Question

UPDATE 1: Getting closer

Someone on IRC mentioned that my NSPortName should be my application, not Finder. I changed this and now I’m seeing a log message in my app when the context menu is selected:

Cannot find service provider for selector shareFile:userData:error: or shareFile:: for service shareFile

This seems odd considering I do have such an object registered.

---

I am trying to setup an NSService contextual menu for Finder to trigger my app on certain files.

The files have extension *.acxx and the action is simply to share. Note: I’ve changed all references of the bundle to be generic for this posting: com.mycompany.myproject.

My NSServices section of my infoPlist looks like this: (Note i have Document TYpes/UTIs setup for *.acxx as well)

<key>NSServices</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>NSRequiredContext</key>
            <dict>
                <key>NSTextContent</key>
                <array>
                    <string>URL</string>
                    <string>FilePath</string>
                </array>
            </dict>
            <key>NSSendFileTypes</key>
            <array>
                <string>com.mycompany.myproject.acxx</string>
            </array>
            <key>NSPortName</key>
            <string>Finder</string>
            <key>NSMessage</key>
            <string>shareFile</string>
            <key>NSMenuItem</key>
            <dict>
                <key>default</key>
                <string>Share with myproject</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    </array>

I have an object setup in my code that has the following method defined:

- (void)shareFile:(NSPasteboard*)pboard userData:(NSString*) error:(NSString**)err

And I register this elsewhere in my code:

// Register services
if (self.shareSvcMgr == nil)
{
    self.shareSvcMgr = [[ACAShareServiceManager alloc] init];
}
[NSApp setServicesProvider:self.shareSvcMgr];
NSUpdateDynamicServices();

Now, when I run the app and then make sure it’s registered with pbs, it looks fine:

/System/Library/CoreServices/pbs -debug en|grep -i myproj
        NSBundleIdentifier = "com.mycompany.myproject";
        NSBundlePath = "/Users/me/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/myproject-gihhiqhnzhwqbchflymzyafwxvws/Build/Products/Debug/myproject.app";
            default = "Share with myproject";
            "com.mycompany.myproject.acxx"

So when I go to the Finder and click on a *.acxx file, sure enough in Finder -> Services, my menu item Share with myproject shows up.

PROBLEM:

All is fine and dandy right? Well no. When I click ‘share with myproject’, nothing happens. I have a breakpoint setup in the shareFile method and the program is running and yet nothing happens, it never gets hit, etc.

I had read that I could debug the Finder using -NSDebugServices but I can’t seem to get that to work right. I’ve executed:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder -NSDebugServices com.mycompany.myproject

This seems to start up a process but I get no Finder window to try to interact with.

I’m not sure where to go next. The idea of course is to pass the filename or file contents to my application when Share is sent and then I can do what is needed with it from there.

Are the SendFileTypes not setup right or something for this model? Any help appreciated. Thanks

Answer 1

Alright. Someone on IRC pointed out that my method definition was missing something:

- (void)shareFile:(NSPasteboard*)pboard userData:(NSString*) error:(NSString**)err

It was missing a variable definition (which can totally mess up the selector matching). So it should have been this:

- (void)shareFile:(NSPasteboard*)pboard userData:(NSString*)***udata*** error:(NSString**)err

Once I changed that, the selector finally started getting called =)