Register as Login Item with Cocoa? - cocoa

Question

Google gave me: http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/LoginItemsAE/index.html
And I figured there must be a better way than using AppleScript Events.
So I downloaded the Growl sources. They use the exact sources from that Apple developer article.
Is there a better way?
(I refer to Login Items in Accounts in System Preferences, ie. making my program start when the user Logs in, programmatically)

Answer 1

There's an API that's new in Leopard called LSSharedFileList. One of the things it lets you do is view and edit the Login Items list (called Session Login Items in that API).
BTW, I'm the lead developer of Growl. We haven't switched away from AE yet because we still require Tiger, but I'm thinking of dropping that for 1.2 (haven't talked it over with the other developers yet). When we do drop Tiger, we'll drop LoginItemsAE as well, and switch to the Shared File List API.
EDIT from the year 2012: Since 2009, when I originally wrote this answer, Growl has switched to LSSharedFileList and I've left the project.

Answer 2

I stumbled across Ben Clark-Robinson's LaunchAtLoginController. A very elegant solution to a very common problem.

Answer 3

This works on xcode 5.
- (BOOL)isLaunchAtStartup {
// See if the app is currently in LoginItems.
LSSharedFileListItemRef itemRef = [self itemRefInLoginItems];
// Store away that boolean.
BOOL isInList = itemRef != nil;
// Release the reference if it exists.
if (itemRef != nil) CFRelease(itemRef);
return isInList;
}
- (void)toggleLaunchAtStartup {
// Toggle the state.
BOOL shouldBeToggled = ![self isLaunchAtStartup];
// Get the LoginItems list.
LSSharedFileListRef loginItemsRef = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL, kLSSharedFileListSessionLoginItems, NULL);
if (loginItemsRef == nil) return;
if (shouldBeToggled) {
// Add the app to the LoginItems list.
CFURLRef appUrl = (__bridge CFURLRef)[NSURL fileURLWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]];
LSSharedFileListItemRef itemRef = LSSharedFileListInsertItemURL(loginItemsRef, kLSSharedFileListItemLast, NULL, NULL, appUrl, NULL, NULL);
if (itemRef) CFRelease(itemRef);
}
else {
// Remove the app from the LoginItems list.
LSSharedFileListItemRef itemRef = [self itemRefInLoginItems];
LSSharedFileListItemRemove(loginItemsRef,itemRef);
if (itemRef != nil) CFRelease(itemRef);
}
CFRelease(loginItemsRef);
}
- (LSSharedFileListItemRef)itemRefInLoginItems {
LSSharedFileListItemRef res = nil;
// Get the app's URL.
NSURL *bundleURL = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]];
// Get the LoginItems list.
LSSharedFileListRef loginItemsRef = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL, kLSSharedFileListSessionLoginItems, NULL);
if (loginItemsRef == nil) return nil;
// Iterate over the LoginItems.
NSArray *loginItems = (__bridge NSArray *)LSSharedFileListCopySnapshot(loginItemsRef, nil);
for (id item in loginItems) {
LSSharedFileListItemRef itemRef = (__bridge LSSharedFileListItemRef)(item);
CFURLRef itemURLRef;
if (LSSharedFileListItemResolve(itemRef, 0, &itemURLRef, NULL) == noErr) {
// Again, use toll-free bridging.
NSURL *itemURL = (__bridge NSURL *)itemURLRef;
if ([itemURL isEqual:bundleURL]) {
res = itemRef;
break;
}
}
}
// Retain the LoginItem reference.
if (res != nil) CFRetain(res);
CFRelease(loginItemsRef);
CFRelease((__bridge CFTypeRef)(loginItems));
return res;
}

Answer 4

I do this in an app I'm writing:
Check out UKLoginItemRegistry for an easy way to do this pragmatically. Afaik, there is no way in Tiger to do this without Apple Events; in Leopard there's a better way, but if you use UKLoginItemRegistry it really is no problem. Here's the complete code for implementing an "Open at Logon" menu item
+ (bool)isAppSetToRunAtLogon {
int ret = [UKLoginItemRegistry indexForLoginItemWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]];
NSLog(#"login item index = %i", ret);
return (ret >= 0);
}
- (IBAction)toggleOpenAtLogon:(id)sender {
if ([PopupController isAppSetToRunAtLogon]) {
[UKLoginItemRegistry removeLoginItemWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]];
} else {
[UKLoginItemRegistry addLoginItemWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath] hideIt: NO];
}
}

Answer 5

I've refactored some of the answers here to provide a category on NSApplication that provides a launchAtLogin property.
https://gist.github.com/joerick/73670eba228c177bceb3

Answer 6

SMLoginItemSetEnabled is another modern option, see Modern Login Items article by Cory Bohon where he explains that you have to create a helper application whose sole purpose is to launch the main application. There's also a full step by step explanation in SMLoginItemSetEnabled - Start at Login with App Sandboxed on Stack Overflow.

Answer 7

Check here an open source example: https://github.com/invariant/rhpnotifier (LoginItem.m, LoginItem.h)