Show Badge on Application Icon in Dock

This article applies to macOS only.

See also: Multiplatform Programming Guide

│ English (en) │

Overview

Badges are used to notify a user of something new in an application. The badge is a counter that appears on the application's dock tile (icon) as a white number on a red circular or oval, depending on the number of digits, background. What the number represents depends on the application - it might be the number of new emails in an email application, new iMessages, unfinished Reminders, missed FaceTime calls, the number of outstanding application updates, etc.

Example code

This example shows you how to implement notification badges in an application.

unit Unit1;

{$mode objfpc}{$H+}
{$modeswitch objectivec2}

interface

uses
  Classes, SysUtils, Forms, Dialogs, StdCtrls,
  CocoaAll;

type

  { TForm1 }

  TForm1 = Class(TForm)
    Button1: TButton;
    Button2: TButton;
    procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
    procedure Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
    procedure FormActivate(Sender: TObject);
  private

  public

  end;

var
  Form1: TForm1;

implementation

{$R *.lfm}

{ TForm1 }

procedure TForm1.FormActivate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  // NSApplication.sharedApplication
  // - Returns the application instance, creating it if it doesn’t exist yet.
  // NSApp
  // - The global variable for the shared application instance.
  NSApp := NSApplication.sharedApplication;
end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  // Display badge text on the dock tile (icon)
  NSApp.dockTile.setBadgeLabel(NSStr('1'));
end;

procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  // Remove badge text from the dock tile (icon)
  NSApp.dockTile.setBadgeLabel(NSStr(''));
end;

end.

See also

• Bounce Application Icon in Dock.

External links

• Apple: NSApplication.