Native menu and system tray in Electron and Tauri application

Implementing Native Menu and System Tray in Electron/Tauri Application

Native menu and system tray are elements that integrate the application into the OS environment. Proper implementation makes the app feel "native" on each platform; improper — looks like a web page in a frame.

Electron: Native Menu

Menu in Electron is built from MenuItem objects and set via Menu.setApplicationMenu.

// main/menu.js
const { Menu, app, shell } = require('electron');

function createAppMenu(mainWindow) {
  const isMac = process.platform === 'darwin';

  const template = [
    // macOS: first item is app name
    ...(isMac ? [{
      label: app.name,
      submenu: [
        { role: 'about' },
        { type: 'separator' },
        { role: 'services' },
        { type: 'separator' },
        { role: 'hide' },
        { role: 'hideOthers' },
        { role: 'unhide' },
        { type: 'separator' },
        { role: 'quit' }
      ]
    }] : []),

    {
      label: 'File',
      submenu: [
        {
          label: 'New',
          accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+N',
          click: () => mainWindow.webContents.send('menu:new')
        },
        {
          label: 'Open...',
          accelerator: 'CmdOrCtrl+O',
          click: async () => {
            const { dialog } = require('electron');
            const result = await dialog.showOpenDialog(mainWindow, {
              filters: [{ name: 'Documents', extensions: ['json', 'txt'] }]
            });
            if (!result.canceled) {
              mainWindow.webContents.send('menu:open', result.filePaths[0]);
            }
          }
        },
        { type: 'separator' },
        isMac ? { role: 'close' } : { role: 'quit' }
      ]
    },

    {
      label: 'Edit',
      submenu: [
        { role: 'undo' },
        { role: 'redo' },
        { type: 'separator' },
        { role: 'cut' },
        { role: 'copy' },
        { role: 'paste' },
        { role: 'selectAll' }
      ]
    },

    {
      label: 'View',
      submenu: [
        { role: 'reload' },
        { type: 'separator' },
        { role: 'resetZoom' },
        { role: 'zoomIn' },
        { role: 'zoomOut' },
        { type: 'separator' },
        { role: 'togglefullscreen' }
      ]
    },

    {
      label: 'Help',
      submenu: [
        {
          label: 'Documentation',
          click: () => shell.openExternal('https://docs.your-app.com')
        }
      ]
    }
  ];

  const menu = Menu.buildFromTemplate(template);
  Menu.setApplicationMenu(menu);
}

module.exports = { createAppMenu };

Electron: System Tray

// main/tray.js
const { Tray, Menu, nativeImage, app } = require('electron');
const path = require('path');

let tray = null;

function createTray(mainWindow) {
  const iconPath = process.platform === 'darwin'
    ? path.join(__dirname, '../resources/tray-icon-mac.png')
    : path.join(__dirname, '../resources/tray-icon.png');

  tray = new Tray(nativeImage.createFromPath(iconPath));
  tray.setToolTip('My Application');

  const contextMenu = Menu.buildFromTemplate([
    {
      label: 'Open',
      click: () => {
        mainWindow.show();
        mainWindow.focus();
      }
    },
    { type: 'separator' },
    {
      label: 'Settings',
      click: () => {
        mainWindow.show();
        mainWindow.webContents.send('navigate', '/settings');
      }
    },
    { type: 'separator' },
    {
      label: 'Quit',
      click: () => {
        app.isQuitting = true;
        app.quit();
      }
    }
  ]);

  tray.setContextMenu(contextMenu);

  tray.on('click', () => {
    mainWindow.isVisible() ? mainWindow.hide() : mainWindow.show();
  });

  mainWindow.on('close', (event) => {
    if (!app.isQuitting) {
      event.preventDefault();
      mainWindow.hide();
    }
  });

  return tray;
}

module.exports = { createTray };

On macOS, tray icon must be a "Template image" — PNG 16×16 with dark pixels on transparent background. The system automatically inverts color for light/dark theme.

Tauri: Native Menu

// src-tauri/src/lib.rs
use tauri::menu::{Menu, MenuItem, Submenu, PredefinedMenuItem};

pub fn run() {
    tauri::Builder::default()
        .setup(|app| {
            let handle = app.handle();

            let file_menu = Submenu::with_items(handle, "File", true, &[
                &MenuItem::with_id(handle, "new", "New", true, Some("CmdOrCtrl+N"))?,
                &MenuItem::with_id(handle, "open", "Open...", true, Some("CmdOrCtrl+O"))?,
                &PredefinedMenuItem::separator(handle)?,
                &PredefinedMenuItem::quit(handle, Some("Quit"))?,
            ])?;

            let edit_menu = Submenu::with_items(handle, "Edit", true, &[
                &PredefinedMenuItem::undo(handle, None)?,
                &PredefinedMenuItem::redo(handle, None)?,
                &PredefinedMenuItem::separator(handle)?,
                &PredefinedMenuItem::cut(handle, None)?,
                &PredefinedMenuItem::copy(handle, None)?,
                &PredefinedMenuItem::paste(handle, None)?,
            ])?;

            let menu = Menu::with_items(handle, &[&file_menu, &edit_menu])?;
            app.set_menu(menu)?;

            Ok(())
        })
        .on_menu_event(|app, event| {
            match event.id().as_ref() {
                "new" => { app.emit("menu:new", ()).unwrap(); }
                "open" => { app.emit("menu:open", ()).unwrap(); }
                _ => {}
            }
        })
        .run(tauri::generate_context!())
        .expect("error while running app");
}

Tauri: System Tray

# src-tauri/Cargo.toml
[dependencies]
tauri = { version = "2", features = ["tray-icon"] }

use tauri::tray::{TrayIconBuilder, TrayIconEvent, MouseButton};

fn setup_tray(app: &tauri::App) -> tauri::Result<()> {
    let handle = app.handle();
    let quit = MenuItem::with_id(handle, "quit", "Quit", true, None::<&str>)?;
    let show = MenuItem::with_id(handle, "show", "Show", true, None::<&str>)?;
    let menu = Menu::with_items(handle, &[&show, &PredefinedMenuItem::separator(handle)?, &quit])?;

    TrayIconBuilder::with_id("main-tray")
        .tooltip("My Application")
        .menu(&menu)
        .on_menu_event(|app, event| match event.id().as_ref() {
            "quit" => app.exit(0),
            "show" => {
                if let Some(window) = app.get_webview_window("main") {
                    let _ = window.show();
                    let _ = window.set_focus();
                }
            }
            _ => {}
        })
        .on_tray_icon_event(|tray, event| {
            if let TrayIconEvent::Click { button: MouseButton::Left, .. } = event {
                if let Some(window) = app.get_webview_window("main") {
                    if window.is_visible().unwrap_or(false) {
                        let _ = window.hide();
                    } else {
                        let _ = window.show();
                    }
                }
            }
        })
        .build(app)?;

    Ok(())
}

Tray behavior differs across OS: on macOS left click usually shows menu, on Windows — shows/hides window. Keep this in mind when designing.