This is my first Swift app. Most of my coding experience is in C++ and C#, but I’m fairly new at programming.
I made a Terminal app, called PhotoSorter, using Swift. After building it, I pulled the executable out of the product folder in Xcode and ran it. It works great on my own laptop, but when I try to run the executable on another Mac, I get the following error:
“The alias ‘PhotoSorter’ can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found.”
Question: How are you supposed to create a Swift executable in Xcode that can be ran on any other Mac? Ideally, I want something that the end-user can just right-click/double-click to open.
Looking at your question again, I see you're using Xcode. In that case, the best way to distribute your program is to choose "Archive" from the "Product" menu, and when your app is done building, click the "Distribute App" button in the window that appears. Then you can choose your code signature and create a code-signed version of your app (or distribute via the App Store if you're into that sort of thing).
The immediate answer to your question, though, is that you're making an alias instead of copying the file. I assume you've used the mouse to drag and drop out of Xcode's "Products" pseudo-folder. The default action when you do that is to make an alias (which is like a shortcut on Windows). You can override that by holding down the Option key while you drag, but it's better to go the Archive route.
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I am creating an app for Mac OS, but it is being built on Linux. Because of this, I am not able to use tools such as Xcode, and I am not developing in swift. Rather, the .app directory is being put together according to Apple's documentation, and the entrypoint/executable of my app is a shell script.
I need to customize the menu which appears when you right click on the app (either on the dock icon or in Finder). Is there a way to do this, without using cocoa, etc.?
The menu I believe you are referring to is called "Services".
In order to add a menu item there for your application you would create a script to enable including it there. Xcode isn't needed or required, however, you'll need to know at the very least some basic AppleScript or Javascript to accomplish what you want. (see examples from the link)
↳ Mac Automation Scripting Guide
For the next version of a NSDocument-based app, I am revising the document parameters, that is, the values in Info.plist > CFBundleDocumentTypes and UTExportedTypeDeclarations. Specifically, I am changing from a flat NSPersistentDocument to a document package (with the help of BSManagedDocument).
The revised app can create new documents, but they appear in Finder with a generic icon, and when I close such a new document and try to re-open it, -[NSDocumentController openDocumentWithContentsOfURL:display:completionHandler:]fails, creating an error in NSCocoaErrorDomain with code 256, description “newDoc.myExtension” could not be handled because MyApp cannot open files of this type, and failure reason MyApp cannot open files of this type.
I understand that there are several significant parameters CFBundleDocumentTypes and UTExportedTypeDeclarations, and these must all be correct or you get this error. In this case, they are correct. I've confirmed this by comparing the Info.plist in my built product with the Info.plist of a different but similar app that works.
I've also tried calling LSRegisterURL() with inUpdate = true from main(), but that did not help.
What might be wrong? I'm running in macOS 10.12.6, building with macOS 10.13 SDK and Xcode 9.
Apparently the problem is in updating the Launch Services database. I copied the new application, with the revised Info.plist, into /Applications, replacing an old version, then launched this copy once. After these two steps, document icons are now correct when I reopened a Finder window, and upon relaunching my new app, it can now reopen its own new documents without error.
UPDATE: Today (macOS 10.13 Beta 8) I had the same problem, but installing the corrected app into /Applications did not work. However, this time, rebuilding the Launch Services database by running the following command in Terminal, and then relaunching my app, did work:
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain u -domain s -domain l -v
A side effect of the above is that some apps will have generic icons in the dock and cmd-tab application switcher until relaunched.
I think that either Launch Services much prefers apps in /Applications over apps in Xcode's DerivedData folder, even if the latter is the only one currently running, or running apps from Xcode's DerivedData do not register at all, or both.
It seems from the documentation that calling LSRegisterURL() should have had the same effect, but apparently not.
I am not new to programming, but I am new to Swift. I have developed a small app that I have no intention of distributing, I just want to use it for myself. Everything works just as desired in XCode and now I want to deploy that app locally. How can I run my app on my machine without needing to have XCode also running? I just want to see my app in my Applications folder and run it when I want. Does XCode put build files somewhere that I can access them and use outside of XCode?
On the Product menu there is an Archive option. Select that to create an archive of your app.
Xcode should then automatically open the Organiser window with the archive of your app selected.
You'll see a big blue button called Upload to App Store on the right with two smaller buttons below it. The one you want is called Export... Press it and you'll get a pane giving you various export options with different kinds of signing.
The bottom option creates an unsigned .app file which you can put in your Applications directory.
NB As Eric D says, you can just drag the app out of the products directory, but unless you edit the scheme, that will give you a debug build with less optimisation and with asserts activated.
Update for Xcode 11.2
As Bell B. Cooper points out, the process has changed slightly. Now when you archive an app, you get a window listing the apps and a big blue "Distribute" button. Pressing this, gets you a dialog box giving you the various options. Which one you choose depends on what you want to do with the executable. With Catalina, unless it's just for your own use, you probably want to go for one of the options that involves signing the app.
Edit: while this answer still works, it targets old Xcode versions and uses the debug version of your executable. For recent Xcode versions, and for using the release version of your executable, see JeremyP's answer.
Each time you build an OS X application with the current scheme, Xcode automatically populates the "Products" folder with the related app bundle.
You can find this folder in the Project Navigator:
Xcode > Project Navigator > "Products" folder
Your .app is in there and ready to be used and/or copied to the /Applications folder.
I can't seem to get my Today widget (or any extension for that matter) running in the Widget Simulator. The simulator launches and says "Couldn't Open Widget" along with
Failed to find Widget /Users/SomeUser/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/MyApp.app/Contents/PlugIns/MyApp.appex
I looked in Console app and I see this as well:
pkd[299]: ignoring mis-configured plug-in at /Users/SomeUser/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Build/Products/Debug/MyApp.app/Contents/PlugIns/MyApp.appex: plug-ins must be sandboxed
But it is sandboxed in xcode! It's codesigned, sandboxed and the lot. Even if I try and deploy it on a new machine (registered as a developer machine with my developer provisioning profile), the widgets don't even show up in System Preferences.
Any idea what I need to do?
Okay finally found the problem. I was codesigning my app by hand (which had never been a problem before) since I had an intricate set of frameworks the app relied upon, and needed to hand copy them using a Copy / Runscript post-build script. Any way, it seems starting Xcode 7 at least, this no longer works as expected. The app works and codesign says the app has been signed correctly, but clearly something is happening behind the scenes that's breaking the codesignature. I ended up removing all my manual codesigning stuff and simply using Xcode's 'Copy Framework' post build step and checked 'Sign on Copy'. It's now finally working as expected.
I couldn't stop building & codesigning by hand, so I looked into Xcode build logs and found the difference :) in my case, I just added -fapplication-extension to compiler & linker flags, now it works!
Based on strangetimes's answer here a little more detailed answer:
First select your project and then your App Target (not the extension)
Then click on Build Phases, then on the top navigation on Editor,
here select first Add Build Phase and lastly click on Add Copy Files Build Phase.
That's it. Build again using the Widget Simulator and it should work now.
I have a relatively confusing problem: I created several empty Xcode projects and ran the iPhone and iPad emulators just to see what happens and everything is fine, empty, but fine. However, then I decided to actually add some content but when I double click my .xib file nothing happens. The Xcode loses focus, but nothing opens. The Interface Builder simply does not open.
Do I need to start it separately somehow or do I need to download and install it separately or something else altogether?
I had the same problem when i first installed xcode.
What solved it for me was manually starting the Interface Builder once (via spotlight).
After that it worked again by double clicking on the xib file in xcode....
The most common cause of this in my experience is failure to reboot after installing or upgrading Xcode. Xcode gives you the impression that you don't need a reboot, but in practice you do. Have you done this yet?
Try to search for interface builder in Mac OS search bar on the top right of the screen, open it, click on open existing file. Open any xib file once, then it will be automatically detectedd by xCode.