I'm working on something that needs to install files periodically into a folder in /Library.
I understand that in the past I could have used one of the Authenticate methods but those have since been deprecated in 10.7.
What I've understood from my reading so far:
I should create a helper that somehow gets authenticated and have that helper do all of the moving tasks. I've taken a look at some of the sample code, including some involving XPC and one called Elevator but I'm a bit confused.
A lot of it seems to deal with setting up some sort of client / server model but I'm not sure how this would translate into me actually installing my files into the correct directories. Most of the examples are just passing strings.
My question simply: How can I create my folder in /Library programmatically and periodically write files to it while only prompting the user for a password ONCE and never again? I'm really not sure how to approach this and there doesn't seem to be much documentation.
You are correct that there isn't much documentation for this. You'll basically write another app, the helper app, which will get installed with SMJobBless(). Not surprisingly,
the tricky part here is the code signing. The least obvious part for me was that the SMAuthorizedClients and SMPrivilegedExecutables entries in the info plist files of each app are dependent on the identity/certificate that you used to sign the app with. There is also a trick with the compiler/linker to getting the info plist file compiled into the helper tool, which will be a single executable file, rather than a bundle.
Once you get the helper app up and running then you have to devise a way to communicate with it since these are two different processes. XPC is one option, perhaps the easiest. XPC is typically used with server processes, but what you are using here is the communication side of XPC only. Basically it passes dictionaries back and forth between the two apps. Create a standard format for the dictionary. I used #"action", #"source", and #"destination" with 3 different action values, #"filemove", #"filecopy", and #"makedirectory". Those are the 3 things that my helper app can do and I can easily add more if necessary.
The helper app will basically setup the XPC connection and event handler stuff and wait for a connection and commands. The commands will just be a dictionary so you check for the appropriate keys/values and do whatever.
I can provide more details and code if you need more help, but this question is 9 months old so I don't want to waste time giving you details you've already figured out.
Related
Currently i'm working on a security monitoring app that continuously monitor new processes created.
For that im using wim and event watcher, witch works fine in VB.NET.
But there are 2 features that im missing.
I need to monitor process API calls, and I've been searching the web like mad, and come up empty.
Basically i need to monitor process WaitForSingleObject, LoadLibraryA, CreateProcessW and WriteProcessMemory. And registry access/changes as well.
Im hoping this can be done without a system wide hook, but form what i can find, it cannot be done via WMI.
So the question is, how to, and what can i do with managed code.
I'm gonna focus on the second point as i don't have experience on your first.
For checking if a process is signed i am using the sigcheck.exe from Mark Russinovich, because of the various methods it uses to verify files. Some are catalogsigned, some have the key embedded, there is iirc another weird method. There is no easy way to do it yourself. Had weird false detections with trying self-built methods to cover all possibilities. Hope that info helps
I have been working on a Windows Store app where I have to support multiple configuration parameters for my app. One of the parameters is the URL the app is talking to.
For example development environment, test, acceptance and finally production.
One of the things i'm currently thinking about is what is the most efficient way of supporting all these environments with the least effort. Because there isn't some kind of config file that we can change to update these parameters I came up with some ideas. I'm curious about other options that I might have not seen.
Here are the things I came up with:
1
Adding multiple configuration to the app and than using them in code to get the correct parameter like this:
private string webserviceUrl;
#if DEV
webserviceUrl = "devUrl";
#elif TEST
webserviceUrl = "testUrl";
#endif
2
With the approach in number 1 there are a few more options available like including a config xml file bases on the configuration, or fetching configuration settings from a webservice the first time the app is running.
3
Using a branch/merge strategy and update the config files in the branch. Advantage is that the code is clean and only contains the settings it needs for the build it's created for. And the package can be build by the build server. Disadvantage is that you need to branch/merge alot.
The last option feels like the most 'clean' solution to do this. Am I missing any options, or do you have experience with any of these methods? What would you prefer?
I think the assumption is that apps in the store will always point to production.
But, in saying that, I'm facing the same issue as we're side loading the application onto devices that we control, and not using the Windows Store at all.
To answer your question, I prefer option 1.
Option 2 and the xml/json config file seems like the best option though.
The webservice option probably won't work. What webservice URL do you use? And how will it work if you want some instances pointing to different environments as they will all be fetching the config from the same URL.
Another option you might want to consider would be options in the settings charm menu. For example, use radio buttons for the environments, and allow the user to configure which environment they want to target.
The issue would be locking it down in production for end users so that it isn't modifiable any more. Perhaps once "PROD" radio is selected, all the radio buttons are then hidden.
If you're deploying the application through side loading, then these settings could probably be configured during the install process.
I'd be interested to hear other opinions as well. This is also an old question, so I'd like to know what solution you decided on implementing.
I am developing a Cocoa Mac app which dynamically generates and registers itself for URL schemes. However, when the application registers itself to handle a newly generated URL scheme (e.g. myscheme1423://), I would like to prevent the application from responding to any previously registered URL schemes.
I am using LSSetDefaultHandlerForURLScheme() for the purpose of registering a URL scheme; in conjunction, the application automatically overwrites it's Info.plist to contain the new scheme. As you may know, the LSSetDefaultHandlerForURLScheme() function adds the given bundleID/scheme to a Launch Services database. However, I couldn't find an equivalent Launch Services function to remove the same bundleID/scheme pair from the database.
I know that I could simply ignore any external events which originated from a URL scheme other than the one for which the app is actively registered, but it feels to me that there should be a simple way to completely wipe out the system's knowledge of the previous scheme. If my application goes through the process of registering for a new scheme more than a few hundred times, a point will come where a significant amount of space (for a Plist, at least) is being taken up on disk by a plethora of pointless pieces of data (i.e. the old Launch Services entries).
I just fired up a playground and began playing. This is utterly undocumented but it appears to work.
Try passing ("None" as CFString) for the second parameter of
LSSetDefaultHandlerForURLScheme()
I need some help figuring out the best way to proceed with creating a Rails 3 engine(or plugin, and/or gem).
Apologies for the length of this question...here's part 1:
My company uses an email service provider to send all of our outbound customer emails. They have created a SOAP web service and I have incorporated it into a sample Rails 3 app. The goal of creating an app first was so that I could then take that code and turn it into a gem.
Here's some of the background: The SOAP service has 23 actions in all and, in creating my sample app, I grouped similar actions together. Some of these actions involve uploading/downloading mailing lists and HTML content via the SOAP WS and, as a result, there is a MySQL database with a few tables to store HTML content and lists as a sort of "staging area".
All in all, I have 5 models to contain the SOAP actions (they do not inherit from ActiveRecord::Base) and 3 models that interact with the MySQL database.
I also have a corresponding controller for each model and a view for each SOAP action that I used to help me test the actions as I implemented them.
So...I'm not sure where to go from here. My code needs a lot of DRY-ing up. For example, the WS requires that the user authentication info be sent in the envelope body of each request. So, that means each method in the model has the same auth info hard coded into it which is extremely repetitive; obviously I'd like for that to be cleaner. I also look back now through the code and see that the requests themselves are repetitive and could probably be consolidated.
All of that I think I can figure out on my own, but here is something that seems obvious but I can't figure out. How can I create methods that can be used in all of my models (thinking specifically of the user auth part of the equation).
Here's part 2:
My intention from the beginning has been to extract my code and package it into a gem incase any of my ESP's other clients could use it (plus I'll be using it in several different apps). However, I'd like for it to be very configurable. There should be a default minimal configuration (i.e. just models that wrap the SOAP actions) created just by adding the gem to a Gemfile. However, I'd also like for there to be some tools available (like generators or Rake tasks) to get a user started. What I have in mind is options to create migration files, models, controllers, or views (or the whole nine yards if they want).
So, here's where I'm stuck on knowing whether I should pursue the plugin or engine route. I read Jordan West's series on creating an engine and I really like the thought of that, but I'm not sure if that is the right route for me.
So if you've read this far and I haven't confused the hell out of you, I could use some guidance :)
Thanks
Let's answer your question in parts.
Part One
Ruby's flexibility means you can share code across all of your models extremely easily. Are they extending any sort of class? If they are, simply add the methods to the parent object like so:
class SOAPModel
def request(action, params)
# Request code goes in here
end
end
Then it's simply a case of calling request in your respective models. Alternatively, you could access this method statically with SOAPModel.request. It's really up to you. Otherwise, if (for some bizarre reason) you can't touch a parent object, you could define the methods dynamically:
[User, Post, Message, Comment, File].each do |model|
model.send :define_method, :request, proc { |action, params|
# Request code goes in here
}
end
It's Ruby, so there are tons of ways of doing it.
Part Two
Gems are more than flexible to handle your problem; both Rails and Rake are pretty smart and will look inside your gem (as long as it's in your environment file and Gemfile). Create a generators directory and a /name/name_generator.rb where name is the name of your generator. The just run rails g name and you're there. Same goes for Rake (tasks).
I hope that helps!
We have an unattended app w/o a user interface that is is periodically run.
It is a VB.NET app. Instead of it being developed as a service, or a formless Windows application, it was developed with a form and all the code was placed in the form_load logic, with an "END" statement as the last line of code to terminate the program.
Other than producing a program that uses unneeded Windows form resources, is there a compelling reason to send this code back for rework to be changed to put the start up logic in a MAIN sub of a BAS file?
If the program is to enter and exit the mix (as opposed to running continuously) is there any point in making it a service?
If the app is developed with a Form do I have to worry about a dialog box being presented that no one will respond to even if there are no MessageBox commands in the app?
I recall there used to be something in VB6 where you could check an app as running unattended, presumably to avoid dialogs.
I don't know whether there are conditions where this will not run.
However, if the code was delivered by someone you will work with going forward, I would look at this as an opportunity to help them understand best practices (which this is not), and to help them understand that you expect best-practice code to be delivered.
First of all, you don't need it to be run in a Form.
Forms are there for Presentation, so it should not be done there.
If you don't want to mess with converting the application a Service (not difficult, but not very easy neither), you shoud create a Console Application, and then, schedule it with Windows Task Scheduler.
This way, you create a Console Application, with a Main function, that does exactly what you need.
Anyway, the programmer could show windows, so there should not be any messagebox. Any communication should be done via Logging to: local files, windows events, database.
If you want more information on any of them, ask me.
If you don't want it to be a service, nothing says that it has to be a windows service. Scheduling it to run via the Task Scheduler or something similar is a valid option.
However, it does sound like the developer should have choose a "Console App" project, instead of a "Windows Forms" project to create this app.
Send it back. The application is bulkier and slower than it needs to be, although that won't be much of an issue. It is somewhat more likely to run out of resources. But the main reason: converting it to a console app is very easy.
If you don't prefer for the Console window to popup, simply do the following.
Create a new class "Program.vb", add a public shared Main() method, and move the "OnLoad" logic from the form to this method.
Next delete the form, and change the project start up object (Available in the project properties window) to use the Program.Main instead of the Form.
This will have the same effect, without the windows forms resources being used. You can then remove the references to System.Windows.Form and System.Drawing.