Cocoa Keys

“Scriptable”

Specifies whether AppleScript is enabled. See “NSAppleScriptEnabled” for details.

OS X

“Privacy - Bluetooth Peripheral Usage Description”

Specifies the reason for using Bluetooth. See “NSBluetoothPeripheralUsageDescription” for details.

iOS 6.0 and later

“Privacy - Calendars Usage Description”

Specifies the reason for accessing the user’s calendars. See “NSCalendarsUsageDescription” for details.

iOS 6.0 and later

“Privacy - Contacts Usage Description”

Specifies the reason for accessing the user’s contacts. See “NSContactsUsageDescription” for details.

iOS 6.0 and later, OS X v10.8 and later

”Dock Tile Plugin path”

Specifies the name of app’s Dock tile plug-in, if present. See “NSDockTilePlugIn” for details.

OS X

“Copyright (human-readable)”

(Localizable) Specifies the copyright notice for the bundle. See “NSHumanReadableCopyright” for details.

OS X

“Cocoa Java application”

Specifies whether the program requires a running Java VM. See “NSJavaNeeded” for details.

OS X

“Java classpaths”

An array of paths to classes whose components are preceded by NSJavaRoot. See “NSJavaPath” for details.

OS X

“Java root directory”

The root directory containing the java classes. See “NSJavaRoot” for details.

OS X

“Privacy - Location Usage Description”

Specifies the reason for accessing the user’s location information. See “NSLocationUsageDescription” for details.

iOS 6.0 and later

“Main nib file base name”

The name of an app’s main nib file. See “NSMainNibFile” for details.

iOS, OS X

“Core Data persistent store type”

The type of Core Data persistent store associated with a persistent document type. See “NSPersistentStoreTypeKey” for details.

OS X

“Privacy - Photo Library Usage Description”

Specifies the reason for accessing the user’s photo library. See “NSPhotoLibraryUsageDescription” for details.

iOS 6.0 and later

“Preference Pane icon file”

The name of an image file resource used to represent a preference pane in the System Preferences app. See “NSPrefPaneIconFile” for details.

OS X

“Preference Pane icon label”

The name of a preference pane displayed beneath the preference pane icon in the System Preferences app. See “NSPrefPaneIconLabel” for details.

OS X

“Principal class”

The name of the bundle’s main class. See “NSPrincipalClass” for details.

OS X

“Privacy - Reminders Usage Description”

Specifies the reason for accessing the user’s reminders. See “NSRemindersUsageDescription” for details.

iOS 6.0 and later

“Services”

An array of dictionaries specifying the services provided by an app. See “NSServices” for details.

OS X

None

Specifies whether the app may be killed to reclaim memory. See “NSSupportsAutomaticTermination” for details.

OS X v10.7 and later

None

Specifies whether the app may be killed to allow for faster shut down or log out operations. See “NSSupportsSuddenTermination” for details.

OS X

None

Specifies the mobile document data that the app can view. See “NSUbiquitousDisplaySet” for details.

iOS, OS X

None

Specifies whether the notification style should be banner, alert, or none. The default value is banner, which is the recommended style. See “NSUserNotificationAlertStyle” for details.

OS X

“Exported Type UTIs”

An array of dictionaries specifying the UTI-based types supported (and owned) by the app. See “UTExportedTypeDeclarations” for details.

iOS 5.0 and later, OS X v10.7 and later

“Imported Type UTIs”

An array of dictionaries specifying the UTI-based types supported (but not owned) by the app. See “UTImportedTypeDeclarations” for details.

iOS, OS X

NSPortName

“Incoming service port name”

String

This key specifies the name of the port your app monitors for incoming service requests. Its value depends on how the service provider app is registered. In most cases, this is the app name. For more information, see Services Implementation Guide.

OS X

NSMessage

“Instance method name”

String

This key specifies the name of the instance method to invoke for the service. In Objective-C, the instance method must be of the form messageName:userData:error:. In Java, the instance method must be of the form messageName(NSPasteBoard,String).

OS X

NSSendFileTypes

None

Array

This key specifies an array of strings. Each string should contain a UTI defining a supported file type. Only UTI types are allowed; pasteboard types are not permitted. To specify pasteboard types, continue to use the NSSendTypes key.

By assigning a value to this key, your service declares that it can operate on files whose type conforms to one or more of the given file types. Your service will receive a pasteboard from which you can read file URLs.

Available in OS X v10.6 and later. For information on UTIs, see Uniform Type Identifiers Overview.

OS X

NSSendTypes

“Send Types”

Array

This key specifies an optional array of data type names that can be read by the service. The NSPasteboard class description lists several common data types. You must include this key, the NSReturnTypes key, or both.

In OS X v10.5 and earlier, this key is required. In OS X v10.6 and later, you should use the NSSendFileTypes key instead.

OS X

NSServiceDescription

None

String

This key specifies a description of your service that is suitable for presentation to users. This description string may be long to give users adequate information about your service.

To localize the menu item text, create a ServicesMenu.strings file for each localization in your bundle. This strings file should contain this key along with the translated description string as its value. For more information about creating strings files, see Resource Programming Guide.

Available in OS X v10.6 and later.

OS X

NSRequiredContext

None

Dictionary or Array

This key specifies a dictionary with the conditions under which your service is made available to the user. Alternatively, you can specify an array of dictionaries, each of which contains a set of conditions for enabling your service.

See the discussion after this table for information about specifying the value of this key. Available in OS X v10.6 and later.

OS X

NSRestricted

None

Boolean

Specifying a value of true for this key prevents the service from being invoked by a sandboxed app. You should set the value to true if your service performs privileged or potentially dangerous operations that would allow a sandboxed app to escape its containment. For example, you should set it to true if your service executes arbitrary files or text strings as scripts, reads or writes any file specified by a path, or retrieves the contents of an arbitrary URL from the network on behalf of the client of the service.

The default value for this key is false. Available in OS X v10.7 and later.

OS X

NSReturnTypes

“Return Types”

Array

This key specifies an array of data type names that can be returned by the service. The NSPasteboard class description lists several common data types. You must include this key, the NSSendTypes key, or both.

OS X

NSMenuItem

“Menu”

Dictionary

This key contains a dictionary that specifies the text to add to the Services menu. The only key in the dictionary is called default and its value is the menu item text.

In OS X v10.5 and earlier, menu items must be unique. You can ensure a unique name by combining the app name with the command name and separating them with a slash character “/”. This effectively creates a submenu for your services. For example, Mail/Send would appear in the Services menu as a menu named Mail with an item named Send.

Submenus are not supported (or necessary) in OS X v10.6 and later. If you specify a slash character in OS X v10.6 and later, the slash and any text preceding it are discarded. Instead, services with the same name are disambiguated by adding the app name in parenthesis after the menu item text.

To localize the menu item text, create a ServicesMenu.strings file for each localization in your bundle. This strings file should contain the default key along with the translated menu item text as its value. For more information about creating strings files, see Resource Programming Guide.

OS X

NSKeyEquivalent

“Menu key equivalent”

Dictionary

This key is optional and contains a dictionary with the keyboard equivalent used to invoke the service menu command. Similar to NSMenuItem, the only key in the dictionary is called default and its value is a single character. Users invoke this keyboard equivalent by pressing the Command modifier key along with the character. The character is case sensitive, so you can assign different commands to the uppercase and lowercase versions of a character. To specify the uppercase character, the user must press the Shift key in addition to the other keys.

OS X

NSUserData

“User Data”

String

This key is an optional string that contains a value of your choice.

OS X

NSTimeout

“Timeout value (in milliseconds)”

String

This key is an optional numerical string that indicates the number of milliseconds Services should wait for a response from the app providing a service when a response is required.

OS X

NSApplicationIdentifier

None

String or Array

The value of this key is a string or an array of strings, each of which contains the bundle ID (CFBundleIdentifier key) of an app. Your service appears only if the bundle ID of the current app matches one of the specified values.

OS X

NSTextScript

None

String or Array

The value of this key is a string or an array of strings, each of which contains a standard four-letter script tag, such as Latn or Cyrl. Your service appears only if the dominant script of the selected text matches one of the specified script values.

OS X

NSTextLanguage

None

String or Array

The value of this key is a string or an array of strings, each of which contains a BCP-47 tag indicating the language of the desired text. Your service appears if the overall language of the selected text matches one of the specified values.

Matching is performed using a prefix-matching scheme. For example, specifying the value en matches text whose full BCP-47 code is en-US, en-GB, or en-AU.

OS X

NSWordLimit

None

Number

The value of this key is an integer indicating the maximum number of selected words on which the service can operate. For example, a service to look up a stock by ticker symbol might have a value of 1 because ticker symbols cannot contain spaces.

OS X

NSTextContext

None

String or Array

The value of this key is a string or an array of strings, each of which contains one of the following values: URL, Date, Address, Email, or FilePath. The service is displayed only if the selected text contains data of a corresponding type. For example, if the selected text contained an http-based link, the service would be displayed if the value of this key were set to URL.

Note that all of the selected text is provided to the service-vending app, not just the parts found to contain the given data types.

OS X

UTTypeConformsTo

“Conforms to UTIs”

Array

(Required) Contains an array of strings. Each string identifies a UTI to which this type conforms. These keys represent the parent categories to which your custom file format belongs. For example, a JPEG file type conforms to the public.image and public.data types. For a list of high-level types, see Uniform Type Identifiers Overview.

iOS, OS X

UTTypeDescription

“Description”

String

A user-readable description of this type. The string associated with this key may be localized in your bundle’s InfoPlist.strings files.

iOS, OS X

UTTypeIconFile

“Icon file name”

String

The name of the bundle icon resource to associate with this UTI. You should include this key only for types that your app exports. This file should have a .icns filename extension. You can create this file using the Icon Composer app that comes with Xcode Tools.

OS X

UTTypeIdentifier

“Identifier”

String

(Required) The UTI you want to assign to the type. This string uses the reverse-DNS format, whereby more generic types come first. For example, a custom format for your company would have the form com.<yourcompany>.<type>.<subtype>.

iOS, OS X

UTTypeReferenceURL

“Reference URL”

String

The URL for a reference document that describes this type.

OS X

UTTypeSize64IconFile

None

String

The name of the 64 x 64 pixel icon resource file (located in the app’s bundle) to associate with this UTI. You should include this key only for types that your app exports.

iOS

UTTypeSize320IconFile

None

String

The name of the 320 x 320 pixel icon resource file (located in the app’s bundle) to associate with this UTI. You should include this key only for types that your app exports.

iOS

UTTypeTagSpecification

“Equivalent Types”

Dictionary

(Required) A dictionary defining one or more equivalent type identifiers. The key-value pairs listed in this dictionary identify the filename extensions, MIME types, OSType codes, and pasteboard types that correspond to this type. For example, to specify filename extensions, you would use the key public.filename-extension and associate it with an array of strings containing the actual extensions. For more information about the keys for this dictionary, see Uniform Type Identifiers Overview.

iOS, OS X