I am creating a UIKit application but that contains SwiftUI Views embedded using the hostingcontroller. I have a particular approach for it..but it requires instantiating a swiftUI view, creating a hostingcontroller object from it and storing a reference to it. So that later If I wanted to update the view, I can simply get the reference back and update the swiftUI view using it. I wanted to understand what does apple recommends on this. Can we store a swiftUI instance? Does it cause any issue or it is okay to do so?

I have created a progress indicator to simulate some progressing download task in the dock icon. However, I can see the progress bar appearing in the dock icon but it is not getting updated when I invoked the updateProgress() method. Ideally it should have updated it, and I m not able to figure out the reason? I have creating the same NSProgressIndicator on an NSWindow and it works to update the progress bar with the same code. Anything that I m missing to understand here? Below is the code I m using: class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate { var progressIndicator: NSProgressIndicator! let dockTile = NSApp.dockTile func applicationWillFinishLaunching(_ notification: Notification) { // Step 1: Create a progress bar (NSProgressIndicator) progressIndicator = NSProgressIndicator(frame: NSRect(x: 10, y: 10, width: 100, height: 20)) progressIndicator.isIndeterminate = false progressIndicator.minValue = 0.0 progressIndicator.maxValue = 100.0 progressIndicator.doubleValue = 0.0 progressIndicator.style = .bar dockTile.contentView = progressIndicator dockTile.display() //// Update the progress bar for demonstration DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 1) { self.updateProgress(50) } } func updateProgress(_ value: Double) { progressIndicator.doubleValue = value NSApp.dockTile.display() } }

I have created a NSView inside the NSWindow. I m trying to identify when the view gets clicked by the user. For this I m using NSClickGestureRecognizer, but the registered method is not getting invoked. I have tried adding this for other widgets like button but it does not work either. Am I missing something? class SelectionList :NSObject, NSTextFieldDelegate{ let containerView = NSView() func createSelectionList (pWindow: NSWindow) { // created container View ... let clickRecognizer = NSClickGestureRecognizer() clickRecognizer.target = self clickRecognizer.buttonMask = 0x2 // right button clickRecognizer.numberOfClicksRequired = 1 clickRecognizer.action = #selector(ClickGestured) containerView .addGestureRecognizer(clickRecognizer) } @objc func clickRecognizer() { print("clicked") } }

I wanted to create a bundled macOS application that can be run in background. This application should also be capable of running in a non-gui environment. How should I create the application with the only condition that it should be bundled and can be launched using multiple ways like double click the bundle app or launching as a daemon using the unix executable?

I have a bundled macOS application. This is a non-interactive application where I m performing some task on the worker thread while the main thread waits for this task to be completed. Sometimes this task can be time consuming. I have observed that when I run the application using the bundle( like double click or open command) I can see the OS marking my application as not responding( this is evident as the app icon toggles in the dock and then it states not responding). Although If I run the unix executable in the bundle, the app runs and I do not see the not responding status anywhere. I wanted to understand If this is happening because my main thread is in a waiting state? If yes, what could I do to resolve it because my application logic demands the main thread to wait for the worker thread to complete its task. Is there some way to use some event loop like GCD? Note: I cannot use the delegates(Appkit) event loop because my application will be run in non-GUI context.

I have a .app file that I want to run as a daemon. Now there are two ways of running .app as a daemon/agent in macOS. using .app file : I can specify this in the daemon plist as: <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>/usr/bin/open</string> <string>/Applications/myApp.app</string> </array> using unix exe within .app file <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>myApp.app/Content/MacOS/MyApp</string> </array> Basically I wanted to know what is the Apple recommendation on how we should be creating daemon plist. For point 2, is it appropriate to use the unix executable within bundle?Will it not cause any issue in the running application? Is will be helpful if there is some apple documentation to support this.

I have a public swift function with the below declaration : public func InternalMain (_ pNumOfArgs : Int32, _ pCmdlineArgs : UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer<Int8>?>) -> Int32 {..} I need this function as public because I need to invoke in from a different library. But the above declaration produces an error in my generated swift header i.e '-swift.h' file because 'UnsafeMutablePointer<UnsafeMutablePointer?>' type cannot be represented in the swift generated header. Can someone help how do I get past this. This is a class independent function and I tried using the '@nonobj' to prevent this from getting in the generated header but it still gives an error.

Is there some notification that apple provides that I can register to, and get notified whenever there is a 'battery low' state? I want to perform certain task in my application for low battery. Is there some way to identify this?

I have a bundled application(.app file) in macOS which is a non-interactive application. This app does not link to any GUI frameworks and I am able to launch it using the 'open' command in a normal GUI login session. However, when I perform ssh login to that user and then If I try to launch the application, it fails to launch. I assume that this is happening because my ssh session is a non-GUI session, and 'open' command is due to some reason failing to run in a non-GUI environment, but I m not sure. Can someone help me understand why is this happening?

I have an executable in macOS that I m launching as a User Agent. The same executable can be launched in multiple ways like either user can directly click the exe to launch it, or user can launch it from the terminal using ./ etc. One similar way is when the user launches the exe as a User Agent(i.e daemon in user session). In this scenarios, I want to identify in my exe If my user has launched it as agent to perform certain task. I wanted to know how can I accurately determine this? I have tried figuring out If there is some unique session that agents operate in, but I could not find anything. Can someone help here? Is this even possible?

I have macOS application and I want to provide an action for it in the 'Shortcuts' app QuickAction list. I was using InApp handling to present my intent created in the intent.intentdefinition file as action in the shortcuts app and it was working. However, this action perform a very lightweight task so I intent to have the action implemented as an extension in my xcode project. According to my minimum deployment(i.e macOS 11.0) I found that 'Intents Extension' could be used. I have added the 'Intents extension' target to my main application and created an intent using the intent.intentdefinition file. However, my intent does not appear in the shortcuts app. I have verified it multiple time to ensure I am not missing anything, but still the intent is not present in the shortcuts app action. I wanted to be know, Is this even possible? cause this apple documentation only mentions about iOS and watchOS app. It also does not mention If our custom intent(created using Intents extension) in the intents extension can be exposed to the shortcuts app. For macOS 13.0+, I have used the 'AppIntents extension' and I m able to achieve the same. So, I suppose the same should be possible using the 'Intents extension'

I have added an "App Intents Extension" target to my main application in macOS. This generated the below two files: TWAppIntent.swift import AppIntents struct TWAppIntent: AppIntent { static var title: LocalizedStringResource = "TWAppIntentExtension" static var parameterSummary: some ParameterSummary { Summary("Get information on \(\.$TWType)") } //launch app on running action static var openAppWhenRun: Bool = true // we can have multiple parameter of diff types @Parameter(title: "TWType") var TWType: String func perform() async throws -> some IntentResult & ReturnsValue<String> & ProvidesDialog { return .result(value: TWType, dialog: "Logged break.") } } TWAppIntentExtension.swift import AppIntents @main struct TWAppIntentExtension: AppIntentsExtension { } I m able to build the extension target and I my intent action is available in the shortcuts app. However, on launching a shortcut with the above created intent action. I m getting the below popups: I have identified what is causing this error. Setting the openAppWhenRun to true is causing this error. I don't get this when it is set to false. This property is supposed to launch the application, but can someone help me understand why is it happening? This is only causing the error when using this property for AppIntent Extension and not for In app handling for the AppIntent. Can we not launch our application from AppIntent extension?

I have a bundled application that contains a widget extension. On launching the application once the widget appears in the widget gallery, However, I have observed that If my widget extension is not sandboxed, the widget fails to show in the widget gallery. Is this expected? I am using the same xcode project and just that AppSandbox capability for the widget extension target is causing this. Can someone please explain why is this happening?

I wanted to identify the shutdown event in macOS, so that If my application is running and the user performs a system shutdown then my application could be notified of the shutdown event and perform finalization. I came across NSWorkspaceWillPowerOffNotification which is exactly what I require, however, I created a sample application to observe for this notification. Is is observed that right before the system shuts down, the OS terminates my application invoking applicationWillTerminate(_:) delegate and the observer method for 'NSWorkspaceWillPowerOffNotification' is not invoked. I could perform my finalization in the applicationWillTerminate, but I wanted to know why is the observer not getting invoked. Also why is NSWorkspaceWillPowerOffNotification, even provided by apple when it invoked the termination delegate before shutdown? below is how I m adding the observer: NotificationCenter.default.addObserver(forName: NSWorkspace.willPowerOffNotification, object: nil, queue: nil, using: AppDelegate.handlePowerOffNotification) Below is my observer function, which just logs: public static func handlePowerOffNotification(_ notification: Notification) { NSLog (AppDelegate.TAG + "System will power off soon! Perform any necessary cleanup tasks.") // custom logger to log to a file TWLog.Log ("System will power off soon! Perform any necessary cleanup tasks.") }

Can someone update about the current state of the Automator app in macOS. Automator seems like a valuable tool for automating tasks on macOS but in the recent years I have noticed a growing emphasis on the Shortcuts app for automation. It would be great if you could clarify the following: • Current Status of Automator: Is there any official statement regarding the continued support of the Automator app in future macOS versions? • Future of Automator: Does Apple plan to introduce new features or updates for Automator in upcoming releases? • Indifference to Shortcuts App: From what I understand both the ‘Automator’ and the ‘Shortcuts’ app are used for creating workflows/shortcuts to automate tasks. What is it that Automator app has to offer which cannot be done using the Shortcuts app? assuming the continued support for the Automator app. Can all the automator workflows not be automated using the shortcuts app? I understand that Apple is constantly innovating and introducing new tools. However, clarity regarding the future of Automator would be helpful for users like myself. In addition, as a developer I wanted to offer some actions for my application in the Automator app, so that the user can make use of it to create some workflows. But from what I found in the apple documentation here, these action are created using the ‘Automator action’ Project type template in the xcode. However, in the current version of xcode 15, this project type seems to be missing. Does it indicate that apple no longer provides support for applications to create new automator action? If not, how can I provide automator actions for my xcode application?