[Solved] standalone Gtk dialog: how to keep it above other windows?

Question

i'm building a zenity-like program ( http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=71453 )
For some reason my WM (wmii) always treats it as a "full window" unlike zenity which is a small popup.
I want to have it behave like zenity.  I studied the zenity source code but they use Glade which makes it hard to grasp.
i also made a test program to try out a variety of options, but all my attempts failed.
The attempts that need the root window failed because I couldn't figure out the correct way to get the root window. (apparently GDK_ROOT_PARENT(); does not work. I get glib assertion errors)
#include <gtk/gtk.h>
int main( int argc, char *argv[])
GtkWidget *window;
gtk_init(&argc, &argv);
GtkWidget * root = (GtkWidget *) GDK_ROOT_PARENT();
/* this is supposed to call gtk_window_set_type_hint() automatically
GtkWidget *dialog = gtk_dialog_new_with_buttons ("My dialog",
(GtkWindow *) root,
GTK_DIALOG_MODAL,
"title");
window = gtk_dialog_new();
gtk_window_set_transient_for ((GtkWindow *)window, (GtkWindow *)root);
gtk_window_set_keep_above ( (GtkWindow *) window, TRUE);
//gtk_window_set_type_hint (GTK_WINDOW (window), GDK_WINDOW_TYPE_HINT_DIALOG);
//gtk_window_set_title(GTK_WINDOW(window), "Center");
// gtk_window_set_default_size(GTK_WINDOW(window), 230, 150);
// gtk_window_set_position(GTK_WINDOW(window), GTK_WIN_POS_CENTER);
gtk_widget_show(window);
g_signal_connect_swapped(G_OBJECT(window), "destroy",
G_CALLBACK(gtk_main_quit), NULL);
gtk_main();
return 0;
Last edited by Dieter@be (2009-05-13 19:17:20)

Answer 1

a more complete example, also demonstrates how you can add your own stuff to the dialog
#include <gtk/gtk.h>
void on_response (GtkDialog *dialog, gint response, gpointer data);
int main(int argc, char **argv)
GtkWidget *dialog, *content, *label, *box, *image;
gtk_init(&argc, &argv);
dialog = gtk_dialog_new();
gtk_window_set_title(GTK_WINDOW(dialog), "Center");
gtk_window_set_default_size(GTK_WINDOW(dialog), 230, 150);
gtk_window_set_position(GTK_WINDOW(dialog), GTK_WIN_POS_CENTER);
gtk_window_set_keep_above(GTK_WINDOW(dialog), TRUE);
gtk_window_set_skip_pager_hint(GTK_WINDOW(dialog), TRUE);
gtk_window_set_skip_taskbar_hint(GTK_WINDOW(dialog), TRUE);
gtk_dialog_add_button(GTK_DIALOG(dialog), "title", GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT);
gtk_dialog_add_button(GTK_DIALOG(dialog), "(11) Ok", 11);
/* the vbox that holds the content_area */
content = gtk_dialog_get_content_area(GTK_DIALOG(dialog));
box = gtk_hbox_new(FALSE, 0);
label = gtk_label_new("Hello, World!");
image = gtk_image_new_from_stock(GTK_STOCK_DIALOG_INFO, GTK_ICON_SIZE_DIALOG);
gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(box), image);
gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(box), label);
gtk_container_add(GTK_CONTAINER(content), box);
/* emitted when the window is closed */
g_signal_connect(G_OBJECT(dialog), "delete-event", G_CALLBACK(gtk_main_quit), NULL);
/* emitted when a button is clicked */
g_signal_connect(G_OBJECT(dialog), "response", G_CALLBACK(on_response), NULL);
gtk_widget_show_all(dialog);
gtk_main();
return 0;
void on_response (GtkDialog *dialog, gint response, gpointer data)
GtkWidget *label;
(void)data;
switch (response) {
case GTK_RESPONSE_ACCEPT:
/* what to do when this signal is received */
g_print("you clicked on title\n");
break;
case 11:
gtk_main_quit();
break;
Last edited by kumyco (2009-05-12 21:17:14)