How to install an OSX Automator workflow using „Packages“ installer - macos

I want to use the OSX „Packages“ installer to install an Automator workflow, which uses an Obj-C Automator action.
The workflow had to be installed in the folder „Services", and the Obj-C action in the folder „Automator“, both in the user’s or system library.
Unfortunately, Packages shows only part of the existing file hierarchy:
Finder window:
Packages window:
Particularly Packages does not show the Automator folder, so that I cannot create the required payload.
In the docs I could not find a way to get access to the hidden folders.
Any suggestion how to create such an installer package is welcome.

My guess is that Packages is correctly trying to prevent you from installing something into /System/Library. In general, the contents of /System/Library is part of OS X itself and is managed by Apple. The correct place for user-installed system-wide items is in /Library.

In order to install something in the Library/Automator folder (and others that already exist or not), one has to do the following:
Activate in the Contents pane the Library line
Use the menu command Hierarchy/New Folder. This adds a new folder to Library in the Contents pane.
Rename it Automator.
Activate the new Automator line.
Use the + button to add a payload to the Automator folder.
Please note that the created installer will install the payload in an existing Automator folder. It will not replace an existing Automator folder with a new folder!

Related

Script for setting custom icon in Xcode for non-app MacOS bundle?

How can I set a custom icon (using a .icns file) during a script phase of an Xcode build targeting a non-app bundle?
We are making audio plug-ins, and would like to have our own icons instead of the default ones for our .vst3, .component, and .aaxplugin bundles.
I had some very old script that used to do this, but it relied on the old Rez utility and doing something I don't recall with a specific portion of the resource fork. Now, with bundles, I can't find the script I need to add to insert the icon and make it actually show up.
I have set the CFBundleIconFile string in the plist file to MyIcon.icns, and the script phase copies the MyIcon.icns file to the Contents/Resources folder, but it still does not show up in Finder with our icon. (If I change the plug-in extension to .app, our icon DOES show up, but then I can't change the bundle back to .vst3... it keeps the .app extension once that is set.)

How to create a hosted content package without Xcode?

I was wondering if there is any other way to create a hosted content package for an in-app purchase without using X-Code.
We could use a terminal to do so, and we even don't need to create an in-app purchase using Xcode. Here are the steps.
1- Create a folder, let's call it "zzz"
2- Add your .plist file similar to the .plist file which the in-app purchase project created from Xcode would have generated, make sure to update the version and the product identifier fields.
3- Create a contents folder inside of it, and in the contents folder place your in-app purchase contents.
4- Open your terminal and write
productbuild --content "zzz" "zzz/nameOfPackage.pkg"
so basically after --content you write the full path of your folder, then the full path of where you want you package to be and the name of package.
I used this answer as reference Converting a xcodeproj in-app purchase to a pkg file from terminal (Bash) or how to convert a xcarchive file to a pkg file?
if you're referring to having a content bundle (i.e. a .zip file) with contents pertaining to your app, then yes.
I refer to the App Store Review Guidelines here from Apple themselves: (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/)
IN terms of functionality, if the bundle downloads code in any way or form, your app will be rejected (Apple guidelines 2.7).
That's the main one that's mentions. Other than that, there's the general guidelines mentioned as per their website...

Adding preferences to Mac app

I have created a Mac app, now I want to add a Preferences to this. I looked up and came to know that I need to use NSPreferencePane. I have created a separate Xcode project for this and it will get generate a .prefPane file. On running this it will ask whether to add to system preferences or not and adds it if selected.
How can I bundle my app and preferences together ?
If I package this as a dmg file should I put both .app anf .prefPane file in the dmg file ?
It sounds like you want to magically (or programmatically) copy the preference pane into the right place (~/Library/PreferencePanes or /Library/PreferencePanes).
If you're going to copy it into your user's Preference Pane folder (i.e. ~/Library/PreferencePanes), you should be able to simply copy it from your Application bundle into there.
If you want to copy it into a system-wide Preference Pane folder (i.e. /Library/PreferencePanes), you'll need to write a privileged tool or helper app that gets Administrator priviledges so it can do the copy. Creating these things is not the most trivial of tasks.
If you are not distributing via the Apple App Store, you could use an installer package to install both your application and your preference pane. The newest option from Apple is "productbuild", which is a command line tool. PackageMaker is Apple's older tool for creating installers, and you can get it as part of the Auxillary Tools for Xcode, available from the Downloads section of developer.apple.com, and there are a bunch of other installer-building tools you could use to ship your Preference Pane with your app, such as "Iceberg".
It would be much easier to simply add the preferences interface to the app itself.

Accidently removed "Contextual Menu Items " folder, RightClick not working , How to recover?

I was testing an application called iTrash during which it seems like i have deleted the
"Contextual Menu Items " folder as its no longer present and i can no longer right-click
anywhere on my Snow Leopard. I don't have any backups. Can someone tell me how i can recover
that folder or if i can download the files needed to have in that folder (just the original
ones) to regain the Right-click again?
I managed to get around the problem by reinstalling the 10.6.3 update and also by replacing the Track preference file .plist using an app called Pacifist which allows you to look into MacOSX installation Disk or image and search and extract individual files, in my case the default .plist file for the System Menu Trackpad. glad to see the back of this bizarre predicament.

.app file not get install using package installer

I have created a package installer using Xcode's PackageMaker. I want to install a .app file into the applications folder, but when i am running installer package, it's showing that the software is installed succesfully. When i checked the applications folder, the application i m installing is not there. Can anybody help me to solve this?
While the Installer is still running you can select the Window menu and choose the Installer Log option. In the Installer Log dialog select the 'Show All Logs' from the drop down control. This might help you determine where the Installer put your .app or what happened.
BTW I'm seeing the same thing with a .pkg I have written and would love to hear if you find a solution.
I ended up getting things working with my .pkg by making it install into /Applications/ with the trailing slash. I had previously been just using /Applications. Maybe that works for your package?
The issue is that the installer can upgrade packages even if their not located in /Applications. So if there is an application with the same name or it already exists on your hard drive it will try and install over that. To fix it click on the item your trying to install in the content pane then click on the components tab and make sure the "allow relocation" check box is unchecked. Should work perfect after that

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