Question

After trying for two months I find out how to obtain AttributedString from any text range of TextEdit (or any NSTextView). my code is as:

AXUIElementRef systemWideElement = AXUIElementCreateSystemWide();
AXUIElementRef focussedElement = NULL;
AXError error = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(systemWideElement,
    kAXFocusedUIElementAttribute, (CFTypeRef*)&focussedElement);
if (error != kAXErrorSuccess) {
    println("Could not get focussed element");
}
else {
    AXValueRef selectedRangeValue = NULL;
    AXError getSelectedRangeError =
        AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(focussedElement,
        kAXSelectedTextRangeAttribute, (CFTypeRef*)&selectedRangeValue);
    if (getSelectedRangeError == kAXErrorSuccess) {
        CFRange selectedRange;
        AXValueGetValue(selectedRangeValue, kAXValueCFRangeType,
            &selectedRange);
        AXValueRef attributedString = NULL;
        AXError getAttrStrError =
            AXUIElementCopyParameterizedAttributeValue(focussedElement,
            kAXAttributedStringForRangeParameterizedAttribute, selectedRangeValue,
            (CFTypeRef*)&attributedString);
        CFRelease(selectedRangeValue);

        if (getAttrStrError == kAXErrorSuccess)
        {
            CFAttributedStringRef attrStr = (CFAttributedStringRef)attributedString;

            CFTypeRef value = CFAttributedStringGetAttribute(
                attrStr, 0, kAXFontTextAttribute, NULL);

            println("value: %X", value); // value is not NULL, but I can't obtain font name from it.

            CFRelease(attributedString);
        }
        else
        {
            println("Could not get attributed string for selected range");
        }
    }
    else {
        println("Could not get selected range");
    }
}
if (focussedElement != NULL)
    CFRelease(focussedElement);
CFRelease(systemWideElement);

I properly obtained CFAttributedStringRef (I can get length or plain text from it), but I can not obtain font name.

Note:

the value returned form below code is not NULL:

CFTypeRef value = CFAttributedStringGetAttribute(
                attrStr, 0, kAXFontTextAttribute, NULL);

The value can not be assumed as CTFontRef or CGFontRef, ATSFontRef, … (causes exception).

Also I try kCTFontAttributeName instead kAXFontTextAttribute, but returns NULL.

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

The value associated with the key kAXFontTextAttribute seems to be a CFDictionaryRef. See AXTextAttributedString documentation.