I have this Mac application that consists of 2 files:
firstFile.tst
secondFile
I would like to put them in:
~/Library/Audio/MyProg/
~/Library/Application Support/MyProg/
I would also like the installer to look like them fancy DMG installers (like Skype's).
Now, I am a newbie when it comes to Mac but I am willing to learn whatever it takes.
I know the dmg installers are actually drags and drops; does that mean that if my application doesn't consist of a real application (it is a plug in - there's no shortcut to put in the Applications folder) then I can't do it?
I was thinking about calling the icon on the left MyProg and the icon on the right COMP_NAME and that dragging MyProg to COMP_NAME simply put the 2 files I described in the places I described for them.
Is there's any way to achieve this or should I just go with PackageMaker and drop the fancy dmg idea (I really like the fancy installers)?
Thanks.
I've seen several plugins like this that use PackageMaker, but wrap the package in a .dmg (that is, you mount the .dmg and all it has on it is a .pkg file).
Related
Does anyone suggest a freeware tool/script/manual_way of creating Dropbox like DMG -
Need to ask couple of questions --
I want double clicking the Folder-Icon should copy the folder(which would contain installer and uninstaller .app files of my application) into the system's /Applications folder.
Solution -- This has been solved using Applescript and changing icon of that applescript file to the folder-icon(i.e double clicking that script will move our folder(which would be present in a hidden folder) to /Applications.Any suggestions for second and third part?
Is it possible to show hyperlink of actual dropbox.com to actually open it's website?
And how we can customize volume's/Drive icon?
You can find a way to do it by reading this: Packaging a Mac OS X Application Using a DMG » asmaloney.com
I believe you can also use the trick of naming a shellscript file something.command in order to make it double clickable, (but maybe it will open the terminal, -I haven't tried it).
I am writing an app for Maverick.
The app creates a folder under /user/document, named "folder.db".
All the user related files will be in a folder "folder.db".
I would like to associate my app with "folder.db" directly, so that clicking on it would open my app and not the Finder.
How to achieve that?
Note: I tried to play with the UTI settings in xcode but not luck...
First .db is generally used for databases. So probably not a good idea. What you are looking for is a package or bundle in Cocoa terms. In Cocoa you want to look for the fileWrapper methods. Those create package/bundle files that are folders with a special flag bit set to make it act like an opaque file in Finder
You might want to study NSWorkSpace, NSFileManager, NSBundle, NSDocument and NSOpenPanel and NSSavePanel.
Those will get you on the path.
I want to make my application autorun, like using autorun.inf on Windows. I googled and there is one way for me to do that:
"On the Mac side there are many applications you can buy for creating a Finder window that looks a certain way but all these changes can be made within finder. You then will need to copy the DS_Store file to the CD and finder will automatically apply any changes that you have made.
Also using -hfs-openfolder will cause it to open automatically when inserted on the mac."
Can anyone tell me more clearly about that, or is there any other way?
Thanks so much.
According to this page, you should be able to do that with bless:
sudo bless --folder "/Volumes/discName" --openfolder "/Volumes/discName"
The man page confirms that, at least on 10.6.8. I don't have Lion in front of me right now.
OK, this feels like an idiot question, but I'm stuck - I don't know the first thing about AppleScript. I have a .scpt file and I want to double-click it and just have it run, but instead every time I click, it opens up the AppleScript Editor. This feels like it should just be an option on the file, but I'm missing something obvious.
Please help me feel less dumb, thank you.
From the “File” menu, choose “Export”; there’ll be a “File Format” dropdown underneath the file browser. To get a double-clickable application instead of a document, choose “Application”. This will produce a .app bundle like ordinary Mac applications (this will also let you package other resources with your script if you need to). You can choose “Run Only” or not; if you do, then anybody with just the .app won’t be able to edit your script further, since it’ll be compiled. (But if you’re saving a copy as the application, that might be what you want.)
Another option, as per an anonymous user on Ask Different, would be to save/export your file as a “Script” (.scpt) or “Script Bundle” (.scptd), save it in ~/Library/Scripts/, and check “Show Script menu in menu bar” in Script Editor’s preferences.
(If you’re running an old version of OS X, the first version of this answer has the information you’re looking for.)
There's more than one way to do it; i have found this to be the simplest:
In sum, you create an Automator application and place your applescript inside it (easier than it sounds, and it's not a hack either--there's actually a specific Automator action for this). Then when you are finished, you select "File" from the menubar, next "Save As Application", then select a location. Now check there and you'll see the newly-created Automator icon (little white robot holding a grenade launcher).
You can do anything that you would ordinarily do with this application icon--double click to open, drag it to your dock, etc.
Appstorm has created an excellent step-by-step tutorial for building an applescript-embedded automator action. On the page i linked to, the tutorial author has also supplied an Automator script that you can download and use as a template.
While it's certainly not the simplest route, one benefit to running your script from Automator, as doug suggested, is that you can set a hotkey or keyboard shortcut to execute your script if you hide it in an Automator Service (OSX 10.6+). See:
http://blog.fosketts.net/2010/08/09/assign-keyboard-shortcut-applescript-automator-service/
When you save a new script, a menu should appear asking what you want the file name to be, where it will be stored, any tags for it, and what script format you want it to be. There should be 4 scripts formats:
Script
Script Bundle
Application
Text
The script format you want to use would be "Application." This will turn it into a double-click application if its not in the dock.
I'm writing an MacOSX bundled app in GLFW.
When the window pops up, I want it to be on top of all the other windows. I also want it to grab focus (I'm coding in vim, and I type ":make run" -- and I after that, I want to interact with the app).
Question:
1) Is there some API call I can use to make this happen?
2) Is there some configuration I can do in MacOSX to say something like "the program named blah, have it steal focus on startup"?
Thanks!
The cocoa API is [NSWindow makeKeyAndOrderFront:] there's probably something similar you can do from your library.
If you wrap your built executable in a application bundle, then you should be able to open it in the terminal (e.g. via the open command) and the focus will automatically switch to it.
Note that you will probably need to package your application in a bundle anyway.
First, you need to package it because that is what the GLFW FAQ says.
I personally found this to be necessary because, at least in GLFW currently available on github (commit 3e78), atop Mac OS X 10.7.5, the keyboard handling is stolen by the terminal if you don't have the executable sitting in an app bundle.
I witnessed the keyboard-input-stealing behavior occurring even when I manually switched the mouse focus to the window that popped up when I ran the binary. That is, the keystrokes I typed still ended up in the terminal window.
You can test this behavior yourself on your own system by taking one of the example apps for GLFW, like Triangle.app, copy its binary to a different directory, like /tmp/, and then run the binary from there. Here is a demonstration of the distinction I am making.
% pwd
/Users/pnkfelix/Dev/OpenGL/glfw/objdir/examples/Triangle.app/Contents/MacOS
% ./Triangle
(The open command works too:)
% open ../../../Triangle.app
In the above scenarios, hitting ESC with the triangle window focused made it quit, as expected.
However, the problem comes when the program is not sitting in an bundle:
% cp ./Triangle /tmp
% /tmp/Triangle
^[^[^[^[^[^[^
In this scenario, hitting ESC with the triangle window focused passed the keystroke to the terminal window that launched the program. (That is what the ^[ glyphs are -- the terminal responding to the ESC keystrokes it has received.)
The good news is, it is relatively easy to wrap a built executable in a bundle.
For example, when I was doing other experiments with binding the GLFW library, I found the following Makefile rule sufficed for constructing a makeshift bundle from an executable:
test: Triangle.app
open Triangle.app
Triangle.app: Triangle.app/Contents/MacOS/Triangle
Triangle.app/Contents/MacOS/Triangle: triangle
mkdir -p Triangle.app/Contents/MacOS
cp $< $#
(note that the 8-space indented commands above should not be copied verbatim, but rather rewritten as tabs as required for Makefiles).
However, please note that the above Makefile rule is not the official structure for application bundles, and shouldn't be trusted for anything except personal experimentation. Apple has the documentation on how to officially package your application in a bundle, so you should take the time to do whatever steps they describe before you release anything you produce into the wild. (For example, the Makefile rules listed above make no attempt to generate an Info.plist file, which is one of the required components according to Apple's documentation.)