Question

I am opening the system preferences application from within my application. I also would like to set the the applications frame so it is aligned at the left side of my application. The problem is that I do not know how to access the applications frame property, or launch it at a specific point.

I am using NSWorkspace to launch it, then get an instance of NSRunningApplication which I hope can be used to manipulate the window.

-(void)openPreferencesAndSetFrame;
{
    @try {
        BOOL success = [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openFile:@"/System/Library/PreferencePanes/Localization.prefPane"];
        if (success == YES)
        {
            NSArray *appArray = [NSRunningApplication runningApplicationsWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.systempreferences"];
            if ([appArray count] > 0)
            {
                NSRunningApplication *sysPrefApp = [appArray objectAtIndex:0];
                //set frame here
            }
        }         
    } @catch (NSException *exception) {
        NSLog(@"%@", [exception description]);
    }
}

Answer 1

After some research, try and error I found the solution. As mentioned AppleScript is able to do the job.

-(void)openPreferencesAndSetFrame;
{
    @try {
        NSAppleEventDescriptor *theResult;
        NSDictionary *errorInfo;
        float posX = 100;
        float posY = 200;

        NSString *sourceStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"ignoring application responses\r\n tell application \"System Preferences\"\r\n activate\r\n end tell\r\n tell application \"System Events\"\r\n tell process \"System Preferences\"\r\n set position of window 1 to {%f, %f}\r\n end tell\r\n end tell\r\n end ignoring\r\n", posX, posY];
        NSAppleScript *theScript = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:sourceStr];

        theResult = [theScript executeAndReturnError:&errorInfo];
        if (nil == theResult ) {        
            NSString *err = [NSString stringWithFormat:
                         @"Error %@ occured call: %@",
                         [errorInfo objectForKey:NSAppleScriptErrorNumber],
                         [errorInfo objectForKey:NSAppleScriptErrorBriefMessage]];

            NSRunAlertPanel(@"AttachAScript Error", err, @"ok", nil, nil);
        }                
    } @catch (NSException *exception) {
        NSLog(@"%@", [exception description]);
    }
}