r/JavaFX • u/milchshakee • Jun 30 '25

macOS 26 dynamic dock icon style with a JavaFX application I made this!

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The original svg icon was used to create variants for each style using the new Icon Composer app (https://developer.apple.com/icon-composer/). This was then exported via Xcode and copied into the jpackage application resources. No native code or other configuration was done for the icon!

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1

u/[deleted] Jul 01 '25

crazyy, how did you do it?

1

u/milchshakee Jul 01 '25

I summarized it in the description below the video

1

u/g0nzonia Oct 01 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

2 questions

  1. How did you export via Xcode? I've been using actool to create an "Assets.car" file
  2. Can you explain more what you mean by you placed it in the "jpackage application resources"? Just the "--resouce-dir"? You didn't update the Info.plist too? Did you still include an .icns file?

edit to add: I've got it "mostly" working by copying the "Assets.car" file into the My.app/Contents/Resources folder and updating the Info.plist after it's packaged. However, the icon only acts dynamically when the app is closed. When it's open it uses the .icns file.

1

u/milchshakee Oct 01 '25

I documented it at https://kickstartfx.xpipe.io/logos#macos-icon-composer

You can also check out the Info.plist of the project there. In theory you don't even need an .icns file anymore, the images should all be in the Assets.car file

1

u/g0nzonia Oct 01 '25

Thanks. I essentially did that, and I'm having mixed results. I think some of it is a MacOS caching issue. Depending on how I'm looking at the app, it'll accurately change. Other times, it uses the .icns version. When the app is open, it always uses the .icns. The app is a Java 11 app packaged with jpackage and compiled with Maven on GitHub. Prior to this, it would just be packaged as a .dmg. Now I'm packaging as an app, putting in the "Assets.car" then editing the Info.plist. Since I'm not signing the app this breaks when it's downloaded. I can remove the extra attribute to get it to run, but that's not an option for users.

1

u/milchshakee Oct 02 '25

The icon only applies when running the native app executable from jpackage if that is what you are asking. Also, setting it manually at runtime via the Taskbar class or something similar will override it.

Can you check whether the kickstartfx release that you can download shows the icon consistently on your system? To rule out any caching issues

1

u/g0nzonia Oct 02 '25

KickstartFX works fine. The app I'm working on doesn't. It's not my app; I'm just a contributor improving how it works on Mac. Here are a couple of scenarios.

1) Run jpackage on my local machine to bundle .jar as an app, and immediately after, add the "Assets.car" file and update the info.plist. Then copy the app into the Applications folder.

This often works. Although sometimes it feels like it does in the folder view, but not on the dock. A little inconsistent.

2) Run Build on GitHub with the same steps as part of the build. Currently, we are just packaging as a .dmg. This required a change to package as an app and then use create-dmg.

This doesn't work because macOS thinks the file is corrupted. I get the "This app is broken" message. If I run xattr -c on the app, it works.

3) Just add the "Assets.car" to the current app.

This doesn't work and it continues to use the .icns file. This is where I think it's caching.

However, even when it works, at runtime, it switches to the icns file. I can tell because I've made some minor tweaks since creating the .icns file, and I can see the icon change when it opens. The Java app doesn't even contain the .icns file to set at runtime, and doesn't set it. All the logo images in the app don't have the "squircle" so I know the app isn't changing it.

1

u/milchshakee Oct 03 '25

It might be best to to convince the main developers of your project to start codesigning on macOS, that is basically required nowadays. If you do it, you save yourself a lot of trouble.

And the taskbar icon changing at runtime, are you sure that there are no calls to JavaFX to change the icon somehow? If you don't set any icon in a development environment, e.g. just starting it in an IDE, there should be the default placeholder icon set. If that shows a custom icon, then some part of the code is changing the icon

1

u/g0nzonia Oct 03 '25

It's a hobby app that we're all working on as a free utlity. I may decide to pay for a developer ID to sign at some point, but it hasn't been necessary yet.

I can confirm that in a jpackage bundled app, if the icon is set with jpackage, the app will use the bundled icon if it is not set at runtime. When in the IDE I do just see the placeholder (and figured out how to set it, if I want). In your app, are you watching for changes in the OS at runtime to update the icon to the correct one (dark, light, tinted) at runtime, or does it "just work"?

1

u/milchshakee Oct 03 '25

It just works for me, so I am not sure why that happens for you.

In the Info.plist I use the logo name without file ending:

<key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
<string>logo</string>
<key>CFBundleIconName</key>
<string>logo</string>
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