CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-cswiftpointers
mica
mica

Reputation: 4308

Accessing Objective-C Pointers in Swift

I have this Objective-C Code fragment, which I want to express in Swift

CFArrayRef windowList;
AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(appRef, kAXWindowsAttribute, (CFTypeRef *)&windowList);

if ((!windowList) || CFArrayGetCount(windowList)<1)
        continue;

AXUIElementRef windowRef = (AXUIElementRef) CFArrayGetValueAtIndex( windowList, 0);
CFTypeRef role;
AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(windowRef, kAXRoleAttribute, (CFTypeRef *)&role);

The first thing I´m not sure about: Who allocates the memory behind the windowListPointer. I tried with this fragment:

var windowListPointer : UnsafeMutablePointer<Optional<AnyObject>>
AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(appRef, kAXWindowsAttribute as CFString, windowListPointer );

But that does not even compile: It complains, the windowListPointer is not initialised. What Object I could create, to let the WindowListPointer point to?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 676

Answers (2)

Martin R
Martin R

Reputation: 540105

If you pass an UnsafeMutablePointer<Optional<AnyObject>> as the last argument to AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue() then you must initialize it by allocating (and ultimately releasing) memory:

var resultPtr: UnsafeMutablePointer<Optional<AnyObject>> = UnsafeMutablePointer.allocate(capacity: 1)
resultPtr.initialize(to: nil)

let result = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(appRef, kAXWindowsAttribute as CFString, resultPtr)
// ...

resultPtr.deinitialize()
resultPtr.deallocate(capacity: 1)

It is easier to pass the address of an Optional<AnyObject> variable with &. Then conditionally cast the received object to the expected type, in this case an array of AXUIElement:

var value: AnyObject?
let result = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(appRef, kAXWindowsAttribute as CFString, &value)
if result == .success, let windowList = value as? [AXUIElement] {
    // use `windowList`
}

and similarly:

if let window = windowList.first {
    var value: AnyObject?
    let result = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(window, kAXRoleAttribute as CFString, &value)
    if result == .success, let role = value as? String {
        // use `role` ...
    }
}

One could define a generic utility function which encapsulates all the casting:

func axUICopyAttributeValue<T>(of element: AXUIElement, attribute: String, as type: T.Type) -> T? {
    var value: AnyObject?
    let result = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(element, attribute as CFString, &value)
    if result == .success, let typedValue = value as? T {
        return typedValue
    }
    return nil
}

Example usage:

if let windowList = axUICopyAttributeValue(of: appRef, attribute: kAXWindowsAttribute, as:[AXUIElement].self) {

    for window in windowList {
        if let role = axUICopyAttributeValue(of: window, attribute: kAXRoleAttribute, as: String.self) {

            // ...
        }
    }
}

Upvotes: 3

Josh Homann
Josh Homann

Reputation: 16347

CFArray is the Foundation C version of NSArray (since C doesn't understand Objective C NSObjects). Swift papers over both NSArray and CFArray for you so you don't need to use a pointer; you should just be able to cast it to a Swift array of the appropriate type with as?

Upvotes: 1

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