An idea for a "Toggled App" button -- thoughts?

[mouser]

I was thinking of adding a new kind of command button for launchbars, a "Toggled App" button.

It would work like this:

You set up a button for an application, let's say "Firefox.exe".

When you press the button, LBC would start firefox if it's not already running, or terminate it if it is already running.

We would probably want some kind of option to change the way the button looks based on whether it's running or not.. Like gray out the icon if it's (not) running..

Useful or no? I suppose that, except for the graying out, one could already do this by using a standalone commandline utility to run or terminate another executable based on whether it's already running (that's a nice idea for a little coding snack).

[Ath]

When you press the button, LBC would start firefox if it's not already running, or terminate it if it is already running.

Hm, sounds a bit dangerous. Maybe it should only terminate the instance if it was started from that same button? And start a new instance if it hadn't already started one.

Oh, and dangerous in case I'm running some webapp that requires me to log in, or keep a shopping-cart, that would loose it's session/data when terminated unexpectedly .
Alternatively the button could fire a new instance, then the next press would activate that instance, and a small part of the button could terminate the instance, like the X button on a normal window?

[mouser]

well this wouldn't be the default action, this would only be set up manually by user for certain kinds of apps.  so presumably you wouldn't use it in cases where it could have potential to cause problems.

[Vurbal]

How about instead of just open and close you could assign different options for the right and left mouse buttons when the program is running? One button could bring it to the foreground or minimize it and the other could close it.

That would be great for all kinds of programs you might just want to check periodically and then dismiss without actually exiting.