Basically, a Mac application has a
.app
extension, but it’s not really a file — it’s a package. You can view the application’s contents by navigating to it in the Finder, right-clicking it and then choosing “Show Package Contents”.App icon missing mac. Click the lock icon to unlock it, then enter an administrator name and password (or if your Mac has a Touch Bar, use Touch ID). Select a user, then click a button at the top. Apps: Prevent the child from using the built-in camera and joining multiplayer games in Game Center. Restrict a child’s contact with other people through Mail. Desktop Organization: Keeping several icons on your desktop can create instances where icons end. On my Mac mini, app icons have gone missing for some apps (Terminal, Chrome, Spotify, Skype) from the Dock and elsewhere. See a screenshot of the Dock. When I hover over the empty spots, I can see the names of the apps and launch them normally. And here's one of the app switcher (it was kind of challenging to take this with cmd-shift-3, btw). Every once in a while, a lot of my app icons go missing in the dock, launchpad, finder, cmd-tab switcher, just everywhere. Some pictures: Obviously this is really annoying. I already tried a lot of stuff to solve it. I tried relaunching the Finder; I tried relaunching the Dock (terminal: killall Dock) I tried clearing icon cache.
Taskade 1.0 - Simple & sharable task list, notes, todo app for busy teams. 'Taskade lets you create tasks, write notes, and work together seamlessly in group projects. Mac helium app reaplcement. Alternatives to Helium - App Sync and Backup for Android, iPhone, Windows, Android Tablet, Mac and more. Filter by license to discover only free or Open Source alternatives. This list contains a total of 17 apps similar to Helium - App Sync and Backup. List updated: 5/13/2020 6:12:00 AM.
- Mac Script Execute Apps
- Mac Script Execute App Windows 10
- Mac Run Script When Application Opens
- Mac Run Script
The internal folder structure may vary between apps, but you can be sure that every Mac app will have a
Contents
folder with a MacOS
subfolder in it. Inside the MacOS
directory, there’s an extension-less file with the exact same name as the app itself. This file can be anything really, but in its simplest form it’s a shell script. As it turns out, this folder/file structure is all it takes to create a functional app!Enter appify
After this discovery, Thomas Aylott came up with a clever “appify” script that allows you to easily create Mac apps from shell scripts. The code looks like this:
Click the AppleScript icon above to (eventually) open this in Script Editor or copy and paste the text above to a new Script Editor document. Save the script named 'savefave' with Format set to 'Script' in. I copied it to a script, put it into /usr/local/bin (where other stuff is, in my path) and ran it against a script I run for a Wine application. https://rjsghb.weebly.com/blog/is-there-a-now-tv-app-for-mac. It created a directory that emulates a normal OS X app, so afterwards you can drag it to wherever you want. I put it into my /Applications folder and now I can run my Wine app like every other application.
Installing and using appify is pretty straightforward if you’re used to working with UNIX. (I’m not, so I had to figure this out.) Here’s how to install it:
- Save the script to a directory in your
PATH
and name itappify
(no extension). I chose to put it in/usr/local/bin
, which requires root privileges. - Fire up Terminal.app and enter
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/appify
to make appify executable without root privileges.
After that, you can create apps based on any shell script simply by launching Terminal.app and entering something like this:
Obviously, this would create a stand-alone application named
Your App Name.app
that executes the your-shell-script.sh
script.After that, you can very easily add a custom icon to the app if you want to.
Adding a custom app icon
- Create an
.icns
file or a 512×512 PNG image with the icon you want, and copy it to the clipboard (⌘ + C). (Alternatively, copy it from an existing app as described in steps 2 and 3.) - Right-click the
.app
file of which you want to change the icon and select “Get Info” (or select the file and press ⌘ + I). - Select the app icon in the top left corner by clicking it once. It will get a subtle blue outline if you did it right.
- Now hit ⌘ + V (paste) to overwrite the default icon with the new one.
Note that this will work for any file or folder, not just
.app
files.Examples
Chrome/Chromium bootstrappers
I like to run Chrome/Chromium with some command-line switches or flags enabled. On Windows, you can create a shortcut and set the parameters you want in its properties; on a Mac, you’ll need to launch it from the command line every time. Well, not anymore :)
The
&
at the end is not a typo; it is there to make sure Chromium is launched in a separate thread. Without the &
, Chromium would exit as soon as you quit Terminal.app.Launch a local web server from a directory
Say you’re working on a project and you want to debug it from a web server. The following shell script will use Python to launch a local web server from a specific directory and open the index page in your default browser of choice. After appifying it, you won’t even need to open the terminal for it anymore.
More?
Needless to say, the possibilities are endless. Just to give another example, you could very easily create an app that minifies all JavaScript and CSS files in a specific folder. Got any nice ideas? Let me know by leaving a comment!
Calling Command-Line Tools
In AppleScript, the
do shell script
command is used to execute command-line tools. This command is implemented by the Standard Additions scripting addition included with OS X.Note
The Terminal app in
/Applications/Utilities/
is scriptable and provides another way to execute command-line tools from scripts. Executing Commands
The direct parameter of the
do shell script
command is a string containing the shell code you want to execute, as demonstrated in Listing 39-1, which simply lists a directory.APPLESCRIPT
Listing 39-1AppleScript: Executing a simple shell command that lists the contents of a directorydo shell script 'ls /Applications/'
(*
--> Result:
'App Store.app
Automator.app
Calculator.app
Calendar.app
..'
*)
Since the direct parameter of
do shell script
is a string, you can concatenate it with other strings at run time. Listing 39-2, for example, concatenates a shell command to a previously defined parameter value.APPLESCRIPT
Listing 39-2AppleScript: Concatenating a command with a valueset theHostName to 'www.apple.com'
do shell script 'ping -c1 ' & theHostName
Quoting Strings
Mac Script Execute Apps
The shell uses space characters to separate parameters and gives special meaning to certain punctuation marks, such as
$
, (
, )
, and *
. To ensure that strings are treated as expected—for example, spaces aren’t seen as delimiters—it’s best to wrap strings in quotes. This process is known as quoting. If your string contains quotes, they must also be escaped (preceded by a /
character) so they are interpreted as part of the string. Listing 39-3 shows an example of an error occurring as a result of a parameter that contains a space.APPLESCRIPT
Mac Script Execute App Windows 10
Listing 39-3AppleScript: An error resulting from a string containing a spaceset thePath to '/Library/Application Support/'
do shell script 'ls ' & thePath
--> Result: error 'ls: /Library/Application: No such file or directoryrls: Support: No such file or directory' number 1
The easiest way to quote a string is to use the
quoted form
property of the text class, as demonstrated in Listing 39-4. This property returns the string in a form that’s safe from further interpretation by the shell, regardless of its contents.APPLESCRIPT Best mac blogging apps.
Listing 39-4AppleScript: Quoting a string to prevent errorsset thePath to quoted form of '/Library/Application Support/'
--> Result: '/Library/Application Support/'
do shell script 'ls ' & thePath
(*
--> Result:
'App Store
Apple
..
'
*)
Mac Run Script When Application Opens
More Information
For more information about the
do shell script
command, see Commands Reference in AppleScript Language Guide and Technical Note TN2065.Mac Run Script
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