Re: Inserting a button into another application's toolbar

[Nick]

Thank you for the suggestions!

2017-09-19 10:36 GMT+03:00 Alastair Houghton :

> > On 19 Sep 2017, at 06:01, Jack Brindle  wrote:
> >
> > Actually, there may be a way. It all depends on exactly where in the
> menu bar you want to place the menu item.
>
> I think the OP wanted to inject a *toolbar* item into another app’s
> window’s toolbar, not a menu bar item/status item.
>
> FWIW, a status bar item might be an appropriate alternative, depending on
> what the app does and how it works.  Other alternatives worth considering
> are the Scripts menu (this is AppleScript, so if you go to Script Editor’s
> Preferences window, you’ll see you can turn on the Script menu in the
> status bar), and making your code run as a system service (so you can
> choose it from App > Services).
>
> > On Sep 18, 2017, at 4:15 PM, Jens Alfke  wrote:
> >
> >> Sorry, there's no reasonable way to do that if the app doesn't already
> support plugins. There used to be some awful hacks that patched into the
> app-launching mechanism and made it possible to inject code into other
> apps, but that approach causes stability problems and is in general
> terrible for security.
>
> There were also quite a number that abused the Input Manager mechanism as
> if it was a general purpose way of plugging in to other applications.  On
> the one hand, some of these extensions were fine, worked nicely, and didn’t
> cause problems.  On the other, *some* of them did cause trouble on a fairly
> routine basis.
>
> Certainly I’d caution against writing anything other than a
> personal-use-only project or some kind of debug tool that does things like
> that; at the very least, your users are going to find that many developers
> take one look at their crash logs and reply that you’ve got some kind of
> system hack installed and that if you can reproduce it without that,
> they’ll look at it.  That’s a little unfair, of course - many times these
> system hacks weren’t to blame at all - but after the handful of cases where
> they *are* to blame hit your desk, sending you on a wild goose chase until
> you finally realise that some kind of tampering has been going on, you’ll
> probably end up as grumpy about them as Jens :-)
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Alastair.
>
> --
> http://alastairs-place.net
>
>
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Re: Inserting a button into another application's toolbar

[Alastair Houghton]

> On 19 Sep 2017, at 06:01, Jack Brindle  wrote:
> 
> Actually, there may be a way. It all depends on exactly where in the menu bar 
> you want to place the menu item.

I think the OP wanted to inject a *toolbar* item into another app’s window’s 
toolbar, not a menu bar item/status item.

FWIW, a status bar item might be an appropriate alternative, depending on what 
the app does and how it works.  Other alternatives worth considering are the 
Scripts menu (this is AppleScript, so if you go to Script Editor’s Preferences 
window, you’ll see you can turn on the Script menu in the status bar), and 
making your code run as a system service (so you can choose it from App > 
Services).

> On Sep 18, 2017, at 4:15 PM, Jens Alfke  wrote:
> 
>> Sorry, there's no reasonable way to do that if the app doesn't already 
>> support plugins. There used to be some awful hacks that patched into the 
>> app-launching mechanism and made it possible to inject code into other apps, 
>> but that approach causes stability problems and is in general terrible for 
>> security.

There were also quite a number that abused the Input Manager mechanism as if it 
was a general purpose way of plugging in to other applications.  On the one 
hand, some of these extensions were fine, worked nicely, and didn’t cause 
problems.  On the other, *some* of them did cause trouble on a fairly routine 
basis.

Certainly I’d caution against writing anything other than a personal-use-only 
project or some kind of debug tool that does things like that; at the very 
least, your users are going to find that many developers take one look at their 
crash logs and reply that you’ve got some kind of system hack installed and 
that if you can reproduce it without that, they’ll look at it.  That’s a little 
unfair, of course - many times these system hacks weren’t to blame at all - but 
after the handful of cases where they *are* to blame hit your desk, sending you 
on a wild goose chase until you finally realise that some kind of tampering has 
been going on, you’ll probably end up as grumpy about them as Jens :-)

Kind regards,

Alastair.

--
http://alastairs-place.net

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Re: Inserting a button into another application's toolbar

[Jack Brindle]

Actually, there may be a way. It all depends on exactly where in the menu bar 
you want to place the menu item.
If you want to add it on the right side as a status item, then you need to 
check out NSStatusBar. This would
allow you to add a separate application (more likely a user Agent which can be 
launched when the user logs in).
You can place normal menu items in the NSStatusBar menu which refer to things 
in your app. It, of course,
would communicate with the target app using Apple Events. I would add an extra 
touch to determine when
the target app is active and have the status bar item (along with its UI) 
enabled then, disabling it when the
target app is not active (either launched or frontmost).

Note that running your app as a user agent also means there is no main menu or 
dock icon, which is probably
a good thing. You will also want to treat the windows and controls carefully so 
that they can accept clicks
but do not take over as the frontmost application, instead leaving the target 
app as the frontmost application.

This may not be exactly what you want - like others I don’t know of any 
legitimate way to add an item to
the left side of an apps menu bar, but it certainly is doable, and is even 
within the security guidelines, as
long as using AppleEvents works with the target app.

- Jack
 
 
> On Sep 18, 2017, at 4:15 PM, Jens Alfke  wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On Sep 18, 2017, at 2:35 PM, Nick  wrote:
>> 
>> adding/injecting a toolbar icon
>> with a custom handler code into the main window of the application.
> 
> Sorry, there's no reasonable way to do that if the app doesn't already 
> support plugins. There used to be some awful hacks that patched into the 
> app-launching mechanism and made it possible to inject code into other apps, 
> but that approach causes stability problems and is in general terrible for 
> security.
> 
> —Jens
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Re: Inserting a button into another application's toolbar

[Jens Alfke]

> On Sep 18, 2017, at 2:35 PM, Nick  wrote:
> 
> adding/injecting a toolbar icon
> with a custom handler code into the main window of the application.

Sorry, there's no reasonable way to do that if the app doesn't already support 
plugins. There used to be some awful hacks that patched into the app-launching 
mechanism and made it possible to inject code into other apps, but that 
approach causes stability problems and is in general terrible for security.

—Jens
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Re: Inserting a button into another application's toolbar

[Quincey Morris]

On Sep 18, 2017, at 14:35 , Nick  wrote:
> 
> adding/injecting a toolbar icon with a custom handler code into the main 
> window of the application

Isn’t that a massive security violation? Assuming you could get an icon into 
the toolbar (NSToolbar), it would need an action method to handle a click on 
the icon. If you could inject an action method, a malicious actor could inject 
arbitrary code into any app.

You might be able to get *near* your intended approach by using a service:

developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/core_app/services_functions

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Inserting a button into another application's toolbar

[Nick]

Hello
I am developing an add-in for an application that does not officially
support add-ins. Everything can be done using AppleScript, except for a
method to activate this add-in, to make it work more or less seamlessly
with the application, which is basically adding/injecting a toolbar icon
with a custom handler code into the main window of the application.

Could you please advice what approaches to look at on modern versions of
macOS and what keywords to search with?
Thank you!
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