Construct and manage a graphical, event-driven user interface for your macOS app using AppKit.

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Honoring User's Changed Selection when Registering macOS MainApp with SMAppService
Hello, Currently my macOS application registers itself as a login item in the AppDelegate applicationDidFinishLaunching method (see code below) However, I'm running into a problem that if the user is auto upgraded (internal 3rd party implementation) that the .pkg postinstall script runs, the last step which is launching the GUI application. Because of this, if a user unselects our app as a LoginItem, when it is relaunched, it will add itself back. I have checked the SMAppService statuses (.enabled, .notRegistered, .notFound) and discovered that when a user disables the app as a login item, the status is returned as .notFound. I am trying to find a way to detect if the user previously removed our app from login items and not register the app as a login item back, but for the first time the user opens the app the app is registered as a login item. Would checking if the status is .notRegistered work in this case for a first time install? What should i do differently? func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) { ... guard !Runtime.isDebug else { self.logger.debug("Detected Xcode host; Skipping installation of helper components.") return } self.logger.info("Setting UI login item") if mainApp.status != .enabled { //old code, incorrect. What should go here? do { try mainApp.register() } catch { logger.error("Failed to initialize UI login item: \(error.localizedDescription)") } } }
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How to get Command Line Tool code to launch SwiftUI App code
For MacOS I wrote a Terminal Command Line Tool to help me do number crunching calculations. No need for UI. This works great as-is, but there are opportunities to make the work more interesting by giving it some graphical representation like a heat map of the data. To that end I want the terminal to launch a SwiftUI code to open a window given an optional command line parameter that would display this visual representation of data in a new window. It would be nice to interact with that window visualization in some ways using SwiftUI. I originally thought it'd just be as easy as creating a SwiftUI View file and then throwing what normally appears under @main into a launch function and then calling the launch function from my main.swift file: import SwiftUI struct SwiftUIView: View { var body: some View { Text("Hello, World!") } } #Preview { SwiftUIView() } func LaunchSwiftUIApp() { //@main struct SwiftUIApp: App { var body: some Scene { WindowGroup { SwiftUIView() } } } } Of course this doesn't work. I've already have the command line code just spit out various png files via command line so looking to make those visualization a little more interactive or readable/organized by coding some SwiftUI stuff around those current visualizations. Anyway. Looking around this doesn't seem to be a thing people normally do. I'm not sure how to setup the Terminal Command Line Tool code that I wrote to optionally launch into SwiftUI code.
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How to send x,y data from HIDStylusDriver to StylusApp to Pen/Draw
Here is project I am researching: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/hiddriverkit/handling_stylus_input_from_a_human_interface_device I have a Touch screen and I want: can control this screen, I can enable extension and control Touch screen successfully. can pen on this screen. To do this, I need to send X,Y to StylusApp(AppKit) But I Can not send X, Y to Swift StylusApp Eventhough I can log X,Y it by default code: But I don't know how to send it to AppKit to Pen. I have research about communicate Driver and Client: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/driverkit/communicating_between_a_driverkit_extension_and_a_client_app#4324306 but seem HID driver don't support inheritance from IOUserClient:
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"App not responding" in the dock menu
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.
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SF Symbol rotate animation in NSImageView looks weird in macOS 15 beta
When using the new ‘addSymbolEffect’ effect method on NSImageView with the ‘.rotate.byLayer’ parameter with an applicable SF Symbol 6 symbol, the resulting animation is not completely as expected, to say it mildly. This is the code line I use: imageView.addSymbolEffect(.rotate.byLayer, options: .repeat(.continuous), animated: true) The correct layer rotates around the correct anchor point, but the whole image is moving up and down. The same code with the same symbol in iOS 18 beta runs perfectly. Does anyone know how to get this new rotate API correctly working in macOS 15 beta? In case an Apple engineer reads this: FB13916874 contains example projects for macOS (wobbling rotation) and iOS (perfect rotation), and a screen recording what I see in macOS 15 beta.
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Regression macOS 15 beta: NSTableViewDiffableDataSource does not call the 'cellProvider' when the data of a visible cell changes
In one of my apps, I use NSTableViewDiffableDataSource in tandem with NSFetchedResultsController, which provides the necessary snapshots. This works great in macOS 14.5. However in latest macOS 15 betas, NSTableViewDiffableDataSource does not call the 'cellProvider' completion handler anymore when the data of a visible cell changes. When data of a visible cell changes, the didChangeContentWith method of NSFetchedResultsController is called correctly, but applying the provided snapshot doesn’t result in calling the said 'cellProvider' completion handler. This looks a rollback to the early state of this API in 2020. It concerns this piece of code: dataSource = NSTableViewDiffableDataSource(tableView: tableView, cellProvider: { (tableView, tableColumn, row, item) -> NSView in // Return a cell view with data }) Does anyone know a solution or workaround to get animated updates of visible cells working in macOS 15 beta? Yes, applying the snapshot without animation works, but that’s not where NSTableViewDiffableDataSource is designed for. In case an Apple engineer reads this: Looking at the sample code associated with FB13931189, is there anything wrongly implemented that prevents calling the 'cellProvider' method for visible cells? Is this perhaps actually a bug of NSFetchedResultsController? I’m asking this because NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource does have a very similar problem (FB13943853). PS Yes, this post looks very similar to https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/759381#759381021, because the problem is identical except that concerns NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource.
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Regression macOS 15 beta: NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource does not call the 'itemProvider' when the data of a visible item changes
In one of my apps, I use NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource in tandem with NSFetchedResultsController, which provides the necessary snapshots. This works great in macOS 14.5. However, when updating data in Core Data related to a visible item in a NSCollectionView, the NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource no longer calls the ‘itemProvider’ closure of the diffable data source when using macOS 15 Seed 3, after applying a snapshot with animation. As a result of this, the collection view does not update visible items when the related data changes. I’m talking about this piece of code which is no longer called when it concerns a visible item: dataSource = NSCollectionViewDiffableDataSource<String, NSManagedObjectID>(collectionView: collectionView, itemProvider: { // Return an NSCollectionViewItem here }) Does anyone know a workaround or solution to get updating of visible cells working in macOS 15 Seed 3, without losing animated updates? In case an Apple engineer is reading this: Are there any related API changes that must be taken into account? Is this perhaps actually a bug of NSFetchedResultsController? I’m asking this because NSTableViewDiffableDataSource does have a very similar problem in macOS 15 beta. See also FB13943853
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NSApplicationPresentationDisableHideApplication is not disabling the "Hide" option from the dock menu
Hello, I am trying to use the following code to disable the Hide option for my application : NSApplicationPresentationOptions options = [NSApp presentationOptions]; options |= NSApplicationPresentationDisableHideApplication; [NSApp setPresentationOptions:options]; , but it doesn't have any effect : the Hide option is still clickable : How could I remove this option? Thanks for any help in advance!
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How to debug over-release in Objective-C with ARC?
I'm getting a runtime assertion failure like this: "<FFRender3DView 0x616000271580> has reached dealloc but still has a super view. Super views strongly reference their children, so this is being over-released, or has been over-released in the past." Looking at the code, I can't see any strong reference to the view except by its superview, so I can't see how it could be released other than by removal from its superview. My first instinct was to override release and set a breakpoint there, but that's not possible in ARC code.
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I tried to add a overlay window onto app in full screen mode but failed
As the topic mentioned, I want to add a overlay window onto Apps that are in full screen mode, trying to create some blur effect on the screen. But Apple seems to treat full screen mode Apps differently as a "space." So currently I can only apply the blur effect like this. (This is my Desktop page) But When it doesn't affect the full screen mode Apps. (For example: My Xcode) And I know some of the App down this kind of stuff. Like this This is my current code. Hope someone can tell me how to solve it.
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Display interactable UI on macOS login screen
We are developing a lightweight VPN client inside a daemon process that will run even when no user session is active on machine. The lightweight VPN runs in machine context and does not require user session. We would like to display some basic diagnosis information about our lightweight client on macOS login window before user is logged into their machine (in case users need that). So, is it possible to display a UI window on login screen with some basic info that user can interact with. If yes, where can I get started? Please note, this is not an authorization plugin. We are just wanting to display info about our process that runs a lightweight VPN client on macOS login screen.
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Programmatically created NSWindow crashes upon close
I am trying to wrap my head around proper lifecycles of NSWindows and how to handle them properly. I have the default macOS app template with a ViewController inside a window that is inside a Window Controller. I also create a simple programatic window in applicationDidFinishLaunching like this: let dummyWindow = CustomWindow(contentRect: .init(origin: .zero, size: .init(width: 200, height: 100)), styleMask: [.titled, .closable, .resizable], backing: .buffered, defer: true) dummyWindow.title = "Code window" dummyWindow.makeKeyAndOrderFront(nil) The CustomWindow class is just: class CustomWindow: NSWindow { deinit { print("Deinitializing window...") } } When I close the programatic window (either by calling .close() or by just tapping the red close button, the app crashes with EXC_BAD_ACCESS. Even though I am not accessing the window in any way. One might think it's because of ARC but it's not. One—the window is still strongly referenced by NSApplication.shared.windows even when the local scope of applicationDidFinishLaunching ends. And two—the "Deinitializing window..." is only printed after the window is closed. Closing the Interface Builder window works without any crashes. I dug deep and played with the isReleasedWhenClosed property. It made no difference whether it was false or true for the IB window. It stopped the crashing for the programmatic window though. But this raises three questions: What is accessing the programatic window after it's closed—causing a crash because the default behaviour of NSWindow is to release it—if it's not my code? What is the difference under the hood between a normal window and a window inside a window controller that prevents these crashes? If the recommended approach for programmatic windows is to always set isReleasedWhenClosed = true then how do you actually release a programatic window so that it does not linger in memory indefinetely? If the EXC_BAD_ACCESS means that an object is double de-allocated then that would mean that .close() both releases the window (first release) and removes it from the window list which would mean last strong reference is released and ARC cleans the window out (second release). The theory is supported by me calling .orderOut() instead of close which only removes it from the application list and that does indeed release it without crash. Does this mean programmatic windows should override the close() instance method to call orderOut() instead? This seems like poor API design or I am understanding it wrong?
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NSTextInputClient concurrency issues in Swift 6
Hello! In our codebase we have a NSView subclass that conforms to NSTextInputClient. This protocol is currently not marked as a main actor, but in the decade this has been in use here it has always been called on the main thread from AppKit. With Swift 6 (or complete concurrency checking in Swift 5) this conformance causes issues since NSView is a main actor but not this protocol. I've tried a few of the usual fixes (MainActor.assumeIsolated or prefixing the protocol conformance with @preconcurrency) but they were not able to resolve all warnings. So I dug in the AppKit headers and found that NSTextInputClient is usually implemented by the view itself, but that that is not a hard requirement (see NSTextInputContext.h the documentation for the client property or here). With that I turned my NSView subclass extension into a separate class that is not a main actor and in my NSView subclass create an instance of it and NSTextInputContext. This all seems to work fine in my initial tests, the delegate methods are called. But when the window loses and then regains key, I see a warning message in the console output. -[TUINSCursorUIController activate:]: Foo.TextInputClient isn't subclass of NSView. So my question is, am I doing it wrong with the custom class that implements the protocol? Or is the warning wrong? I would also appreciate a hint on how to better resolve the concurrency issues with NSTextInputClient. Is a main actor annotation coming at some point from your end? Thanks! Markus
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Jun ’24
Opt out of window tiling (macOS 15)
Is there a way to opt certain windows out of tiling in macOS 15? I'm supporting a beloved feature called App Veil[1], which places windows below others that are not owned by the host application. These windows are passive: they don't allow mouse events and cannot be resized or moved. With the new tiling feature on macOS 15, the window manager will rearrange these windows if you choose an arrangement option (such as Arrange Left & Right). Ideally, I'd like to opt out of this behavior altogether for these windows, but I couldn't find a way to do that. The only thing I've found was that I could set a high window level, but that's not really an option as it's important to preserve the ordering so that the windows are directly below the out-of-process windows. 1: https://tuple.app/app-veil
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Jun ’24
onDisappear (or similar) for macOS Settings/Preferences screen
Hi All, this question has been asked before by others, without any success so far. I'm using the following (standard) method to open the system provided settings screen for my macOS (only) app in SwiftUI. var body: some Scene { Settings { PreferencesView() } if #available(macOS 13, *) { // MenuBarExtra requires macOS 13, but SettingsLink used in here requires macOS 14 MenuBarExtra("...", image: "...") { ... // this one requires macOS 14 if #available(macOS 14, *) { SettingsLink() { Text("Settings...") } } else { Button { NSApp.sendAction(Selector(("showSettingsWindow:")), to: nil, from: nil) } label: { Image(systemName: "gear") } } } } } I want to know when the settings window closes. onDisappear does not work as the settings window is not really closed, but hidden. So the view stays active. All other hacks I have found neither work. Does anyone have any idea?
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Jun ’24
Delete button in default NSSavePanel for new document
I just noticed that when closing a new document with edits in MacOS Sonoma that it skips the Save/Don't Save/Cancel panel and goes directly to default NSSavePanel with Delete/Cancel/Save buttons. The problem is that when I click "Delete" nothing happens. It should have simple solution, but I could not find anything. How does one respond to the "Delete" button? My undocumented (as far as I can tell) hack was to implement document:didSave:contextinfo selector for runModalSavePanelForSaveOperation. It appears that in this method for a new document: Delete button has didSave=YES (even though it did not save) and the document fileURL nil Cancel button has didSave=NO and document fileURL nil Save button has didSave=YES and document filieURL to saved file I can handle Delete button this way, but since it is not a documented method, it make me uncomfortable. For example what happens is user clicks "Save", but the save has an error? As an aside, since Apple is now working with ChatGPT, I thought it might provide some help. I asked it how I can respond to "Delete" button in MacOS Sonoma and it said to implement deleteDocument: in your NSDocument subclass. I pointed out to ChatGPT that deleteDocument: does not exist. It said "you are correct" and you should instead check the returned result from runModalSavePanelForSaveOperation and look for "stop" action. I pointed out to ChatGPT that runModalSavePanelForSaveOperation is void and does not return a result, it said again, "you are correct." It gave a third option which basically said to override runModalSavePanelForSaveOperation and build your own save panel from scratch. I didn't know if I should trust this answer. I reverted to my hack and wrote this post. Also ChatGPT never apologized for wasting my time with the wrong answers.
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Jun ’24