macOS menubar application: main menu not being displayed

Question

I have a statusbar application, which runs in the menu bar. Therefore I set Application is agent (UIElement) to true in the info.plst.

Answer 1

Based on the fix (or workaround) from OP. The key is really to toggle out and back to focus (thanks @Daniel!).

Some small improvements:

No force unwrapping, no need to set ActivationPolicy and call activate twice.

NSApp.setActivationPolicy(.regular)
window.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil)    

NSRunningApplication.runningApplications(withBundleIdentifier: "com.apple.dock").first?.activate(options: [])

OperationQueue.current?.underlyingQueue?.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + .milliseconds(200), execute: {
    NSApp.activate(ignoringOtherApps: true)
})

Answer 2

I tried with apple scripts, which appears working as expected.

Except, after closing by key strokes and then reopening a new window (short time interval), menu will stay selected.

if NSApp.activationPolicy() == .accessory {
    NSApp.setActivationPolicy(.regular)
} else {
    var errorDict: NSDictionary?
    NSAppleScript(source: """
        tell application "Dock" to activate current application
        """)?.executeAndReturnError(&errorDict)
    if errorDict != nil{
        print(errorDict!)
        // error executing apple script
        NSApp.activate(ignoringOtherApps: true)
    }
}

window?.makeKeyAndOrderFront(self)

GIF demo:

Video link

Answer 3

I might found another solution for this (which is still an issue on macOS 10.15). I found a similar issue + solution here. The idea is about to show and hide the menuBar for the current application. I needed to run it 2 different run loops but it worked. Here is the solution:

OperationQueue.main.addOperation {
    NSMenu.setMenuBarVisible(false)
    OperationQueue.main.addOperation {
        NSMenu.setMenuBarVisible(true)
    }
}

Answer 4

This is my workaround solution for now:

As I wrote in the question, if I click on another app and come back to my app, the menubar is being displayed. I am simulating this when I try to show the preference window:

    NSApp.setActivationPolicy(.regular)
    NSApp.activate(ignoringOtherApps: true)
    window.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil)

   if (NSRunningApplication.runningApplications(withBundleIdentifier: "com.apple.dock").first?.activate(options: []))! {
       let deadlineTime = DispatchTime.now() + .milliseconds(200)
       DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: deadlineTime) {                 
       NSApp.setActivationPolicy(.regular)
            NSApp.activate(ignoringOtherApps: true)
       }
   }

This is not a perfect solution. If I don't find a better solution, I will file a bug.