Apple

How to Automatically Connect Debugger to Extension and App

February 28, 2023 • 3 minute read

There is a convenient way to automatically connect the debugger in Xcode to a file provider extension and its host app process on run.

How I Test View Controllers

November 11, 2022 • 4 minute read

By example I want to show how I instantiate and test view controllers from a storyboard in a macOS app using the conventional MVC pattern and AppKit.

Restore Clean NSFileProviderReplicatedExtension Environment

November 9, 2022 • 4 minute read

While developing and porting macOS file provider extensions based on NSFileProviderReplicatedExtension I sometimes ended up in a messed up state of my environment. I found these steps to restore a clean environment again.

How to manage Login Items in Swift

November 4, 2022 • 2 minute read

There is a Mac App Store and Sandbox compatible method to implement automatic launch on login. Checking the enablement status before macOS 13 Ventura is a bit tricky, though.

Resetting a Privacy Choice on macOS

September 28, 2022 • 1 minute read

macOS shows a privacy choice prompt for certain aspects like the address book only when an app requests access the first time. This simple terminal command erases the saved choice.

Passing Build Settings Into Property Lists

July 11, 2022 • 4 minute read

An app which is customizable for different brands and customers also requires a parameterized build configuration. Some values need to be accessible during runtime, too, while retaining a single source of truth. This is more elegant take on what could have been achieved with preprocessor macros in Objective-C times.

Working with Accessibility in Mind

April 5, 2022 • 1 minute read

Bring the macOS accessibility feature toggle into the menu bar and quickly inspect your projects with as little as two clicks.

Embedded App Naming Conflict Resolved with Bundle Display Name

April 1, 2022 • 3 minute read

The app I am working on has a customizable bundle name and embeds another app which should appear with the same name. This causes a conflict which can be overcome by using CFBundleDisplayName.

Packages Not Supported with Legacy Build Locations

April 1, 2022 • 2 minute read

When I was messing around with Xcode build settings I summoned the tenacious error of unsupported Swift packages in combination with legacy build locations.

Old-Style ASCII Property List Syntax Support for Sublime Text

March 21, 2022 • 1 minute read

I published a package which provides syntax definitions for old-style ASCII property lists in Sublime Text.

Xcode Configuration Settings Syntax Support for Sublime Text

March 21, 2022 • 1 minute read

I published a package which provides syntax definitions for Xcode configuration settings files in Sublime Text.

macOS Preferences Window with Storyboards

February 25, 2022 • 4 minute read

Recently I started with a fresh project from scratch in which I wanted to implement a preferences window with tool bar tabs as they are common on macOS. It is surprisingly easy.

Exporting Unified Logging System Messages with OSLog

February 18, 2022 • 2 minute read

Logs are useless, if you cannot access them. The introduction of the OSLog framework finally makes it possible to extract logs from the unified logging system. This is how.

Manually Symbolicate Mac App Store Crash

January 31, 2022 • 2 minute read

If Xcode fails to automatically resolve frames in your crash reports of your Mac App Store app even though you have the original Xcode archive, this is how you can achieve it manually.

A macOS App with a File Provider Extension

January 30, 2022 • 6 minute read

To me it was not obvious on how to get started with the file provider API on macOS. I want to share how I successfully set up an Xcode project for development.

Seeing Through the Apple Signing Jungle

January 25, 2022 • 6 minute read

Signing apps can be an overwhelming topic when you don’t let Xcode handle it automatically. This is an attempt to summarize it in my own words like I would do to others in a casual setting who are not familiar with the topic yet.

Resource Strings Syntax Support for Sublime Text

January 17, 2022 • 2 minute read

I published a package which provides syntax definitions for resource string files in Sublime Text.

How to Build Unsigned macOS Apps

January 12, 2022 • 3 minute read

Sometimes you have to build a project for customers with IDs under their control but without their signing assets. This is how.

Manually Signing Embedded Swift Runtime

January 5, 2022 • 2 minute read

Sometimes the Swift runtime ends up in a built product as well and needs to be (re)signed just like the rest.