You have seen how easy it is to write your own desktop applications using PHP-GTK in the article "Building Your Own Desktop Notepad Application Using PHP-GTK." Once you have learned how to write desktop applications using PHP-GTK, you will be pleased to know that writing system tray applications is just a matter of adding a couple of lines of code. The bulk of your code remains exactly the same!

They create a GtkStatusIcon widget (resulting in a generic file icon in the system tray) and show how to modify the previous Notepad application to respond to being clicked.

If you think building a desktop application such as Notepad is difficult, think again. If you use PHP-GTK, it's almost ridiculously easy. This article will show you how. By the time you're done, you'll have a full cross-platform application in about 100 lines.

You need to already have the latest PHP-GTK version installed and have a basic knowledge of how to make an application before you start. All code is included as well as explanations as to where all of the parts go (including a simple find, time/date output, select all and how to tell if the user has modified the contents of the file).