Extension target for macOS screen saver in Xcode 12 ?

Question

Created Jun ’20

Replies 1

Boosts 0

Views 1.1k

Participants 2

Hi

As of right now, the only template available in Xcode for creating a macOS screen saver is Objective-C only, and creates a plug-in (a .saver file).

Can we expect in a later Xcode seed a proper target to create an .appex screen saver as an extension ? There are many benefits to switching from insecure plug-ins to app extensions, so that would be quite welcome.

Currently there are many limitations since Catalina with the way the old plugins (.saver) works as they are inheriting their entitlements from legacyScreenSaver.appex.

Also according to documentation, the screen saver API is now available in "Mac Catalyst 14" and I'm not exactly sure what that entails ? At the very top of the documentation, it still says in the "Overview" section :

Screen Effects modules need to be written in Objective-C with their user interface implemented using Cocoa.

According to a previous post on this forum, Swift screen saver seem to be supported since 10.14.4, and also the Cocoa part may need to be updated for Catalyst support, if that's not a wrongly placed support tag.

Can we get a bit of clarification on this ?

Thanks !

Boost

Answer 1

waitsnake OP

Aug ’20

Good question since I also would like to convert my screensaver project from old plugin (.saver) to app extension (.appex). It needs to load some graphic files from outside of the entitlements that are granted to legacyScreenSaver.appex. Since Catalina my screensaver is pretty much useless and I don't spend any more development effort into my project if even the screensaver app extension of the operating system has "legacy" in its name witch highly suggest the old plugin (.saver) are at the end of their live time.

Hope you could give us a glims what is going on here?

0