Starting with Xojo 2025r3, macOS apps are built using macOS SDK 26. One benefit of this is that your apps automatically gain access to newer native macOS features with little or no extra work. In some cases, these features are available immediately; in others, they can be enabled with a simple Declare. One such example is allowing users to customize an app’s toolbar.
To demonstrate this, we’ll use the Desktop Toolbar example project that ships with Xojo. You can find it in the Examples section of the New Project window. Open this project using the Xojo 2025r3 IDE.
Once the project is open, locate the MainWindow in the Project Browser. Under MainWindow, select the WindowToolbar item and then choose its Opening event. At the top of the Code Editor for this event, add the following lines of code:
Var hdl As Ptr = Me.Handle
If hdl.Integer <> 0 Then
Declare Sub AllowCustomization Lib "AppKit" Selector "setAllowsUserCustomization:" (hdl As Ptr, value As Boolean)
AllowCustomization(hdl, True)
End IfIt’s that simple!
Run the app and open the contextual menu by right-clicking (or Control-clicking) on the window’s toolbar. You’ll see a new Customize Toolbar menu item. Select it to open the standard macOS toolbar customization panel, where you can rearrange or remove items as you like. When you click OK, your changes are immediately applied to the current toolbar.
One important caveat: these customizations are not preserved between app launches. This happens because each toolbar must have a unique identifier that macOS uses to save and restore its configuration. Since the example toolbar does not provide one, the OS has nothing to store or retrieve. But… who knows what the future holds?
Javier Menendez is an engineer at Xojo and has been using Xojo since 1998. He lives in Castellón, Spain and hosts regular Xojo hangouts en español. Ask Javier questions on Twitter at @XojoES or on the Xojo Forum.