I found out how to get the content of the NSPasteboard, and to copy it into my active application. I haven't found a way to paste it into another application, just how to paste it into my current application.
If you're wondering why I would want to do this, I'm researching if there is a way to improve Jumpcut open source application (jumpcut.sf.net). Currently, it fakes Cmd+v to paste the content into another application, but this doesn't work on X11 (which expects Ctrl+v).
Thank you
The problem is that X11 doesn't really understand the OS X pasteboard at all, so there's some special magic going on to map whatever's on the OS X pasteboard into a form which can be used as the X pasteboard. Depending on what you're prepared to "know" about the target app, you can do something inbetween sending a simulated Ctrl-V event and coercing the app into requesting the content of the clipboard (not the primary clip buffer, which is the middle-click one in X)
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I've an idea to develop a modification to WhatsApp, for example now when I click attachment symbol it shows only 6 I want to add one more option to it. If it's possible let me know. I want to add more one button on Attach menu.
It is not clear what exactly you are asking.
You have an option to launch other applications from your app.
If you want to change the way a certain app looks, or behaves you have to write something similar to it for people to use, but you cannot change the original app (no one will let you)
Here you go! it's possible, as #Jef said in comments.
using documentation interaction controller.
https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/iphone/23559013
you need to work on how to hook into attachment menu.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UIKit/Reference/UIDocumentInteractionController_class/
There is an assumption in your question that these other apps are put there by the whatsApp developers, or by a third party who was somehow able to modify their code. I suspect that what is happening is that they (whatsApp) simply export a document/file of a certain type (UTI) If your application supports that same UTI it should appear here. So there is six buttons for you, on your phone, but another user might see a different number, it depends entirely what they have installed on their device.
CONCEPTUAL.. if you double click on a file on your computer then the file browser (OS) opens that file with some application or other. Perhaps it is a .doc file and the OS pushes that file to word or pages. Or it may be a .psd file and it gets pushed to photoshop. How does this happen? The OS has a registry (database) of applications for each file type, applications sign up on this when they install/update. If you right click on a file you see an 'open in..' option that lists all your applications which can handle that file type, this is the menu that you are wanting to get onto (for whatsApp's file type) imho.
So you need to
1 ascertain what file type (UTI) WhatsApp is exporting
2 declare support for that file type in your application (this is the bit which will be platform specific solution) (iOS docs https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/FileManagement/Conceptual/DocumentInteraction_TopicsForIOS/Articles/RegisteringtheFileTypesYourAppSupports.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010411-SW1 )
**edit/addition
3. add the code to actually handle the file when your app receives it. On iOs this is in the appDelegate in
-(void) application: openURL: sourceApplication:annotation:
If the Whatsapp people have published an API then thats where you want to look. Good luck
I would like to enhance the OS X Standard Save dialog with some features (add some controls).
DefaultFolderX actually achieved this
http://www.stclairsoft.com/DefaultFolderX/faq.html
.
They note:
"This means that Default Folder X loads a small piece of program code into each application's memory space (in RAM) so that it can communicate with Navigation Services, the OS X service that provides the Open and Save dialogs."
The question is, is this the easiest way to do this?
If yes, how would someone start on this endeavor (e.g. what kind of Project in Xcode, how to handle the "hook" mechanism if at all necessary, what documentation to read)?
If you want controls at the bottom of the open/save dialog in your app, the NSSavePanel and NSOpenPanel have a function where you can set your own custom view that will sit on the bottom of the dialog. If you want to modify the NSOpenPanels and NSSavePanels differently, or across the whole system, that will take a lot of work that might just break every time Apple updates their OS.
I picked vb.net for this question since it's the only prgramming language I am fairly familair with, but if C++ or something else is more suited for this, I am willing to learn something new.
What I am trying to do is:
Retrieve text from database (this already works in vb.net) and copy it to clipboard
Switch primary screen to the external application I want to work with (example: word or open office)
Emulate key-press Enter
Paste text and hit Enter again
Emulate key-press Ctrl and then emulate a click on a pre-defined spot on the screen (like 500pixels from left, 740pixels from top).
Save screenshot, using a second value from the database as the filename (the naming part should be easy)
Emulate another click on another pre-defined spot
Repeat for next text in database.
I wouldn't know where to start, though. I guess the most important part of what I'm trying to achieve is; switching focus to an external application and emulate keypresses and mouse clicks on it.
use http://www.autohotkey.com/
write a console app to get the value from the database
1 - get autohotkey to run the console app and put the return into the clipboard
then continue as described in your list.
I was wondering would this be hard to do; I have a barcode reader for my isight (mac webcam) (evoBarcode). At the moment, the program reads the barcode fine and adds it to a text field at the side of the application. Event when in the background, the application continues to run and read barcodes which is fine.
I was wondering, is it easy to send the result from this (I have already located the exact variable where the barcode is caught) to the front application as a keystroke? (the front application being textEdit or something.
I've tried searching around for a bit and found CGRemoteOperation, but havn't found a great lot of resources or examples on it.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
Depending on the reader behaviour another option could be to implement a service menu item. That way you don't mess with the clipboard.
I'm interested in writing a plugin for OS X to support multiple operations on highlighted text in the right click context menu. The operations are simple enough that I could write them by myself. I've looked at automator's "Copy to Clipboard" action, but it requires some text input first. The "Get contents of Clipboard" action will make my operations require the highlighted text to first be copied to the clipboard.
So the question is simple: how do I access the system wide highlighted text buffer? Or is this strictly off limits?
Thanks!
There's no such thing as "the system wide highlighted text buffer"; just selecting text doesn't move it to a central location like the clipboard. And since you can have text selected in multiple windows at once, it's not really clear what that would even do.
Have you considered using the services menu? It's specifically designed to allow third party apps to provide operations for users to perform on selected text.