4

I've got a problem when I try to import NSWorkspace an error appears:

No name 'NSWorkspace' in module 'AppKit'

Here is my code :

from AppKit import NSWorkspace
import time

activeAppName = ""
while True:
    NewactiveAppName = NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().activeApplication()['NSApplicationName']

if  activeAppName != NewactiveAppName:
    activeAppName = NewactiveAppName
    print (activeAppName)

time.sleep(10)
halfer
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Hight
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  • [Under what circumstances may I add “urgent” or other similar phrases to my question, in order to obtain faster answers?](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/326569/under-what-circumstances-may-i-add-urgent-or-other-similar-phrases-to-my-quest) – martineau Oct 18 '20 at 13:43
  • I have also corrected `NSworkspace` to `NSWorkspace` - these things are sometimes important. (I don't know if Python is case-sensitive in this regard, but attention to detail is generally worth striving for). – halfer Oct 18 '20 at 14:58
  • Yes I know but in my code there are no errors. I can import AppKit but I can't import NSWorkspace – Hight Oct 18 '20 at 15:12
  • i also have this problem, any solution? – aheigins Jun 10 '21 at 15:10

2 Answers2

1

Python v3 does not import module AppKit with capital letters but requires lower ones: import appkit

So, in my case, the original way works with only Python v2.

When I tried Python 3, it produced the following error:

Python 3.9.1 (default, Dec 17 2020, 03:41:37) 
[Clang 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.27)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import AppKit
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'AppKit'
>>>

When I use python 2.7 — it works fine:

WARNING: Python 2.7 is not recommended. 
This version was included in macOS for compatibility with legacy software. 
Future versions of macOS will not include Python 2.7. Instead, it is recommended using 'python3' from within Terminal scripts.

Python 2.7.16 (default, Mar 25 2021, 03:11:28) 
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 11.0.3 (clang-1103.0.29.20) (-macos10.15-objc- on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
 import AppKit
>>

NO ERROR.

Definitely, I have tried the recommended pip3 install AppKit PyObjC to no avail.

There is a recommendation that I didn't try. So, I stick to use Python2 with the following script:

#!/usr/bin/python
import logging
logging.basicConfig(filename='/tmp/act_window.log', level=logging.INFO, format='%(asctime)s - %(

try:
    from AppKit import NSWorkspace
    activeAppName = NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().activeApplication()['NSApplicationName']
    print(activeAppName)
    logging.info(activeAppName)
except Exception as e:
    logging.error("{0}".format(e))
    print("Unknown")

————

UPDATE:

I have manually updated my AppKit library for python 3 and now use it in Python3-based script. https://github.com/TinKurbatoff/appkit

Constantine Kurbatov
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1

2022 Update:

Per this post, pip3 install pyobjc made it possible to from AppKit import NSWorkspace (using Python 3.10.7)

Adam Smooch
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