CODEWITHSUNDEEP
objective-ccocoamacos-carbon
CRD
CRD

Reputation: 53000

Where does the Finder obtain the "date added" of an item in a folder?

If a folder is placed in the Dock you can sort it by "date added" - this is usually the default for the Downloads folder. (Sometimes the Finder does not appear to be using the date added but the date modified, but it can find the date added.) Where is the Finder figuring this out from? The standard file metadata, i.e. as obtained by stat, getattrlist or FSGetCatInfo) does not contain it. TIA

Upvotes: 5

Views: 1623

Answers (3)

Ky -
Ky -

Reputation: 32093

Here's a Swift 5.x version of Wojtek's answer:

public extension URL {
    var dateAdded: Date? {
        guard let metadataItemValue = MDItemCreateWithURL(kCFAllocatorDefault, (self as CFURL)) else {
            return nil
        }
        return MDItemCopyAttribute(metadataItemValue, kMDItemDateAdded) as? Date
    }
}

I've tested this back to Swift 4.x, and I think it'll compile without modification back to Swift 3.x if you need that too. Just be aware that, before Swift 5, its inferred visibility would be internal rather than public.

Upvotes: 2

Jens Ayton
Jens Ayton

Reputation: 14558

Note: out of date now that Lion’s out.

The Finder isn’t, the Dock is. It tracks this data internally. If you remove a folder and put it back, the “date added” information is lost for existing items.

Upvotes: 1

Wojtek
Wojtek

Reputation: 136

Yep, the date added could be inferred from other structures. In fact, it resides in Spotlight metadata.

NSDate *dateAdded(NSURL *url)
{
    NSDate *rslt = nil;
    MDItemRef inspectedRef = nil;

    inspectedRef = MDItemCreateWithURL(kCFAllocatorDefault, (CFURLRef)url);
    if (inspectedRef){
        CFTypeRef cfRslt = MDItemCopyAttribute(inspectedRef, (CFStringRef)@"kMDItemDateAdded");
        if (cfRslt) {
            rslt = (NSDate *)cfRslt;
        }
    }
    return rslt;
}

Upvotes: 12

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