How to programmatically make cocoa application active

Question

I've got a background process that makes a transparent window appear when a hotkey is pressed:

[window makeKeyAndOrderFront:nil];
[[content animator] setAlphaValue:1.0]; // alpha was 0.0

... the window shows up fine & in front of the other windows (as I want it to), however until I manually click the window whatever application was active when the window appears remains active. I was expecting the 'makeKeyAndOrderFront' to make the application active as well, however adding a NSLog line to my -applicationWillBecomeActive shows it's not getting any active notification until the mouse click is performed.

Does anyone know how I can set my application active @ the same time I issue the -makeKeyAndOrderFront ? I need it active so that it can begin accepting keyboard input - any assistance needed :-)

Don't do this - Mac apps don't generally steal focus for good reason. — AlBlue, Dec 15 '09 at 01:32
But in this case, the focus is expected to be in his app because the user has used the hotkey. — dreamlax, Dec 15 '09 at 01:42
@AlBlue "generally". Lots of great apps do things that aren't "generally" done. — hmedia1, Feb 13 '19 at 08:23

score 54 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 15 '09 at 01:30

54

Look at [[NSApplication sharedApplication] activateIgnoringOtherApps : YES];.

answered Dec 15 '09 at 01:30

2

*THANK YOU !!!* - I was pulling my hair out trying stuff with NSRunningApplication's -activateWithOptions , but everything I tried resulted in a beach ball... – Dave Carpeneto Dec 15 '09 at 01:52

score 12 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 09 '13 at 05:29

12

For 10.6 or greater

[[NSRunningApplication currentApplication] activateWithOptions:(NSApplicationActivateAllWindows | NSApplicationActivateIgnoringOtherApps)];

answered Mar 09 '13 at 05:29

Arvin

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best place to put this? `applicationDidFinishLaunching` ? – John Smith Feb 13 '14 at 03:03
Thanks for this answer. I've a multi-window app that wouldn't activate correctly unless `NSApplicationActivateAllWindows` was set. – thomasfuchs May 04 '14 at 12:12

score 6 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 12 '19 at 11:14

6

Swift 4.2+ of @Arvin answer

NSRunningApplication.current.activate(options: [.activateIgnoringOtherApps, .activateAllWindows])

answered Feb 12 '19 at 11:14

Ahmadreza

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This helped me to find what I needed in Xamarin MacOS `NSRunningApplication.CurrentApplication.Activate(NSApplicationActivationOptions.ActivateIgnoringOtherWindows);` – Felipe Jan 17 '20 at 06:29

How to programmatically make cocoa application active

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