macOS Automatically start applications on login

[cineologist]

Hello fellow developers,

I have developed an application using Objective-C using Xcode. I'm ready to release the software except for one last hurdle I need to figure out and that is to automatically start the application when user logs into their account.

I am aware that System Preference has login items that can be added.

What I am interested in is to develop a script that would add the application to the start up list during the installation procedure.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

Chad

 

[chown33]

Customizing Login and Logout:
http://developer.apple.com/mac/libr...ual/BPSystemStartup/Articles/CustomLogin.html

Google search terms:
login items site:developer.apple.com

 

[Darkroom]

this works with OS 10.5, but i'm not sure about 10.6. it doesn't work with 10.4.

@implementation EnableLogin (PrivateMethods)

- (void)enableLoginItemWithLoginItemsReference:(LSSharedFileListRef )theLoginItemsRefs ForPath:(CFURLRef)thePath
	{
	LSSharedFileListItemRef item = LSSharedFileListInsertItemURL(theLoginItemsRefs, kLSSharedFileListItemLast, NULL, NULL, thePath, NULL, NULL);		
	if (item)
		{
		CFRelease(item);
		}
	}

- (void)disableLoginItemWithLoginItemsReference:(LSSharedFileListRef )theLoginItemsRefs ForPath:(CFURLRef)thePath
	{
	UInt32 seedValue;
	NSArray  *loginItemsArray = (NSArray *)LSSharedFileListCopySnapshot(theLoginItemsRefs, &seedValue);
	for (id item in loginItemsArray)
		{		
		LSSharedFileListItemRef itemRef = (LSSharedFileListItemRef)item;
		if (LSSharedFileListItemResolve(itemRef, 0, (CFURLRef*) &thePath, NULL) == noErr)
			{
			if ([[(NSURL *)thePath path] hasPrefix:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]])
			LSSharedFileListItemRemove(theLoginItemsRefs, itemRef);
			}
		}
	[loginItemsArray release];
	}

@end

 

[cineologist]

Many thanks! I know for a fact that future developers who comes across this will definitely appreciate this a lot, including myself.

That helped a lot!

 

[cineologist]

this works with OS 10.5, but i'm not sure about 10.6. it doesn't work with 10.4.

@implementation EnableLogin (PrivateMethods)

- (void)enableLoginItemWithLoginItemsReference:(LSSharedFileListRef )theLoginItemsRefs ForPath:(CFURLRef)thePath
	{
	LSSharedFileListItemRef item = LSSharedFileListInsertItemURL(theLoginItemsRefs, kLSSharedFileListItemLast, NULL, NULL, thePath, NULL, NULL);		
	if (item)
		{
		CFRelease(item);
		}
	}

- (void)disableLoginItemWithLoginItemsReference:(LSSharedFileListRef )theLoginItemsRefs ForPath:(CFURLRef)thePath
	{
	UInt32 seedValue;
	NSArray  *loginItemsArray = (NSArray *)LSSharedFileListCopySnapshot(theLoginItemsRefs, &seedValue);
	for (id item in loginItemsArray)
		{		
		LSSharedFileListItemRef itemRef = (LSSharedFileListItemRef)item;
		if (LSSharedFileListItemResolve(itemRef, 0, (CFURLRef*) &thePath, NULL) == noErr)
			{
			if ([[(NSURL *)thePath path] hasPrefix:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]])
			LSSharedFileListItemRemove(theLoginItemsRefs, itemRef);
			}
		}
	[loginItemsArray release];
	}

@end

Thought this would help others who need to know what to do to use the EnableLogin object:

- (IBAction)addLoginItem:(id)sender {
 
	NSString* applicationPath = [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath];
	CFURLRef url = (CFURLRef)[NSURL fileURLWithPath: applicationPath];
 
	// Create a reference to the shared file list.
	LSSharedFileListRef loginItems = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL, kLSSharedFileListSessionLoginItems, NULL);
 
	if (loginItems) {
		if ([[checkStartup selectedCell] state] == YES) //checkStartup should be you checkbox that adds/removes the item from the list
			[self enableLoginItemWithLoginItemsReference:loginItems ForPath:url];
		else
			[self disableLoginItemWithLoginItemsReference:loginItems ForPath:url];
	}
	CFRelease(loginItems);
}

Thanks everybody for pitching in!