]

Workaround code for this:

https://gist.github.com/curthard89/884d5616850c295380b5a5bd6f4c3684

usage: StatusBarController.system.statusItem(autosaveName: "some-name", width: NSStatusItem.variableLength)

the controller will take care of keeping the preference, note the autosaveName is required and only way to get around this issue.

works fine for me，thanks a lot