How to launch application and bring it to front using Cocoa api?

Question

I\'m very new to a cocoa programming and I can\'t find the way to do the following:

• Start a particular application by name
• Do some work
• Later

Answer 1

To launch an application :

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:@"/Applications/Safari.app"];

To activate an app :

NSRunningApplication* app = [NSRunningApplication
                             runningApplicationWithProcessIdentifier: PID];
[app activateWithOptions: NSApplicationActivateAllWindows];
// or
NSArray* apps = [NSRunningApplication
                 runningApplicationsWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.bla.blah"];
[(NSRunningApplication*)[apps objectAtIndex:0]
 activateWithOptions: NSApplicationActivateAllWindows];

Answer 2

NSRunningApplication is available on Mac OS X 10.6 or later.

If you have to support earlier systems, this can be done with APIs such as GetCurrentProcess() and SetFrontProcess() and the old ProcessSerialNumber structure.

Answer 3

Did you look into NSRunningApplication?

Answer 4

To start an application, use the NSWorkspace class: NSWorkspace Reference

Specifically, the launchApplication: function.

I don't know the answer of the activation part off my head. You can activate your own application with -[NSApplication activateIgnoringOtherApps:], but I don't know how to do it for other apps.

Answer 5

In swift 4, you can use NSWorkspace.shared.launchApplication(appName:) to open an app. It also makes the launched app at front in my case.

You also can try:

do {
    try NSWorkspace.shared.launchApplication(at: yourAppURL,
                                             options: .andHideOthers,
                                             configuration: [:])
} catch {
    printError("Failed to launch the app.")
}

Option andHideOthers: Hide all apps except the newly launched one.

Answer 6

Open App in Mac in Objective C

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {

    @autoreleasepool {
        // insert code here...
        [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:@"/Applications/Books.app"];
    }
    return 0;
}