I am working on a project where I need to call methods on an existing application (my own) and use some of its functionality. For e.g. my application ThunderBolt runs on Mac OS X 10.10. It also provides a dictionary of events that can be called externally through Apple Script or some other way that I don't know yet.
My question is what are the different (and better) ways of interacting with an application programmatically on Mac OSX? If I use something like the following code in Apple Script Editor:
tell application "ThunderBolt"
set open_file to (choose file with prompt "Choose the file you wish to parse")
set theContents to read open_file as data
set retPict to (image convert theContents)
end tell
then it is going to launch ThunderBolt with a splash screen and then call "image convert". This can be done via NSAppleScript but still it would launch the application and call methods/events on it.
Is it possible to somehow create an instance of (or get a pointer to) one of the class inside the application and use that? Something similar to COM or automation on a Windows system?
If you're working on OS X 10.10, you might consider taking a look at JavaScript for Automation (JXA).
With it you can apparently build methods into your app that can be invoked from client scripts written in JS (although I'm not yet familiar with the particulars of how to handle implementation of such a thing on the app side). But many of the apps that ship as part of OS X Yosemite have such APIs built in (e.g. iTunes and Finder).
Here's a great tutorial on JXA written by Alex Guyot: http://www.macstories.net/tutorials/getting-started-with-javascript-for-automation-on-yosemite/
The JXA-Cookbook repo also appears to be a nice resource: https://github.com/dtinth/JXA-Cookbook/wiki
Here's a brief example - this script makes iTunes go back one track. Try it while iTunes is playing (by putting the text into Script Editor, with the language option set to JavaScript, and hitting the Run button):
iTunes = Application('iTunes')
state = iTunes.playerState()
// Console msgs show up in the Messages tab of the bottom view:
console.log("playerState: " + state)
iTunes.backTrack()
Alternatively, you can place the code into a .js file and run it on the command line:
$ osascript itunes-backTrack.js
playerState: playing
The way you specify the 'tell application' is the best way, in my opinion.
What do you do with your app that needs to be called? Maybe some of the functionalities can be done with Applescript? It would simplify things a lot.
Related
I have a Mac OS X project (a game using SDL), and for debugging purposes when not running in xcode, I'd like to open up a terminal window that I can send text to and get line input from the user.
Is there a quick way to do this that doesn't involve creating a custom window (which is slightly problematic since the game uses SDL and I don't directly create windows)?
Opening up the standard OS X terminal would be fine, or even connecting to a separate terminal process and then sending output and reading input would also be OK.
The one criteria is that it needs to work when the application is run outside of xcode, or even on machines that don't have xcode installed.
I've spent the last few hours trying to Google this, but my searches are all returning unhelpful results. I'm clearing not seaching on the right keywords.
Thanks.
Actually every app has ability to interact with console, your just need to run it in a proper way (from a terminal or console)
Locate folder with your application. For XCode you can do it in a "Project Navigator" folder "Products", then for your app in context menu press "Show in Finder". For installed application it probably will be in the folder /Applications/. Let it be, for example, /Applications/MyBigProgramm.app.
Open console or terminal make cd to your app folder /Applications/MyBigProgramm.app/Contents/MacOS
There will be an executable file of your app.
Run it from console. After it stdin and stdout will be linked to your app.
Work with stdin and stdout as you want.
UPD 1
A bit of automation.
Create applescript with the following content:
tell application "Terminal" set currentTab to do script
("/Applications/MyBigProgramm.app/Contents/MacOS/MyBigProgramm")
end tell
Save your applescript either as app or script.
Run your base application ("MyBigProgramm") by starting your applescript.
Work with stdin and stdout as you want within your base application.
Watch output in the terminal, type sth in the terminal as input to your base application.
Is there a way to close running applications in swift? For instance, if the application I create needs to close safari.
Here's a Swift 5 version for closing running applications without using AppleScript (AppleScript is a perfect way but it isn't the only way), Safari is used as the example in this case:
let runningApplications = NSWorkspace.shared.runningApplications
if let safari = runningApplications.first(where: { (application) in
return application.bundleIdentifier == "com.apple.Safari" && application.bundleURL == URL(fileURLWithPath: NSWorkspace.shared.fullPath(forApplication: "Safari")!)
}) {
// option 1
safari.terminate()
// option 2
kill(safari.processIdentifier, SIGTERM)
}
SIGTERM instead of SIGKILL, referencing from here
Of course, make sure you notify the user of this activity since this may cause negative impact on the user-experience (for example, user-generated contents in the targeted application are not saved before terminating)
It is certainly possible via an applescript directly IF:
your app is not running sandboxed (note that if you plan to distribute it via the App Store, your app will be sandboxed)
OR
your app has the necessary entitlements to use applescript: com.apple.security.scripting-targets (apple needs to approve that AND you need to know which apps to target. this isn't a blanket permission)
then
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/60401/how-do-i-create-an-applescript-that-will-quit-an-application-at-a-specific-time
Can you execute an Applescript script from a Swift Application
if you aren't going for App Store complicity anyways, you might also use NSTask directly
scripts / code snippets:
How to force kill another application in cocoa Mac OS X 10.5
Can you execute an Applescript script from a Swift Application
short & sweet: technically yes, 'politically' maybe :D
I am having problems with a little Qt 5.0.1 program under Mac OS X 10.8.
(I have not tested any other platforms yet.)
I am launching an external Mac OS X program with this line of code:
QDesktopServices::openUrl(QUrl::fromLocalFile(fullpath));
Where fullpath contains a path to an application like:
/Users/schube/QTWorkspace/HelloWorld-build-Desktop_Qt_5_0_1_clang_64bit-Debug/HelloWorld.app/Contents/MacOS/../../../Aptus.app
(Aptus.app is a random app I've chosen, could be any app. I placed it in this path for testing purposes).
The application starts correctly but always in background; or at least, behind a Finder window. Really strange!
How can I force the new launched app to be sent to the foreground?
Use QProcess instead, but make sure that rather than using the path to the executable as the object to run, pass it to the open command as an argument. Something like this: -
QString cmd = QString("open %1").arg(fullpath); // may need QUrl::fromLocalFile(fullpath)
QProcess::startDetached(cmd);
Without using 'open', it will also open up behind other applications.
Note that you could also use the execute function, if you want to wait for the program to finish.
Also, with the open command, I think you only need to pass the path to the app bundle, rather than full path to its executable in Contents/MacOS. Either should work.
This might be a feature of the Mac OSX's window manager so that it does not steal focus.
You might need to alter your application to minimize.
I want to make an executable file (not the Mac .app bundle) which when run with a specific option (e.g. -gui) will pop up the gui.
For example, say I'm writing wget. I could do: wget www.google.com and that would print the result to the console, but if I instead do: wget -gui www.google.com that would pop up a gui window with the render of the html.
Is this possible in OS X (it is in windows)?
Note: I mean that the gui code is contained in the executable, calling open on another app is not acceptable.
Simple: Yes
Your second question will be how I guess.
Sometimes people ask me for applications that when launched by the Finder they should behave normal but when started by another process or terminal it should behave different. So, just like firefox, you can start the application the normal way or you can start it with special option.
Another way is creating agents. They are applications but don't appear in the dock and are designed to show interface elements when needed.
If you don't want to use a bundle per se you can just create a (cocoa) command line utility that loads an NSApplication when needed (depending on the command line options).
I want to develop a application like http://orbicule.com/undercover/ or
http://hiddenapp.com/.
I know how I could do that for windows but I have totally no clue, what kind
of approach I would need for mac os x, cocoa/xcode.
Is there anything I should be aware of when building applicatons / background services
with no GUI for mac os x?
The service will post data to the webpage with the usual data like geo location & IP
information about the machine so it should be able to access the internet too.
Please lead me to the right path.
It's fairly straightforward.
Go to:
Information Property List Key Reference
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/general/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Introduction/Introduction.html
in the Launch Services Keys, you will see one called "LSBackgroundOnly" simply define this in your Info.plist and set it to true.
<key>LSBackgroundOnly</key>
<true/>
From the documentation:
LSBackgroundOnly (Boolean - Mac OS X)
specifies whether this application
runs only in the background. If this
key exists and is set to “1”, Launch
Services runs the application in the
background only. You can use this key
to create faceless background
applications. You should also use this
key if your application uses
higher-level frameworks that connect
to the window server, but are not
intended to be visible to users.
Background applications must be
compiled as Mach-O executables. This
option is not available for CFM
applications.
Your application will be a background application.
Give System Startup Programming Topics a read. Create a command line tool project, not a Cocoa Application nor a Cocoa Document-Based application. To provide a GUI to interface with it you'll want to use a separate application (ideally one you don't have to install with the "hidden" app, since you seem not to want it to be easily discoverable).
With the exception of AppKit (UI) stuff, the rest of the basic Cocoa frameworks is still available to you via the command line. This means you'd write the main logic of your app (the non-GUI parts) the same as you would otherwise.