CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cmacosswiftcocoa
Claus Jørgensen
Claus Jørgensen

Reputation: 26351

Detect user activity in Cocoa app (taps, clicks, ...)

For a Mac application, I want to detect user activity in the app, so I can periodically let a web service know that the user is still active on the endpoint.

In Cocoa Touch, I would override sendEvent of UIApplication, but the sendEvent in NSApplication equivalent in Cocoa, doesn't do the same.

Which APIs should I use instead for a Mac application, to detect user activity? Can I perhaps somehow have a global responder hookup from where I can send the pings to my service?

Preferably, I want to listen for actions the user can be expected to perform every 15-30 second, ie. clicks, tabs, typing, switching windows or applications.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1200

Answers (2)

Ken Thomases
Ken Thomases

Reputation: 90521

It's not a notification, but you can query the time since user activity using CGEventSourceSecondsSinceLastEventType(kCGEventSourceStateCombinedSessionState, kCGAnyInputEventType).

Upvotes: 4

jscs
jscs

Reputation: 64002

You most likely want to create a global event monitor using +[NSEvent addGlobalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:handler:]. This calls your handler whenever an event whose type matches the passed mask (you should use NSAnyEventMask) is sent to another application. You can observe, but not change, the event here, which suits your usage perfectly. There is one thing to watch out for: the documentation says that you won't receive key events unless your app is trusted for Accessibility.

You can do similarly for events that are routed to your own application with +[NSEvent addLocalMonitorForEventsMatchingMask:handler:].

Upvotes: 3

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