Question

How can I set the focus (e.g. cmd+tab) of an arbitrary application (Java or not) from a Java program, on OSX?

Looking for an answer to this question, I came across this question, but it doesn’t really help for OSX.

EDIT: one possibiltiy seems to be to use something like Quicksilver, and a Robot to send it keypresses with modifiers. I’d prefer something more portable, though, that requires less setup to make changes after it’s compiled….

Answer 1

You should be able to reactivate an already running app using the open command that comes with OS X:

Runtime.exec("open /path/to/Whichever.app");

(Or some equivalent overload of that function.) This will also open an app if it’s not running yet.