lua-taskbarflash

Lua module for Windows that can flash the taskbar icon and/or window of the current console.

local taskbarflash = require('taskbarflash')

-- continuously flash the taskbar icon until the window is focused
taskbarflash()

Building

To build taskbarflash, you'll need to install cmake, some version of Visual Studio, and have a Lua .lib file that can be found by cmake (preferably built with the same compiler you're using to build this module).

Using cmake-gui

• Run cmake-gui
• Browse to the taskbarflash directory and also set the build directory (typically just add /build to the source directory path)
• Click Configure
• Select the Generator and hit Finish
• Hit Generate and then Open Project to open the project in Visual Studio
• Build the project in Visual Studio as normal

Using cmake

Open a command line in the taskbarflash directory and do the following:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
cmake --build . --config Release

If needed, you can specify a generator by doing cmake -G "Visual Studio 14 2015 Win64" .. instead of cmake ..

API Reference

require('taskbarflash') returns a callable table containing functions that allow for more precise control.

taskbarflash([nflashes = 0, flashrate = 0])

Flashes the Lua process' taskbar icon (but not window) nflashes times every flashrate milliseconds, or until the window is focused.

• When nflashes is 0, it will flash indefinitely until the window is focused.
• When flashrate is 0, it will use the default cursor blink rate of the system.

Aliases: taskbarflash.tray, taskbarflash.taskbar

taskbarflash.window([nflashes = 0, flashrate = 0])

Flashes the Lua process' window (but not taskbar icon) nflashes times every flashrate milliseconds, or until the window is focused.

• When nflashes is 0, it will flash indefinitely until the window is focused.
• When flashrate is 0, it will use the default cursor blink rate of the system.

Aliases: taskbarflash.caption

taskbarflash.all([nflashes = 0, flashrate = 0])

Flashes the Lua process' window and taskbar icon nflashes times every flashrate milliseconds, or until the window is focused.

• When nflashes is 0, it will flash indefinitely until the window is focused.
• When flashrate is 0, it will use the default cursor blink rate of the system.

Example usage

local taskbarflash = require('taskbarflash')

taskbarflash() -- flash the taskbar icon indefinitely until the window is focused
taskbarflash(1) -- flash the taskbar icon once and then stop
taskbarflash(5, 100) -- flash the taskbar icon 5 times, once every 100 milliseconds
taskbarflash.tray() -- same as taskbarflash()
taskbarflash.taskbar() -- same as taskbarflash()

taskbarflash.window() -- flash the window indefinitely until it is focused
taskbarflash.window(5, 100) -- flash the window 5 times, once every 100 milliseconds
taskbarflash.caption() -- same as taskbarflash.window()

taskbarflash.all() -- flash both the window and the taskbar icon indefinitely until the window is focused
taskbarflash.all(5, 100) -- flash both the window and the taskbar icon 5 times, once every 100 milliseconds