go-touchbar

go-touchbar

Go library to integrate the MacBook Touch Bar

Installation

go get github.com/LouisBrunner/go-touchbar

Usage

// Setup your window code (including NSApplication/NSWindow on macOS)

tb := touchbar.New(touchbar.Options{})

err := tb.Install(Configuration: touchbar.Configuration{
  // Add your configuration here
})
if err != nil {
  // handle
}

// run your application

// when you want to update the touchbar (even from another routine), call do
err = tb.Update(Configuration: touchbar.Configuration{
  // Add your updated configuration here
})
if err != nil {
  // handle
}

err = tb.Uninstall()
if err != nil {
  // handle
}

Configuration

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/7120871/197391736-450bef36-4dd6-4c79-8ae7-3bd68a932eec.mp4

See example application for a real-life example.

Note: most of the widgets are direct translations of the one in Apple's documentation and have similar options. Please refer to the official documentation for more details.

You configure this library by specifying a list of items from the following options:

• Button: a button that can be clicked (has an event handler)
• NOT IMPLEMENTED Candidates: a list of text options, allows to give custom recommendations for the current text field
• NOT IMPLEMENTED ColorPicker: used to choose a color (has an event handler)
• NOT IMPLEMENTED Custom: can render anything you want, feedback any touch with a X position (has an event handler)
• NOT IMPLEMENTED Group: used to group other items
• Label: allows to display text and images
• NOT IMPLEMENTED Picker: used to pick one or more options from a list of choices, equivalent to radio/checkbox buttons (has an event handler)
• Popover: a button which shows more options when clicked, equivalent to a modal or collapse widget
• NOT IMPLEMENTED Scrubber: allows to select items from a list, which supports scrolling (has an event handler)
• NOT IMPLEMENTED SegmentedControl: shows multiple buttons grouped together, similar to Picker (has an event handler)
• NOT IMPLEMENTED Sharer: allows to share using the standard macOS sharing system
• Slider: a slider used to pick value in a range (has an event handler)
• NOT IMPLEMENTED Stepper: a control to pick a value in a range through increments (has an event handler)

But also from this list of standard Apple widgets which have no customizable options:

• OtherItemsProxy: where to display other Touch Bar closer to the first responder
• SpaceSmall: a small space
• SpaceLarge: a bigger space
• SpaceFlexible: a space that grows as much as possible

Further work

Check TODO/FIXME as well

• (!!!) Finish implementing widgets

• Allow user customization (customizationLabel, templateItems, etc)

• Layout constraints (e.g. sizing)

• More options for widgets:

  • Color-picker
  • Custom
  • Popover

• Support standard/UI colors

• Support custom images

• Better validation in Go (validator on the structs?)

• A few random crashes: signal arrived during cgo execution and [touchBar itemIdentifiers] was mutated while items array was being built (in [WindowController setupTouchBar])

Acknowledgements

This library's API was influenced by Electron's.

The demo application is a reimplementation of electron-touch-bar.

The catalog was influenced by Apple's, which also helped with the Objective-C part of the implementation.