CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cmacoseventsnotificationsapplescript
ekl
ekl

Reputation: 1051

Mac OS X -- receive notification when frontmost window changes

I am wondering whether there is a way in Mac OS X to receive a notification when the frontmost window switches to a different window -- either an Objective-C solution, or Python, or AppleScript, or something else. I want to look at the whole system, not just within my application. My app is trying to keep track of what file the user is currently working on, and I have a polling solution that gets the frontmost app and frontmost window every so often by running an AppleScript, but it would simplify my life if I could run that check only when I knew that the frontmost window had changed.

I've also looked at NSDistributedNotificationCenter and global event monitors for NSEvents, which are both useful in different ways, but don't seem able to give me the specific front-window-change notification that I'm ideally looking for.

Any ideas on directions I should try, or whether this is even possible, would be greatly appreciated!

Upvotes: 5

Views: 1991

Answers (2)

SUGIURA Shinichi
SUGIURA Shinichi

Reputation: 193

I think you would capture NSWindowDidBecomeMainNotification. The notification object contains NSWindow.

best,

Upvotes: 1

regulus6633
regulus6633

Reputation: 19032

I don't know of a way to get a notification when a window changes, however in objective-c you can get a notification when things happen at the application level. That might help you.

You want to register for NSWorkspace notifications...

[[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] notificationCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(nsworkspaceNotification:) name:nil object:nil];

Look at the bottom of the NSWorkspace class documentation for the notifications. Some that would help you are: NSWorkspaceDidLaunchApplicationNotification, NSWorkspaceDidActivateApplicationNotification, NSWorkspaceDidDeactivateApplicationNotification, NSWorkspaceDidHideApplicationNotification, NSWorkspaceDidUnhideApplicationNotification. There may be others.

Good luck.

Upvotes: 3

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