LabVIEW
Is there a way to pass files to a LV app in Mac OS X?
Hi Shaper1981,
Don't know if you're still interested in this topic, but I can provide a detailed workaround regarding how to open files (either by double-click or choose "Open With...") with LV built app on macOS.
A little background:
When opening files, windows platform passes file paths to executables as arguments, using "Command Line Arguments Property" in LV executables can receive file paths and perform actions on those files. However, macOS handles "open file" in a way differs from windows (See this link for more info), in short, file paths are not passed as arguments to LV app, if you force to open files by ⌥+⌘+Draging files onto LV app, error message "App is damaged" would pop up.
Goals:
1. Create an app that can handle files, pass file paths as arguments to LV app via following shell script. You can build by Xcode if you're an experienced developer, or you can build one using built-in app called "Automator.app".
open -a /Path/to/LV.app --args filepath1 filepath2
2. Modify info.plist of file-handler app, associate specified file types so that you can open with double-click.
Workaround:
1. Place "Open Application Reference" and "Property Node: Command Line Arguments" in block diagram of your main VI in LabVIEW, then start building application (Be sure to check "pass all arguments"). For demo, I add an Array Indicator to display received arguments.
2. Open Automator.app and select “Application”, now you should see Action Library on the left and blank workflow section on the right.
Search action “run applescript” and drag to workflow section, paste following AppleScript code (overwrite given template).
on esc_char(x, char) --Adding backslash before char
set oldDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to char
set x_list to text items of x
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "\\" & char
set x to x_list as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelimiters
return x
end esc_char
on esc(x) --Adding backslash before special string
repeat with char in {" ", "(", ")", "{", "}", "[", "]", "!", "#", "$", "%", "&", "|", "*", "=", ";", "'", "\"", "?", "<", ">", ","}
if char is in x then
set x to esc_char(x, char)
end if
end repeat
return x
end esc
on run {input, parameters}
set args to "" --This is the arguments pass to LV.app
set thisAppPath to POSIX path of (path to me as text) --This is the path to THIS app
set TargetApp to esc(thisAppPath & "Contents/Core.app") --Rename LV built app to Core.app, and place it under ThisApp/Contents/
if (length of input = 0) then --No input, directly open LV app
do shell script "open -a " & TargetApp
else
repeat with i in input --else, get input files' path and pass to LV app via shell script
set filePath to esc(POSIX path of i)
set args to args & filePath & " "
end repeat
do shell script "open -a " & TargetApp & " --args " & args
end if
end run
Explanations: First two functions are used for escaping special characters in path string, in order to be recognized by Terminal. The rest function does what I said in Goals.
3. Save this app to any place you like, let's call it "OpenFile.app", control-click this app to "Show Package Contents", navigate to Contents folder where you can see info.plist, Resources folder. If the AppleScript code is NOT modified, you should rename LV-built app to Core.app and move it under OpenFile.app/Contents/, including any LV support folders if you have any to make sure LV-built app can run without error.
4. Now you can Drag files onto OpenFile.app, LV built app can receive file paths as arguments without error.
At this point, you can change the default app of ANY file type in "Get Info -> Open with", which means you can double click the specified type of file and eventually open in LV built app.
5. We can also change the display icons for specified file type and display OpenFile.app on "Open with..." list by modify info.plist of OpenFile.app.
The customized icon file (.icns) should be place under OpenFile.app/Contents/Resources/, and name should match the one in info.plist. Finally, run following code to refresh Launch Services (Change path accordingly):
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -f /PATH/TO/OpenFile.app
I attached demo application "OpenFile.app", it can be opened by Automator.app, feel free to play with it, but remember, info.plist and Resources folder will be initialized if you save changes in Automator, save carefully.
This is the end of the tutorial, hope it helps.
Regards,
