I would like to be able to build test applications (e.g. the nightly Minefield/Firefox) without Launch Services deciding that they're the best way to open their assigned file types.
Is there a way to hide my ~/src directory from Launch Services, so that Finder won't register applications in that folder?
I don't know of a way to do that hiding, but you can change the bundle ID of your development apps so that they don't get treated as the preferred app for that content type/URI scheme by LaunchServices.
and for Firefox specifically, the answer is: if OS X finds multiple applications that can handle an URL scheme, it will use the app with the highest version number. So, to fake out OS X, you can edit mozilla-central/browser/app/macbuild/Contents/Info.plist.in, and change the CFBundleShortVersionString from
<string>%APP_VERSION%</string>
to
<string>0.%APP_VERSION%</string>
This way, OS X will think the app is, say, version 0.3.2apre1, and it'll prefer the "real" version of Firefox.
A more general solution might be possible. OS X will prefer apps on a local volume to apps on a remote volume, and among local apps, it'll prefer those on the boot volume. So it might be possible to do some type of loopback mount, and keep your source code on a looped-back "volume", which again will lower its priority.
How OS X decides which app to launch for a given document or URL:
Launch Services Programming Guide: Preferred Applications
Related
I was thinking of this today and was wondering what is it on MacOS app that prevent me from running, for example, 5 instances of a specific app?
I was thinking it could be the bundle_id (similar to iOS) but when I copied and renamed the app (to appname_2) edited the bundle_id (to bundle_id_2) for that specific app it didn't launch and instead just put that application in the foreground.
Maybe there's a method that checks the Mac address of the device and only allows one app to run per Mac address.
Due to it being hard to find and info on this online, wondering if it's possible to run multiple versions of an app on my Mac.
I'm pretty sure a virtual machine would work but if I wanted to run 100 instances of that specific app then id run all out of ram and would render my Mac useless for actual work.
The LaunchServices (Finder, NSWorkspace APIs, etc.) on MacOS allow you run one app per user session. Nothing prevents you from launching an app a second time when you don't use Launch Services. (And your assumption is correct that LaunchServices looks at the BundleID to see if the app is already running).
e.g. when you open two Terminal windows and start Mail via (/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/MacOS/Mail) in both you have two Mail instances. open /Applications/Mail.app/ won't work two times because it'll use LaunchServices.
As i am newbie on mac and .dmg for me is a black box. And i don't know is it possible rewrite some files in it like on Windows.
Someone can explain how user can update my app for one click: "There new version available. Do you want to install it now?" - [OK] [Cancel]
A .dmg container is read-only (typically, you can make them writable though). The recommended behaviour with an OS X application is to do one of two things:
Put a note in the .dmg to move the application to Applications (see: Creating nice dmg "installer" for Mac OS X)
Auto-move the Application on first run, however you need to be incredibly explicit to the user about what's happening and where they need to go to load the application in future.
I always go for option 1, it's clear and concise and there's a wealth of other software that go for it so it's understood by most OS X users.
In terms of doing an autoupdate, once it's in the user filesystem you can do it a number of ways. There's the Sparkle Framework, you can build a simple HTTP request service to grab the new .app bundle and copy it into place and then restart. Sparkle is good, well tested and very popular for OS X autoupdating, if you're going cross-platform then build the HTTP service.
I need to write an application that can detect if the "Bing - Get me there" application is installed on the current phone and if so, launch it.
Is this possible? The app would need to do this for other external applications as well, so a generic method or interface for this would be helpful.
Applications run in a sandbox on Windows Phone and there is no way to tell if other applications are installed unless you are writing both of them and you use a method to announce to other applications that you are installed and they know how to read that announcement.
2 approaches to such announcements would be:
Have both (all) apps synchronise with a web server and report which devices they have been installed on. The apps can the query which other apps have been installed on that device.
Have all apps write a file to a location where all apps can access. The only place to do this is the PicturesLibrary so you have to embed the identifier in the name of the image or in its contents and be able to query all images to identify the other installed apps. The user could manually delete any images you create in this way though.
Beware, neither method can tell if the other app has subsequently been uninstalled though so this is far from foolproof.
As far as I know, there's no way to do that.
Applications on Windows Phone run in complete isolation, and can not act with other applications, other than some highly specialized apps (i.e. for playing media).
Our .app download includes a tool (another, smaller, app) with it that we'd like to allow users to run from the "Applications" folder, but we don't want them to have to download more than one file.
Is there a way to include one .app inside another that will result in the OS automatically adding both of them to the Applications folder when the user drags and drops it in there from the dmg file we distribute? Or would we have to use a package that extracts two separate applications?
Thanks for your help.
I don't think that apps bundled inside other apps (i.e. helper apps) would show up in Mac OS X's (Lion) Launch Pad. Much less from the Finder for end-users.
Apple distributes Xcode through the Mac App Store and it has many apps : Xcode, Intruments, Quartz Composer, etc. Perhaps downloading an installer from the Store (as is done with Xcode) would be an option for you.
I realize it's an extra step for the user but I don't see how you can bundle multiple distinct apps in the App Store.
Aside from that, perhaps offer each software as a seperate download. Or revisite if the apps actually do need to be their own islands. Good luck!
To provide application updates in Windows, we can simply download the installer and run it. Applications are installed in %PROGRAMFILES% and shortcuts are placed in various places. Keys and values are added to the registry to provide an entry in the system's Programs list.
To provide application updates in Linux, we can use the system's package manager.
How do you provide application updates in Mac OS X? I think in general you simply drag .app bundles to /Applications? Does the system provide any sort of registry other than "look in /Applications folder"? Should the general flow of updating simply involve downloading an opening a DMG file, prompting the user to drag the new application bundle into /Applications? Will copying an app bundle to a folder delete the existing bundle before copying, or does it act like a normal folder (e.g. add and replace existing files)? I'd just like some general information on how I know go about implementing a 'check for updates' feature consistent with what's expected for a Mac OS X application.
It sounds like you should look into Sparkle.
In my experience as a Mac user (not a Cocoa dev), it's become the de facto standard for self-updating apps, save for a few monoliths like Microsoft Office and Adobe CS.