Launch OS X Application Programmatically - xcode

Question

How do I programmatically open an OS X app (.app) that is contained within the app I am building?

Answer 1

The preferred way of doing this on OS X is through the NSWorkspace class, which provides a couple of methods to launch applications. One of them, launchApplicationAtURL:options:configuration:error: allows you to specify a file URL to the application to launch. In addition of not having sandbox problems like the system() and Apple Event solution, it also gives you an easy way to manipulate how the application should be launched, eg. you can specify environment variables to be passed to the application.

Answer 2

Following Code snippet is used to launch an app programmatically:
NSString *path = [[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath] stringByDeletingLastPathComponent];
path = [path stringByAppendingString:#"/MyApp.app"]; // App Path
NSWorkspace *ws=[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace];
NSURL* url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path isDirectory:NO];
[ws launchApplicationAtURL:url
options:NSWorkspaceLaunchWithoutActivation
configuration:nil
error:nil];

Answer 3

You could use an Apple Script.
NSDictionary* errorDict;
NSAppleEventDescriptor* returnDescriptor = NULL;
NSAppleScript* scriptObject;
scriptObject = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:#"try\n
run application \"Macintosh HD:Applications:_Sandbox-AppleScript0.app\"\n
on error number -609 # 'Connection is invalid' error that is spuriously reported # simply ignore\n
end try"];
if (returnDescriptor != NULL) {
// successful execution
if (kAENullEvent != [returnDescriptor descriptorType]) {
// script returned an AppleScript result
if (cAEList == [returnDescriptor descriptorType]) {
// result is a list of other descriptors
}
else {
// coerce the result to the appropriate ObjC type
}
}
}