macOS Track mouse movement outside app's window

[ranguvar]

Hi,

I'd like my app to track mouse movements even if the mouse no longer hovers above the app's window, but for example on the desktop or on other apps. Receiving a -mouseExited call is not enough, I have to know the actual position of the mouse on the screen.
Is this possible using an NSTrackingArea (if so, how)? Or do I have to use something else.

Thanks for any input!

 

[chown33]

Google keywords: cocoa mouse screen coordinates

Example result:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1117065/cocoa-getting-the-current-mouse-position-on-the-screen

Also google keywords: carbon mouse screen coordinates

 

[ranguvar]

Google keywords: cocoa mouse screen coordinates

Example result:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1117065/cocoa-getting-the-current-mouse-position-on-the-screen

Also google keywords: carbon mouse screen coordinates

Thanks! I was so focused on getting mouseMoved events I didn't figure out it could actually be as simple as using a timer & those methods to achieve what I wanted ....

 

[Catfish_Man]

Better (but 10.6-only) way:

[NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:NSMouseMoved handler:^(NSEvent *mouseMovedEvent) {
 //do things with mouseMovedEvent
}];

 

[ehunt123]

This is the first snippet of code (and with all the goodies on the repo, I thought that was Amit Sign) here:

http://code.google.com/p/le-depotoir/source/browse/trunk/obj-C/MouseTrackingAnyWhere