I will be running user-provided scripts via a Mac application and and an extension of the app. The app and extension both belong to the same App Group and individually have the correct entitlements to run scripts.
The Mac app is Sandboxed. According to Apple, any scripts must reside within the Applications Scripts directory: . applicationScriptsDirectory / NSApplicationScriptsDirectory.
The NSUserAppleScriptTask class is intended to run AppleScript scripts from your application. It is intended to execute user-supplied scripts and will execute them outside of the application's sandbox, if any.
If the application is sandboxed, then the script must be in the NSApplicationScriptsDirectory folder. A sandboxed application may read from, but not write to, this folder.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/nsuserapplescripttask
The issue I'm facing is that the Main App and the App Extension resolve to different NSApplicationScriptsDirectories:
let applicationScripts = try! FileManager.default.url(for: .applicationScriptsDirectory, in: .userDomainMask, appropriateFor: nil, create: true)
Different directories:
- ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.company.MainApp
- ~/Library/Application Scripts/com.company.MainAppFinderSync
I want to run the same scripts from both the App and the Extension. It works to launch scripts from each component's own Application Scripts directory, but the scripts are not launched if they reside within the other component's directory.
It is not ideal to maintain a synchronized directory structure, with matching scripts in both locations. It's also difficult to guide the user to put scripts in the correct location, as the main app's Preferences guide cannot open the extension's scripts directory.
App Groups solve this issue for other common app/extension scenarios, such as sharing data through NSUserDefaults:
After you enable app groups, an app extension and its containing app can both use the NSUserDefaults API to share access to user preferences.
https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/General/Conceptual/ExtensibilityPG/ExtensionScenarios.html
Is there any ability to share an Applications Script folder between app and extension that belong to the same App Group?
Related
I have created a wpf app and have been learning how to deploy it as a side loaded windows store app through an appinstaller package.
I now want to launch the app through a shell command with parameters. I did setup a protocol, but it doesnt seem to open the app. to make things worse I do not have permission to see the contents of the windowsApps folder it should be installed in.
can anybody explain how i can launch this app with an argument? Also can anybody explain how the file structure is setup inside the windowsApps folder?
In the end i setup a protocol in the declarataions of my package manifest for my app to allow it to be opened through a url eg myapname:
here is an explanation of how this works
the full uri that is called is passed in the app parameters so i put custom handling in to allow me to pass waht i want in as a querystring
so for example i could call mayapp:?arg1=myvalue or myapp:localhost:80?myarg=myvalue
My application downloads a PDF and stores it in the LocalState folder for my Windows 8 app.
I have a link within the app that I would like to show the PDF when the user clicks it.
I've tried displaying it using ms-appdata:///local/pdfs/filename.pdf in a window.open call and I also tried using the InAppBrowser plugin within cordova with no luck. Additionally, I've tried the following:
var uri = new Windows.Foundation.Uri('ms-appdata:///local/pdfs/filename.pdf');
var file = Windows.Storage.StorageFile.getFileFromApplicationUriAsync(uri);
Windows.System.Launcher.launchFileAsync(file).done();
I know the file exists as I'm getting a file result back. Just not sure how to allow the user to view it.
By design, the local appdata folder on Windows is accessible only to that app, or to full-trust desktop applications (and this is probably true of similar sandboxed locations on other platforms). As a result, a Windows Store app that gets launched with Launcher.launchFileAsync won't be able access that location (nor can a webview process, which is also sandboxed). If a desktop application gets launched, on the other hand, it probably can access the file, but you can't tell ahead of time if that's the case. Bottom line is that local appdata isn't a good location for letting other apps get at the file.
You'll need to save the file in another location that is accessible to other apps. There are two approaches here, both of which will require a little user interaction to select a location, so they can place the PDFs anywhere they want:
Have the user select a save folder for your app, which they can do once. You would invoke the FolderPicker for this purpose, and save the selected folder in the FutureAccessList. This way you can have the user select the save folder, which grants you consent to save there, and by saving it in the FutureAccessList you can retrieve it in subsequent sessions without having to ask the user again. Refer to the File Picker Sample and the File Access Sample for more.
Have the user select a save location for each individual file, using the FilePicker (see the same sample), and you can also use the access cache to save permissions to those individual locations if you need them later.
There might be Cordova plugins that work with these APIs too, but I haven't checked. Either way, once the file is in an accessible location, launching the file should work just fine.
As an alternate solution, you could consider rendering the PDFs directly in your app. Windows has an API for this in Windows.Data.Pdf, with an associated sample. There might be a plugin or other JS libraries that could also work for this.
When we try to delete/uninstall Cocoa .app file ,we directly move the .app file to trash.
This does not ensure the deletion of app user data folder in application support.
The user data lies there hanging. So i wanted to save the user data/ files inside application itself (app->showPacakge contents->somewhere).
If it is not possible! Any ways of clearing app user data folder in application support when user moves app to trash ?
Not a great idea.
The package content is signed. Any modification will be detected by the OS and will prevent launching of the app.
Not to mention the fact that you might not have access to the Applications folder, where most users will keep their app.
if you are using packages for installing your application, then you can have pre-install script, which deletes user data in the application support folder.
I'm trying to delete files inside application folder from my Cocoa application. By enabling Sandbox mode, I'm not able to delete files inside application folder.
This Sandbox mode has some option for enabling Read/Write access to downloads, pictures, movies, music and user selected file.
Before that I enabled Read and Write Access for user selected file and done my deletion using NSOpenPanel. It works fine and deletes files inside application folder but it opens panel every time when I run my app. Here I dont want any user interaction/permission to delete files inside application folder. Is there any solution to delete files with above defined constraints.
You need to use Security-Scoped Bookmarks:
Your app’s access to file-system locations outside of its container—as granted to your app by way of user intent, such as through Powerbox—does not automatically persist across app launches or system restarts. When your app reopens, you have to start over. (The one exception to this is for files open at the time that your app terminates, which remain in your sandbox thanks to the OS X Resume feature).
I have some internal application bundles inside my main application bundle (in Resources). After installing (with Installer), my application is placed in /Applications, but I can't find my "internal" application by their bundle ids.
If I manually go to the /Applications, select my application and navigate to its content in Finder, my "internal" application became visible.
I know that lsregister is responsible to register application bundles, I have this script in my postflight in pkg:
SREGISTER="/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister"
$LSREGISTER "/Applications/MY.app/Contents/Resources/MyMini.app"
But I need administration privileges in my installer, that's why this command is executed by root and does no effect to current user.
Is there any solution for this problem?
Thanks!
You could register your helper apps the first time your main app runs, rather than during installation. You'll need to find them by name and location rather than bundle ID. And instead of using the lsregister tool, you can use the LSRegisterURL function. Remember that an NSURL* can be cast to a CFURLRef by toll-free bridging.
It seems that there is no solution for this. Because I need to run the lsreginster for every user of the system, and newly created users after the installation will not see this helpers app.
The only way is put this application outside the main bundle (in subdirectory of the /Applications for example)