Single click on notifyicon menu item produces two events

[starrysky]

I have a program which puts an icon in the notification area and has a menu associated with it available by right clicking on the icon. I want the menu items to be selected by single left clicks but I also want the user to be able to single left click on the icon itself to do some other functionality.

Here's the problem - the single click on the menu first fires the notifyicon1_click() routine and then the menuitem1_click() routine. How do I know in the notifyicon1_click() whether it has been called from a menu click or a click on the icon itself?

the following piece of test code duplicates the problem

Imports System
Imports System.Drawing
Imports System.Windows.Forms
 
Public NotInheritable Class Form1
    Inherits System.Windows.Forms.Form
 
    Private contextMenu1 As System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu
    Friend WithEvents menuItem1 As System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem
    Friend WithEvents notifyIcon1 As System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon
    Private components1 As System.ComponentModel.IContainer
 
    <System.STAThread()> _
    Public Shared Sub Main()
        System.Windows.Forms.Application.Run(New Form1)
    End Sub 'Main
 
    Public Sub New()
 
        Me.components = New System.ComponentModel.Container
        Me.contextMenu1 = New System.Windows.Forms.ContextMenu
        Me.menuItem1 = New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem
 
        ' Initialize contextMenu1
        Me.contextMenu1.MenuItems.AddRange(New System.Windows.Forms.MenuItem() _
                            {Me.menuItem1})
 
        ' Initialize menuItem1
        Me.menuItem1.Index = 0
        Me.menuItem1.Text = "E&xit"
 
        ' Set up how the form should be displayed.
        Me.ClientSize = New System.Drawing.Size(292, 266)
        Me.Text = "Notify Icon Example"
 
        ' Create the NotifyIcon.
        Me.notifyIcon1 = New System.Windows.Forms.NotifyIcon(Me.components)
 
        ' The Icon property sets the icon that will appear
        ' in the systray for this application.
        notifyIcon1.Icon = New Icon("myicon.ico")
 
        ' The ContextMenu property sets the menu that will
        ' appear when the systray icon is right clicked.
        notifyIcon1.ContextMenu = Me.contextMenu1
 
        ' The Text property sets the text that will be displayed,
        ' in a tooltip, when the mouse hovers over the systray icon.
        notifyIcon1.Text = "Form1 (NotifyIcon example)"
        notifyIcon1.Visible = True
 
        notifyIcon1.BalloonTipIcon = ToolTipIcon.Info
        notifyIcon1.BalloonTipTitle = " this is the balloon title "
        notifyIcon1.BalloonTipText = " this is the ballon tip text "
        notifyIcon1.ShowBalloonTip(30)
 
    End Sub 'New
 
 
 
    Private Sub notifyIcon1_Click(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles notifyIcon1.Click
 
        ' Show the form when the user double clicks on the notify icon.
 
        ' Set the WindowState to normal if the form is minimized.
        If (Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized) Then _
            Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal
 
        ' Activate the form.
        Me.Activate()
    End Sub
 
    Private Sub menuItem1_Click(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles menuItem1.Click
 
        ' Close the form, which closes the application.
        Me.Close()
    End Sub
 
 End Class 'Form1

[tlhintoq]

TIP: When you are writing your question, there is a button on the tool bar that wraps the [code] tags around your copy/pasted code. It helps a bunch. Its the button with a '#' on it. More on tags. They're cool. Check'em out.

[tlhintoq]

How do I know in the notifyicon1_click() whether it has been called from a menu click or a click on the icon itself?

Would it be simpler to just not use the menuitem1_click for anything else?

[starrysky]

Thanks for responding.

The code snippet I submitted was just an example that will illustrate the problem, it is not the application I am working on. That application needs an icon with a menu containing several menu items and to do something different when there is a single click on the icon itself. I want it to behave like most other icons in the windows notification area
eg the volume control icon

• single click on icon - produces the slider
• right click on icon - produces menu
• single click on menu - selects option (eg open volume mixer)

Most vb.net source examples I have seen on the internet get round the problem by using a doubleClick event to identify the icon click. But I dont want the user having to do something different for my icon when all other icons in the notification area respond to single clicks

Any ideas?

[tlhintoq]

Here's the problem - the single click on the menu first fires the notifyicon1_click() routine and then the menuitem1_click() routine.

You've already described the problem. You do realize that THIS is the problem, right? Clicking on the menu should NOT also fire the first menu item. That would be like Clicking on "File" also automatically fires "Open..."

The code snippet I submitted was just an example that will illustrate the problem

I suspect that the actual application has a logic/flow problem that causes the method for "MenuItem1" to be executed.

[starrysky]

I think we are at cross-purposes so to be clear ( humour me ) :

It is my understanding that a single click on the menu item ( menuitem1 in the above test code ) should only produce a single click event for the menuitem and not a click event for anything else. eg in the test code supplied above clicking the "Exit" menu item should fire menuitem1_click() and nothing else.

What is happening ( and I dont want it to happen, it is the problem ) is that notifyicon1_click() event fires as well

If you agree with all that :

The solutions I see are either:
1/ stop noitfyIcon1_click() firing
2/ or determine from inside noitfyIcon1_click() if the routine was called by clicking the "Exit" menu item or clicking the icon itself. If it was by clicking the menu item then I wish to immediately exit the noitfyIcon1_click() routine without doing anything.

If there is logic problem then the logic problem exists in the supplied test code above also, as it exhibits the same problem. Please examine it and let me know.

[tlhintoq]

Maybe this helps...
.Click will fire if you ...

• Click it once with the left mouse button
• Click it once with the right mouse button... also opening the context menu
• Double click... Cause the click to fire twice and the .DoubleClick to fire once

If you want to have a behavior for .Click that ignores if the context menu was opened then I suggest your NotifyIcon.Click handler should check if the right mouse button is down. (or if the ContextMenuStrip is opening)

Personally I think it is far easier to ignore the .Click event because it gets fired too often. Either react to menu choices or .DoubleClick

Use the .Click to do something like... dynamically remove menu options based on criteria before the context menu is drawn.

[starrysky]

My investigations have not resulted in a way of detecting if menu is up when the
notifyicon_click() fires ( not sure it would be up at that point anyway ie. following a menuitem click) nor a way of determining if the mouse is over the icon at the time of the click ( and this may not always be reliable as it could be over it even after a menuitem click anyway ).

However I have used a timer to wait to see if a menuitem click follows the notifyicon click, if not then I take it as a pukka click on the icon itself. This relies on the notificationicon click firing before a menuitem click. But it seems to work well. See snippet below - I will use this unless someone comes up with the 'proper way' to get this single click functionality.

   Private Sub notifyIcon1_Click(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles notifyIcon1.Click
 
        Timer_wait_for_menu_click.Interval = 300
        Timer_wait_for_menu_click.Start()
 
    End Sub
 
    ''' <summary>
    ''' If this timer event occurs then we take it that the notifyicon1_click event  was for a single click on the icon
    ''' and not a menuitem click 
    ''' </summary>
    ''' <param name="sender"></param>
    ''' <param name="e"></param>
    ''' <remarks></remarks>
    Private Sub Timer_wait_for_menu_click_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer_wait_for_menu_click.Tick
 
        Timer_wait_for_menu_click.Stop()  
 
        do_notifyIcon1_Click()
 
    End Sub
 
    ''' <summary>
    ''' We have determined that the  icon has been clicked
     ''' </summary>
    ''' <remarks></remarks>
    Private Sub do_notifyIcon1_Click()
 
        ' do the click icon functionality here
 
   End sub
 
   Private Sub menuItem1_Click(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles menuItem1.Click
 
        Timer_wait_for_menu_click.Stop()  ' got a menu click - so prevent responding to icon click event
 
        ' Close the form, which closes the application.
        Me.Close()
    End Sub

[starrysky]

All problems solved when I discovered the ContextMenuStrip and used that instead of the ContextMenu control

Case closed!