Application Services

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Perform common application tasks using Application Services.

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How can my app bring another app to the foreground when it's not currently the frontmost app?
I'm developing software that implements functionality for third party touch screens. It provides features such as having touch gestures trigger mouse clicks and drags, among other possible actions. One of its features allows keyboard focus to return to whichever app originally had it prior to performing a touch gesture. Previously it worked by recording the current frontmost app when a touch action starts, and then when all touch actions have concluded, calling NSRunningApplication.activateWithOptions and passing NSApplicationActivateIgnoringOtherApps. However, in macOS 14 and later, this no longer works, as NSRunningApplication.activateWithOptions is deprecated. The new API provides a way for the current frontmost app to yield frontmost to whichever app is being activated with the new functions NSRunningApplication.yieldActivationToApplication and NSRunningApplication.activate, but in my case it just silently fails, presumably because my app in that moment is not frontmost. (However there is no error code provided for me to be able to find out what exactly the issue is.) Is there a supported way I can fix this feature in macOS 14 and later?
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Programmatic motion on the mouse cursor triggers "shake to locate"
I use the following code to keep the mouse cursor within the bounds of my application window. This causes the mouse cursor to become magnified while hugging the window's edges. Is there a way to prevent this? My clients are building a game, board style with a large map viewed from a top camera. They want the map to pan automatically when the mouse reaches the edge of the window. And they want the mouse cursor to stay confined to the game window. Thank you. CGDisplayMoveCursorToPoint(CGMainDisplayID(), location); // Removes a delay introduced by CGWarpMouseCursorPosition to keep mouse cursor motion fluid while hugging the screen edges CGEventSourceRef eventSourceRef = CGEventSourceCreate(kCGEventSourceStateCombinedSessionState); CGEventSourceSetLocalEventsSuppressionInterval(eventSourceRef, 0);
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java installed not fetched in system_profiler command
I am using system_profiler command to check on the installed application list from mac device. **Terminal command to check installed java version - ** But while running /usr/sbin/system_profiler SPApplicationsDataType -xml , I cant able to find Java as an installed application. Is this a known issue or do we have any alternative workaround to fetch the same?
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56
May ’25
FamilyActivitySelection tokens are invalid for other members in family sharing network
I'm currently working with the FamilyControls API and testing my app on two different devices. Both apps are in the same family-sharing network with one phone being the owner of the network (I'll call this A) and the other one being an adult in the network(I'll call this B). When device A picks apps using the FamilyActivityPicker, it shares that selection with device B (via encoding, sending over network, and decoding on device B). However, interacting with the token (displaying it, using it in shield) throws an error saying the token is null. From the documentation, I thought every token would be the same across all devices in the family sharing network. So my question: How do I send the FamilyActivitySelection from A to B and have the tokens still be functional? Does this functionality only work if A is a "parent" and B is a "child" in the family sharing network? Also, side note: If I reverse the process and send the tokens from B to A. Interacting with the token works exactly as expected. For some reason, it's only going from A to B where it doesn't work.
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430
Mar ’25
NSApplicationDelegate open URLs only called after second drop
I want to make a simple droplet application. I've set the document types to include com.adobe.pdf files, and I am now receiving callbacks to the app delegate's application(_:open:) callback when I drop PDFs on the app icon… But not the first time. It doesn't matter how long I wait, or whether the app is already open—the first drop never triggers the callback. All subequent drops work as expected, and I get URLs to all the files dropped. What might be wrong? How can I debug this?
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555
Oct ’24
Unexpected behavior when iPad is unlock and the application goes to Foreground. something happens and the application goes to background and foreground in a small period of time.
I have the our device connected , with Assistive Touch enabled and the application running in the foreground. At this point, I place the screen on standby and leave the device unattended for 10 minutes. After this period, I return, unlock the screen, and observe that our app is still running, and the connection with the device is re-initiated. However, something occurs at this stage that causes the application to briefly switch to the background and then immediately return to the foreground. This behavior leads to system instability. Ideally, once the application is running in the foreground, it should not transition to the background automatically. However, it seems to be doing so for a short duration—momentarily switching from the foreground to the background, then back to the foreground—which is causing the observed instability. OK, the iPad screen is unlocked AND App Appears. 2024-10-01 13:15:55 LOG: APP > Scene did become active 2024-10-01 13:15:55 LOG: APP > Init device Suddenly the application goes to background by itself?!?!?! 2024-10-01 13:15:55 LOG: APP > Scene will change from Foreground to Background 2024-10-01 13:15:55 LOG: APP > Scene changed to Background 2024-10-01 13:15:56 LOG: APP > Scene Will Enter to Foreground 2024-10-01 13:15:56 LOG: APP > Nib Name previous load : Home Other example OK, the iPad screen is unlocked AND App Appears. 2024-10-01 11:23:55 LOG: APP > Scene Will Enter to Foreground 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene did become active 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Init connection Suddenly the application goes to background by itself?!?!?! 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene will change from Foreground to Background 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene changed to Background 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene Will Enter to Foreground 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene did become active 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene will change from Foreground to Background 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene changed to Background 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Scene Will Enter to Foreground 2024-10-01 11:23:56 LOG: APP > Nib Name previous load : Home FA FB15345245 this is happening under iPadOS18.1 beta5 and iPad12.9" 6th gen. Would you mind taking a look at this issue ?
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Oct ’24
Creating ApplicationToken with Decoder from string
I've been working a lot with the FamilyControls API and App Shield recently but have encountered a problem with no documentation. I used the FamilyActivitySelection to select the app store to shield(This is just for testing), and then printed out the application token: 1wfY¸êB ò S« öi #×(É?âðw ù/jQ ¿ J ïE¢? ·¿ º<Òd?ý r7¥Ãn N átJ¹ÿ85B_{VAF fC8. ,,¸¯3 T7F ±õü; ¹?v@¯ô Ä \-õ# Ò I know the application token is a Codable object so I was wondering, How do I create an application token using the Token<Application> initializer init(from: any Decoder) throws Creates a new instance by decoding from the given decoder. Using the above data? Do I have to encode first in order to decode it? For reference, the code I tried to use is: newValue.applicationTokens.encode(to: JSONEncoder) if let encoded = try? JSONEncoder().encode(newValue.applicationTokens) { data = encoded print(String(data: data, encoding: .utf8)!) } if let app = try? JSONDecoder().decode(Token<Application>.self, from: data) { let token = Application(token: app) print(token) } else { print("didn't work") } But it prints didn't work every time. What should I do differently?
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750
Apr ’25
Receiving Error Messaging Opening VLC
I've uninstalled and reinstalled VLC media player multiple times. However, I receive the following message opening the app after each installation: Translated Report (Full Report Below) Process: VLC [71778] Path: /Applications/VLC2.app/Contents/MacOS/VLC Identifier: org.videolan.vlc Version: 3.0.21 (3.0.21) Code Type: ARM-64 (Native) Parent Process: launchd [1] User ID: 501 Date/Time: 2024-08-14 12:27:24.3563 -0400 OS Version: macOS 14.6.1 (23G93) Report Version: 12 Anonymous UUID: 9DDE1CE7-A635-1165-0FE9-04EA599A542F Sleep/Wake UUID: E22A843E-7A51-414F-BA7F-AB35B1674915 Time Awake Since Boot: 300000 seconds Time Since Wake: 267959 seconds System Integrity Protection: enabled Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000102af4ae8 Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000102af4ae8 Termination Reason: Namespace SIGNAL, Code 11 Segmentation fault: 11 Terminating Process: exc handler [71778] VM Region Info: 0x102af4ae8 is not in any region. Bytes after previous region: 2793 Bytes before following region: 783640 REGION TYPE START - END [ VSIZE] PRT/MAX SHRMOD REGION DETAIL __LINKEDIT 102ae8000-102af4000 [ 48K] r--/rwx SM=COW /Applications/VLC2.app/Contents/Frameworks/Breakpad.framework/Versions/A/Resources/breakpadUtilities.dylib ---> GAP OF 0xc0000 BYTES __TEXT 102bb4000-102c78000 [ 784K] r-x/rwx SM=COW /Applications/VLC2.app/Contents/MacOS/lib/libvlccore.9.dylib Application Specific Information: *** multi-threaded process forked *** crashed on child side of fork pre-exec Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread 0 libsystem_trace.dylib 0x193d8b0c0 _os_log_preferences_refresh + 68 1 libsystem_trace.dylib 0x193d8bb20 os_log_type_enabled + 712 2 CoreFoundation 0x1940da800 _CFBundleCopyPreferredLanguagesInList + 516 3 CoreFoundation 0x1940e75a4 _CFBundleCopyLanguageSearchListInBundle + 124 4 CoreFoundation 0x1940e738c _copyQueryTable + 64 5 CoreFoundation 0x1940e6d5c _copyResourceURLsFromBundle + 376 6 CoreFoundation 0x1940e6118 _CFBundleCopyFindResources + 1400 7 CoreFoundation 0x1940e5b90 CFBundleCopyResourceURL + 56 8 CoreAudio 0x1966c3b58 HALSystem::InitializeShell() + 1412 9 CoreAudio 0x1966c3274 HALSystem::CheckOutInstance() + 192 10 CoreAudio 0x19693360c AudioObjectSetPropertyData_mac_imp + 116 11 libauhal_plugin.dylib 0x10290915c 0x102904000 + 20828 12 VLC 0x1025df4dc 0x1025d8000 + 29916 13 dyld 0x193cb3154 start + 2476 Thread 0 crashed with ARM Thread State (64-bit): x0: 0x00000001fbe8cfec x1: 0x0000000193da0985 x2: 0x0000000001000104 x3: 0x0000000000000000 x4: 0x0000000193da0937 x5: 0x000000016d826500 x6: 0x0000000000000074 x7: 0x0000000000000000 x8: 0x0000000102af4ae6 x9: 0x00000001fbe97610 x10: 0x0000000000000001 x11: 0x0000000143909730 x12: 0x0000000000000001 x13: 0x000000016d8266f0 x14: 0xaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa x15: 0x0000000193da01db x16: 0x0000000193ffd7d4 x17: 0x000000020658e3e0 x18: 0x0000000000000000 x19: 0x0000000143909700 x20: 0x0000000143909700 x21: 0x0000000102af4aea x22: 0x0000000102af4aea x23: 0x0000000143d069f0 x24: 0x0000000143d075a0 x25: 0x0000000000000016 x26: 0x0000000000000000 x27: 0x0000000143d07c60 x28: 0x0000000143d06af0 fp: 0x000000016d826a30 lr: 0x0000000193d8b0a4 sp: 0x000000016d8269e0 pc: 0x0000000193d8b0c0 cpsr: 0x20001000 far: 0x0000000102af4ae8 esr: 0x92000007 (Data Abort) byte read Translation fault
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879
Aug ’24
How to get which app is currently being used by user
Hello! I'm designing an app that tracks users' screen time and shares it with each other. I've looked extensively into the ScreenTimeAPI and it seems as if Apple doesn't allow any way to share screen time data. Even with the user's permission. I was wondering whether there is a way that my app (running in the background) would be able to get whether the user was currently using the notes app (or any other app). I was looking into the AppTrackingTransparency framework to see if this functionality was at all possible, but came up short of finding an answer. Is this possible? My guess is no but still wanted to check.
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764
Aug ’24
Having trouble with Accessibility API of the ApplicationServices framework
After replacing Big Sur OSX 11.0 with the latest 11.5, my app's AXObserverAddNotification methods fails. Here is sample code I tested from StackOverflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/853833/how-can-my-app-detect-a-change-to-another-apps-window AXUIElementRef app = AXUIElementCreateApplication(82695); // the pid for front-running Xcode 12.5.1 CFTypeRef frontWindow = NULL; AXError err = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue( app, kAXFocusedWindowAttribute, &frontWindow );     if ( err != kAXErrorSuccess ){         NSLog(@"failed with error: %i",err);     } NSLog(@"app: %@  frontWindow: %@",app,frontWindow); 'frontWindow' reference is never created and I get the error number -25204. It seems like the latest Big Sur 11.5 has revised the Accessibility API or perhaps there is some permission switch I am unaware of that would make things work. What am I doing wrong?
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758
Jun ’25