{"id":3010,"date":"2026-05-09T11:47:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csimmons.dev\/blog\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:48:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T15:48:03","slug":"add-items-like-mailpit-or-tailing-logs-to-the-commandbox-tray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csimmons.dev\/blog\/2026\/05\/add-items-like-mailpit-or-tailing-logs-to-the-commandbox-tray\/","title":{"rendered":"Add items (like Mailpit or tailing logs) to the CommandBox Tray"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve always been a fan of the tray that’s available when CommandBox launches. On the Mac, it appears as a menu bar icon in the top menu (first icon below).<\/p>\n

\"CommandBox
CommandBox menu bar icon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It has some very convenient built-in options:<\/p>\n

Servername\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 Stop Server\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 Restart Server\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 Open...\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 Webroot\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 Server Home\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 Site Home\n\u2502   \u2514\u2500\u2500 Server Admin\n\u251c\u2500\u2500 Info\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 Engine: adobe 2023.0.17+330864\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 Webroot: \/Path\/to\/website\/\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 URL: https:\/\/127.0.0.1:8443\n\u2502   \u251c\u2500\u2500 PID: 99999\n\u2502   \u2514\u2500\u2500 Heap: Not set<\/code><\/pre>\n
I frequently need to access\u00a0Mailpit<\/a>\u00a0and various log files as I work through the development process on a current project. This got me wondering if I could add some of my own frequently accessed items to the tray. It turns out you can add quite a few different things.<\/p>\n
Enable the tray<\/h2>\n
First, enable the tray in the\u00a0server.json<\/code>\u00a0file for the site.<\/p>\n
\"trayEnable\": true,<\/code><\/pre>\n
Next, let’s start simple and add a single item to open\u00a0Mailpit<\/a>\u00a0in a browser. The\u00a0trayOptions<\/code>\u00a0setting accepts an array of objects. Each object should contain a label, an action, and one of\u00a0[url, path, command]<\/code>. The label is the text that appears in the tray. The action tells CommandBox what to perform (openbrowser<\/code>,\u00a0openfilesystem<\/code>,\u00a0runAsync<\/code>, etc.). The\u00a0[url, path, command]<\/code>\u00a0values provide the URL of the site, the filesystem path, or the command to execute, respectively.<\/p>\n
Setting the tray options<\/h2>\n
\"trayOptions\": [\n    {\n        \"label\": \"Mailpit Web Interface\",\n        \"action\": \"openbrowser\",\n        \"url\": \"http:\/\/localhost:8025\"\n    }\n]<\/code><\/pre>\n
Let’s dive a little deeper with some other options.<\/p>\n
Add a \u201cdivider\u201d of blank space between CommandBox’s built-in options and the ones we are adding.<\/p>\n
{\n    \"label\": \" \",\n    \"disabled\": true\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
Open a folder on the filesystem.<\/p>\n
{\n    \"label\": \"Open Log Folder\",\n    \"action\": \"openfilesystem\",\n    \"path\": \"${serverinfo.serverHomeDirectory}\/WEB-INF\/cfusion\/logs\"\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
Tail the last 100 lines of\u00a0mailsent.log<\/code>\u00a0(macOS only as written, but adaptable for Linux or Windows<\/strong>).<\/p>\n
{\n    \"label\": \"Tail mailsent.log\",\n    \"action\": \"runAsync\",\n    \"command\": \"tmpfile=$(mktemp -t tail-mailsent).command; printf '#!\/bin\/zsh\\nprintf \\\"\\\\e]0;Tail mailsent.log\\\\a\\\"\\nclear\\ntail -n 100 -f \\\"%s\\\"\\n' '${serverinfo.serverHomeDirectory}\/WEB-INF\/cfusion\/logs\/mailsent.log' > \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; chmod +x \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; open -a Terminal \\\"$tmpfile\\\"\"\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n
Explanation of the tail command<\/a><\/p>\n
Add some icons using emojis.<\/p>\n
\ud83d\udee0 Development Tools\n\ud83d\udcec Mailpit Web Interface\n\ud83d\udcc2 Logs<\/code><\/pre>\n
Putting it all together<\/h2>\n
\"CommandBox
CommandBox tray open<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"trayEnable\": true,\n\"trayOptions\": [\n    {\n        \"label\": \" \",\n        \"disabled\": true\n    },\n    {\n        \"label\": \"\ud83d\udee0 Development Tools\",\n        \"items\": [\n            {\n                \"label\": \"\ud83d\udcec Mailpit Web Interface\",\n                \"action\": \"openbrowser\",\n                \"url\": \"http:\/\/localhost:8025\"\n            },\n            {\n                \"label\": \"\ud83d\udcc2 Logs\",\n                \"items\": [\n                    {\n                        \"label\": \"Open Log Folder\",\n                        \"action\": \"openfilesystem\",\n                        \"path\": \"${serverinfo.serverHomeDirectory}\/WEB-INF\/cfusion\/logs\"\n                    },\n                    {\n                        \"label\": \"Tail application.log\",\n                        \"action\": \"runAsync\",\n                        \"command\": \"tmpfile=$(mktemp -t tail-application).command; printf '#!\/bin\/zsh\\nclear\\ntail -n 100 -f \\\"%s\\\"\\n' '${serverinfo.serverHomeDirectory}\/WEB-INF\/cfusion\/logs\/application.log' > \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; chmod +x \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; open -a Terminal \\\"$tmpfile\\\"\"\n                    },\n                    {\n                        \"label\": \"Tail exception.log\",\n                        \"action\": \"runAsync\",\n                        \"command\": \"tmpfile=$(mktemp -t tail-exception).command; printf '#!\/bin\/zsh\\nclear\\ntail -n 100 -f \\\"%s\\\"\\n' '${serverinfo.serverHomeDirectory}\/WEB-INF\/cfusion\/logs\/exception.log' > \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; chmod +x \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; open -a Terminal \\\"$tmpfile\\\"\"\n                    },\n                    {\n                        \"label\": \"Tail mailsent.log\",\n                        \"action\": \"runAsync\",\n                        \"command\": \"tmpfile=$(mktemp -t tail-mailsent).command; printf '#!\/bin\/zsh\\nprintf \\\"\\\\e]0;Tail mailsent.log\\\\a\\\"\\nclear\\ntail -n 100 -f \\\"%s\\\"\\n' '${serverinfo.serverHomeDirectory}\/WEB-INF\/cfusion\/logs\/mailsent.log' > \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; chmod +x \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; open -a Terminal \\\"$tmpfile\\\"\"\n                    }\n                ]\n            }\n        ]\n    }\n]<\/code><\/pre>\n
Explanation of the tail command<\/h2>\n
This command creates a temporary shell script, makes it executable, and opens it in Terminal.\u00a0Reminder: this version is macOS only as written because it uses\u00a0zsh<\/code>,\u00a0mktemp<\/code>, and\u00a0open -a Terminal<\/code>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\"command\": \"tmpfile=$(mktemp -t tail-mailsent).command; printf '#!\/bin\/zsh\\nprintf \\\"\\\\e]0;Tail mailsent.log\\\\a\\\"\\nclear\\ntail -n 100 -f \\\"%s\\\"\\n' '${serverinfo.serverHomeDirectory}\/WEB-INF\/cfusion\/logs\/mailsent.log' > \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; chmod +x \\\"$tmpfile\\\"; open -a Terminal \\\"$tmpfile\\\"\"<\/code><\/pre>\n
What it does<\/h3>\n