Once you have created and initially configured a NativeWindow, you need to take into consideration the many other actions and events that occur while using an application. You ll need to manage these events and actions and will frequently need to supply behaviors that adjust to the different window states. For example, when a window is minimized to the task tray, it is often ideal to turn off any processes in your application that may be utilizing system resources.

To minimize, restore, or close a custom-chrome window, you need to create custom buttons or user interface elements to mimic the functionality that is normally provided by an OS window. You can create these controls and access the OS functions for minimizing, restoring, and closing through the NativeWindow object you wish to work with. First, you need to have a NativeWindow object to work with, which would either be the default window created by the WindowedApplication class that you used to create your AIR application, or a window created as shown in Listing 12.5. Once your window is activated, you can minimize it, maximize it, restore it, or close it.

Closing a window doesn t close your application unless you re closing the last window opened by your application.

LISTING 12.5 < xml version= 1.0 encoding= utf-8 > <mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx= http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml layout= absolute > <mx:Button x= 10 y= 10 width= 120 label= minimize enabled= true click= minimize(); /> <mx:Button x= 10 y= 40 width= 120 label= maximize enabled= true click= maximize(); /> <mx:Button x= 10 y= 70 width= 120 label= restore enabled= true click= restore(); /> <mx:Button x= 10 y= 100 width= 120 label= close enabled= true click= close(); /> </mx:WindowedApplication>

The following NativeWindow methods allow you to manage the state of your windows and are demonstrated in Listing 12.6: minimize(); maximize(); restore(); close();

minimize();

This method minimizes a NativeWindow to that taskbar in Windows, or to the dock in Mac OS X. In Linux, the minimized representation of your application window varies depending on the distribution being used, but will most commonly be located in the bottom taskbar that is similar to the Windows taskbar.

maximize();

Maximizing a window sets a window into a full-screen mode so it occupies as large of a space as available on a single screen. This functionality differs slightly across operating systems. In Windows, the screen expands and takes up the available desktop space minus the area where the taskbar is located. In OS X, maximize()generally makes your application the height of the desktop minus the height of the finder bar on top and the dock.

restore();

Restoring a window sets it back to the position and location that it was at before it was maximized or minimized.

close();

The close() method closes a window and, as discussed earlier, terminates a window s run time and removes it from display on the desktop and the taskbar or dock. When closing a window, it is important to remember that the only windows that close are the ones to which close() is being applied. The applications themselves still run until all the application s windows are closed.

LISTING 12.6 var window:NativeWindow = new NativeWindow() window.activate(); // minimizes the window window.minimize(); // maximizes the window window.maximize(); // restores a window to the position it was // found in before minimizing or maximizing window.restore(); // closes the window window.close();

To link these methods to buttons or events, attach listeners to the buttons that call window methods, as shown in Listing 12.6. Attach the listeners in an inline MXML file (using the MXML node attribute click) to create the buttons. The resulting window is shown in Figure 12.9.