I'm currently trying to set up a notification service using the old NSUserNotification API on macOSX (not iOS) in objective c++.
The catch is that I would need to know the system preferences associated with notifications that the user set (and preferably during the rest of runtime too) to determine if my notifications are actually seen. The application is meant to get the users attention in some way to guarantee things like reminders don't go unnoticed, so the thing I want to avoid is a notification delivered that silently doesn't produce any sound nor image on the screen whatsoever without the application knowing. If the notification is not allowed the application should handle it in some other way.
I am working on a macOS 10.14 Mojave machine. My overall code with NSUserNotificationCenter works fine with a custom Delegate that implements shouldDeliver, didActivate etc. Its just that I am currently assuming the user didn't press the "frick off" button on my notifications.
Unfortunately, NSUserNotificationCenter and related classes don't appear to feature a function that determines the permissions the way the new API (UNUserNotificationCenter) does. I have been trying to resolve this for a few hours so I was wondering if anyone else has found a solution to this. I can't really use the new API since this is strictly for back-compatibility in favour of the possibly rather prevalent amount of people who don't use mojave yet.
Things I have tried to make it work so far:
Try and see if there is a .plist somewhere where these settings are stored, in the User-specific Library folder as well as the general Library folder.
Try and find said .plist using CFPreferencesCopyKeyList and related methods. Apparently I don't really know the right domain name.
This answer from 2012 which appears to be outdated since I cannot locate the database on my machine anymore. Might be due to me using a mojave machine, or the file has since moved somewhere else.
Try and determine whether we can retro-actively check our permissions by checking a NSUserNotification's "presented" property on didDeliverNotification, shouldPresentNotification in the delegate. Unfortunately as stated in NSUserNotificationCenter itself it still behaves the same whether the preferences allow notifications or not.
Some code I tried includes the following:
CFPreferencesCopyKeyList((CFStringRef) #"com.apple.systemPreferences.plist", kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, kCFPreferencesCurrentHost);
CFPreferencesCopyKeyList((CFStringRef) #"com.apple.systemPreferences.plist", kCFPreferencesAnyUser, kCFPreferencesAnyHost);
//Unfortunately returns null with any combination of com.apple.notificationcenter.plist, kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, kCFPreferencesCurrentHost
CFPreferencesCopyKeyList((CFStringRef) #"com.apple.notificationcenter", kCFPreferencesAnyUser, kCFPreferencesAnyHost);
On my system (only macOS High Sierra), it looks like the file you're after is:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.ncprefs.plist
That would correspond to a combination of kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, and kCFPreferencesAnyHost. (For the record, kCFPreferencesCurrentUser + kCFPreferencesCurrentHost equates to pref files in the ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/ folder).
I don't think any settings would be stored in the local domain (by that I mean in the root /Library/Preferences/ folder).
I was able to get a list of apps and settings using the following code:
[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] addSuiteNamed:#"com.apple.ncprefs"];
NSArray *apps = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:#"apps"];
NSLog(#"[%# %#] apps == %#", NSStringFromClass([self class]), NSStringFromSelector(_cmd), apps);
NOTE: this will not work if your app is sanboxed, as access to other pref files like that will be denied.
I'm looking for executing a .xib (with its own controllers and libraries) precompiled on a server, downloading it on runtime.
Is it possible?
Thanks!
EDIT:
So could somebody give me an example of a program that uses NSBundle that executes other app?
And how do I create the bundled application?
I don't think you can import a xib into the application's bundle at run-time (which you would have to in order for this to happen). Others may know more and correct me!
I can think of a couple of ways you could try to do this, but are you aiming to get it in to the store?
This is expressly prohibited by Apple Developer Guidelines.
A .xib file is just a data file, so there shouldn't be any problem loading one that's outside your app's bundle. I can't say I've ever tried it, but as long as it's in a bundle, you should be able to:
Create an instance of NSBundle using the path to the bundle containing the .xib you want to load. See +[NSBundle bundleWithPath:] for that.
Load the .xib using the bundle you created in the previous step with any of the normal .xib-loading methods, such as -[UIViewController initWithNibNamed:bundle:] or +[UINib nibWithNibName:bundle:].
with it's own controllers and libraries
That part won't work. iOS doesn't allow dynamic linking to frameworks other than the ones provided by the system, so there's no way to load your code. If you can build all the code you need into your app, though, you should still be able to use downloaded .xib's as described above. That would let you do things like update the way your views are laid out or what targets and actions your controls are connected to.
So I created a simple project, which I can test as an iPhone app. Now I'd like to make a slight variation of it, with an iAd. I was able to duplicate the target and test to the iPhone, by managing schemes (http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/ToolsLanguages/Conceptual/Xcode4UserGuide/Building/Building.html).
The issue is that no matter what scheme I test, I overwrite the other app. I'd like to be able to have two apps
AppName
AppName (Free)
living at the same time on my phone.
I want to avoid duplicating source files, because only the storyboard and the view controller are different, they both use the same images and model otherwise.
Any help is welcome!
Have you tried changing the bundle identifier in the new target you just created? So your full version would have bundle identifier: "com.yourcompany.AppName" and your lite version will have a bundle identifier of: "com.youcompany.AppNameLite"
I'm not currently on my Mac partition so sorry if I'm a bit off.
I would add a new configuration for your app. Call it something like "Release Free". Add a gcc preprocessor symbol "FREE" to this configuration.
Then everywhere you initialize and instantiate your iads put the code within some "#if" statements.
Something like this.
#if FREE
// Init iAds
#endif
Let's say I have an existing iOS or Mac Framework that we'll call Test.framework. This framework has compiled and linked successfully (a trick was done to lipo both i386 and armv6/7 archs for the iOS part) and is working perfectly fine.
Now I want to add an image to it let's call it 'test.png'. I have copied it into the Resources folder of my framework so that I have the following structure:
ls Test.framework
- Headers -> Versions/Current/Headers
- Resources -> Versions/Current/Resources
- Test -> Versions/Current/Test
- Versions
ls Test.framework/Resources
- Info.plist
- test.png
Yet when I create a project using my framework I cannot access that image.
I've tried:
[UIImage imageNamed:#"test.png"]
[UIImage imageNamed:#"Test.framework/test.png"]
[UIImage imageNamed:#"Test.framework/Resources/test.png"]
But nothing worked out that always gave me back a nil object.
Any ideas ?
EDIT
After much further investigation it seems what I am trying to accomplish can't be done on iOS. The reason is that the final application bundle (the .app) doesn't copy the private frameworks where applications compiled for Mac OS will.
This is further detailed in the iOS Bundle Structures documentation.
Thanks to Rob Keniger and xuzhe for their appreciated help. I will credit xuzhe for the answer as it is actually the most appropriate answer to my original problem (even though Rob comment made me dig quite deeper into the issue)
The "imageNamed:" method is only for images in your App bundle. You should use
[[UIImage alloc] initWithContentsOfFile:path];
instead.
About the path, since I am not sure if the "Test.Framework" is in you App bundle, I am not able to give you a sample code. But if it dose, the code below should work:
NSString* path = [Nsstring stringWithFormat:#"%#/Test.framework/Resources/test.png", [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]];
You can get the bundle for a particular class using [NSBundle bundleForClass:[SomeClass class]]. All you need to do is pass in a class that's defined in the framework and you'll have a reference to the framework's bundle.
You can then ask the bundle for the path to the image using the pathForResource:ofType: method of NSBundle, and then use the initWithContentsOfFile: method of NSImage to create your image.
Note that you should never hard-code paths. Ever. There are many different functions and methods for obtaining paths to resources, you never need to hard-code them.
I'm looking for a guide or sample code for writing Mac OS X Finder plugins? It would like to know how to do some simple actions:
adding image overlayers to icons
adding context menu items
listen to file changes
I found the following two resources:
Writing Contextual Menu Plugins for OS X: An outdated document from 2002 that uses the COM API targeting Mac OS X 8/9.
SCPlugin: Open-source SVN Mac application that includes a Finder plug-in.
I am tempted to review the SCPlugin code, but was hoping to find an easier sample to digest.
The Finder Icon Overlay example project represents a small and very basic but actually working example of the answer below.
https://github.com/lesnie/Finder-Icon-Overlay
I know this is so old, but some may be still interested in topic (?)
Here is what I have it done under Leopard (10.6). At first proper Finder's headers are needed. Use class-dump tool to get it. Then write your code as a SIMBL plugin (refer to documentation how to do it), swizzling some methods. For instance to draw something over icon in ListView, drawIconWithFrame: method of TIconAndTextCell method must be overriden.
Here's the code for method swizzling:
+ (void) Plugin_load
{
Method old, new;
Class self_class = [self class];
Class finder_class = [objc_getClass("TIconAndTextCell") class];
class_addMethod(finder_class, #selector(FT_drawIconWithFrame:),
class_getMethodImplementation(self_class, #selector(FT_drawIconWithFrame:)),"v#:{CGRect={CGPoint=dd}{CGSize=dd}}");
old = class_getInstanceMethod(finder_class, #selector(drawIconWithFrame:));
new = class_getInstanceMethod(finder_class, #selector(FT_drawIconWithFrame:));
method_exchangeImplementations(old, new);
}
I am overriding "drawIconWithFrame:" method with my method "FT_drawIconWithFrame:". Below is sample implementation for this method.
- (void) FT_drawIconWithFrame:(struct CGRect)arg1
{
[self FT_drawIconWithFrame:arg1];
if ([self respondsToSelector:#selector(node)]) {
if ([[[[NSClassFromString(#"FINode") nodeWithFENode:[(TNodeIconAndNameCell *)self node]] fullPath] lastPathComponent] hasPrefix:#"A"])
[myPrettyIconOverlayImage drawInRect:NSMakeRect(arg1.origin.x, arg1.origin.y, arg1.size.height, arg1.size.height) fromRect:NSZeroRect operation:NSCompositeSourceOver fraction:1.0];
}
}
Essentially it draws "myPrettyIconOverlayImage" over every icon for file with filename starts with letter "A". This logic is up to you.
Pay attention to this line: [self FT_drawIconWithFrame:arg1]; this is how to call 'super' in order to get normal icon and name etc. I know, looks weird, like loop, but actually it isn't. Then wrap in into SIMBL plugin, install SIMBL and ...run.
Due to changes in Lion some work have to be done from scratch (make new "Finder.h" file with all declarations needed in it, find proper classess and methods to override), but this technique still works.
Happy hacking!
For Yosemite (MacOS 10.10 & newer), you can use Apple's FinderSync framework, which allows Finder extensions to:
Express interest in specific folder hierarchies
Provide "badges" to
indicate the status of items inside those hierarchies
Provide dynamic
menu items in Finder contextual menus, when the selected items (or
the window target) are in those hierarchies
Provide a Toolbar Item
that displays a menu with dynamic items (even if the selection is
unrelated)
Sadly, programming a Finder plugin actually does still require getting your hands dirty with COM. If you look at the SCFinderPlugin subproject of the SCPlugin project, you will find that it follows exactly the same techniques outlined in your first link, including setting up a vtable for COM, writing AddRef/ReleaseRef functions, and so on. Writing a plugin, where you're simultaneously managing old-school Carbon memory management, COM-style memory management, and Cocoa/new-style Carbon memory management, can be an incredible pain—and that totally ignores the fact that you'll be interacting in three or more radically different APIs, with different naming conventions and calling semantics. Calling the situation hysterically poor would be a vast understatement.
On the bright side, the Finder in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard has been fully rewritten in Cocoa--and with that come vastly superior plugin interfaces. If you are lucky enough to be in a situation where you can actually only target Snow Leopard, you probably should grab an ADC Premier or higher membership, download the prerelease builds, and code against that. Besides, your plugin may not work on 10.6 anyway without a Cocoa rewrite, so it might make good sense to take a look at Snow Leopard before it gets released, regardless.
There is no official or supported plugin system for the Finder. Starting with OS X 10.6, you will need to inject code into the Finder process and override objective C methods in the Finder process.
I've done this for a proprietary project. I can tell you that the reason that there are no examples or tutorials for this is because it is a significantly difficult and time consuming development task. For this reason, there's plenty of incentive for individuals or organizations who have accomplished this to guard the specifics of their process closely.
If there's any way at all that you can accomplish your goal using the Services API, do it. Writing a Finder plugin will take you 1-2 solid months of painstaking development and reasonably deep knowledge of C and Objective-C internals.
If you're still convinced that you want do to this, grab mach_star. Good luck.
As far as I know, there's no official plugin architecture for the Finder. You may be able to add image overlays to icons through an external application without having to hook into the Finder, although it wouldn't be on the fly. I don't think there is a way to add contextual menu items aside from Folder Actions and Automator. You can also look into writing an external application to monitor File System changes using the FSEvents API.
Here's a completed solution for Finder icon badges and contextual menus in Lion and Mountain Lion using the techniques described by Les Nie.
Liferay Nativity provides a scripting bundle that will swizzle the relevant Finder methods and a Java client for setting the icons and context menus. It also includes equivalent projects for Windows and Linux.
The project is open source under LGPL, so feel free to contribute any bug fixes or improvements!
The pickings are slim; it's never been really clear to me whether Finder Plugins are actually supported. A few more leads, though:
SampleCMPlugIn - Carbon-based of course, since so is Finder. Note that almost any Finder plugin is probably going to stop working with 10.6.
Automator can save things as a "Finder plugin." It's a more supported version of what you're discussing, but of course less flexible.
To add Finder/File browser icon overlays and context menus, in a cross-platform manner, from Java, take a look at the Liferay Nativity library.
I also make mention of this in another SO post, which also contains links to Apple's 'Finder Sync' docs and API.