FB11965330: It should be allowed to use OpenWindowAction directly in SwiftUI App struct

[sindresorhus]

• Date: 2023-01-24
• Resolution: Open
• Area: SwiftUI framework
• OS: macOS 13.2
• Type: Incorrect/Unexpected Behavior

Description

Currently, if you try to use it in App, you get a warning: Accessing Environment's value outside of being installed on a View. This will always read the default value and will not update.

The use-cases for needing this are:

• Opening a non-main window at launch. For example, you have a MenuBarExtra and Window and you want to open the Window at launch. The Window could be a welcome screen.
• Opening a window based on an external event. This would allow opening a window based on something outside of the SwiftUi lifecycle.

My specific use-case is to show a custom notification window at certain times. Currently, I have to use an AppKit window for this as it’s not possible to open a Window outside of being in a SwiftUI view, and my app is mixed SwiftUI and AppKit. Another use-case I have is to be able to open a Window from a AppKit style menu bar app (MenuBarExtra is still too limited to use for most use-cases).

The SwiftUI window system is currently only optimized for a perfect future where everything is inside a SwiftUI view lifecycle, but this won’t be reality for most apps for many years.

Alternatively, provide a method to open SwiftUI windows based on their identifier from anywhere, not from the openAction environment value.

Example:

@main
struct AppMain: App {
    @Environment(\.openWindow) private var openWindow

    init() {
        onSomeEvent {
            openWindow(id: "calculators")
        }
    }

    var body: some Scene {
        MenuBarExtra {
            // …
        }
        Window("Calculators", id: "calculators") {
            CalculatorsScreen()
        }
    }
}

[tommcoates]

Totally agree with this need. I have a Document-based MacOS app that also has a Splash-screen startup Window. I need that window to open at startup but it won't unless it is located first in body{} before the DocumentGroup. But if it is first, then other parts of UI (the Cmd-N shortcut on File->New menu) stop working. We either need the ability to control what opens at App startup, or we need the ability to programmatically open windows, as from the AppDelegate, or init(). Currently I can make this work but the system emits the serious looking warning every time the program starts up.

[sindresorhus]

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