[Newbie question] Login event

[phwoo]

I’m working on extending an extension, and am finding the docs a bit impenetrable on this issue.

The extension I’m working on is a battery time indicator, but it doesn’t seem to display immediately after login. Instead, it requires a mouse-hover and then shows up. Would it be possible (or reasonable) to listen to a login event, or rework the indicator, so that it displays without requiring the mouse hover?

[andyholmes]

Could you show some code? It’s hard to give advice without knowing what you’ve tried.

There is a short example of an extension with a panel indicator on gjs.guide:

const St = imports.gi.St;
const Gio = imports.gi.Gio;

const ExtensionUtils = imports.misc.extensionUtils;
const Me = ExtensionUtils.getCurrentExtension();
const Main = imports.ui.main;
const PanelMenu = imports.ui.panelMenu;


class Extension {
    constructor() {
        this._indicator = null;
    }
    
    enable() {
        log(`enabling ${Me.metadata.name}`);

        let indicatorName = `${Me.metadata.name} Indicator`;
        
        // Create a panel button
        this._indicator = new PanelMenu.Button(0.0, indicatorName, false);
        
        // Add an icon
        let icon = new St.Icon({
            gicon: new Gio.ThemedIcon({name: 'face-laugh-symbolic'}),
            style_class: 'system-status-icon'
        });
        this._indicator.add_child(icon);

        // `Main.panel` is the actual panel you see at the top of the screen,
        // not a class constructor.
        Main.panel.addToStatusArea(indicatorName, this._indicator);
    }
    
    // REMINDER: It's required for extensions to clean up after themselves when
    // they are disabled. This is required for approval during review!
    disable() {
        log(`disabling ${Me.metadata.name}`);

        this._indicator.destroy();
        this._indicator = null;
    }
}


function init() {
    log(`initializing ${Me.metadata.name}`);
    
    return new Extension();
}

[phwoo]

Thanks very much, this pointed me in the right direction. By “a bit impenetrable” I meant that I didn’t even know where to start!

The extension I was working on was lacking an init() function in extension.js, so that couldn’t be called to be properly initialized. Adding this function fixed the issue.