NSWorkspace

Apple's Class Reference: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/ApplicationKit/Classes/NSWorkspace_Class/

This is a great Class that has all sorts of stuff in it. You can think of the Workspace as the Finder - most methods in this class do something related to files or volumes.

• NSWorkspaceApplicationOperations - working with applications
• NSWorkspaceFileManipulation - File Manipulation
• NSWorkspaceFinderOperations - using the shared workspace to perform finder operations
• NSWorkspaceForOpeningWebPages - opening web pages with the shared workspace
• NSWorkspaceNotifications - using workspace notifications

When using NSWorkspace, you do not allocate your own instance of the class; you grab the sharedWorkspace thusly:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] someNSWorkSpacemethod]

...or you could get a reference and keep it around, as in:

NSWorkspace *ws = [NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace];
[ws someNSWorkSpaceMethod];
[ws someOtherNSWorkSpaceMethod];

The benefit to this is speed, if you know you're going to be calling lots of methods of NSWorkspace.

Some stuff you can do with this class:

• 1- launch a URL
• 2- launch an application
• 3- open a file
• 4- find the icon for a file or fileType
• 5- reveal files in the Finder
• enumerate all local volumes
• enumerate all removable volumes
• eject removable volumes
• check for running programs
• receive notifications for programs quiting, launching

1- launch an URL:

2- launch an app:

When launching an application, it is best to use launchAppWithBundleIdentifier: because it doesn't require a full path to be specified. This way you needn't worry where on-disk the app you want to launch is.

3- open a file:

Specifying a program:

 [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openFile:@"/Myfiles/README" withApplication:@"Edit"]; 

Using the default program:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openFile:@"/foo"];

With the open file animation

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openFile:@"/foo" fromImage:[NSImage imageNamed:@"foo"] at:NSMakePoint(1,1) inView:aView];

4- find the icon for a file or filetype

Of a file at a path:

 [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] iconForFile:@"/path"]; 

Icon of a file type, no reference file needed:

 [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] iconForFileType:@"tif"]; 

5- reveal a file in the finder.

NSString * path ="/tmp/foo.txt";
[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] selectFile:path inFileViewerRootedAtPath:nil];

Odd comment in the NSWorkspace docs under hideOtherApplications: "The user can hide all applications except the current one by Command-double-clicking an application�s tile, so programmatic invocation of this method is usually unnecessary." Tile? Is this a NeXT leftover? In OS X one Command-option-clicks an application's icon in the dock.

File a documentation bug.

Done -- #3910776. Thanks for the confirmation.

It also talks about Edit.app ( rdar://3944321 ) I don't think the NSWorkspace docs have been changed much in a looong time.

Right you are, thanks. However, using [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] getFileSystemInfoForPath:isRemovable:isWritable:isUnmountable:description:type:] returns completely incorrect info as far as the isRemovable and isMountable flags. Do you know of any way to find out these two pieces of information? -- Devin

this fails:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchAppWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.CharPaletteServer"];

this works: [

[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:@"/System/Library/Components/CharacterPalette.component/Contents/SharedSupport/CharPaletteServer.app"];

any idea on how to get an app to load via bundle id? --encro

Thankyou, I think it was more the Constants for options: that I misunderstood. --encro

Solution:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchAppWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.CharPaletteServer" options:NSWorkspaceLaunchAsync additionalEventParamDescriptor:nil launchIdentifier:nil];