How do you make your App open at login? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

Here's some code that I use, it's based on the Growl source.

+ (BOOL) willStartAtLogin:(NSURL *)itemURL
{
    Boolean foundIt=false;
    LSSharedFileListRef loginItems = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL, kLSSharedFileListSessionLoginItems, NULL);
    if (loginItems) {
        UInt32 seed = 0U;
        NSArray *currentLoginItems = [NSMakeCollectable(LSSharedFileListCopySnapshot(loginItems, &seed)) autorelease];
        for (id itemObject in currentLoginItems) {
            LSSharedFileListItemRef item = (LSSharedFileListItemRef)itemObject;

            UInt32 resolutionFlags = kLSSharedFileListNoUserInteraction | kLSSharedFileListDoNotMountVolumes;
            CFURLRef URL = NULL;
            OSStatus err = LSSharedFileListItemResolve(item, resolutionFlags, &URL, /*outRef*/ NULL);
            if (err == noErr) {
                foundIt = CFEqual(URL, itemURL);
                CFRelease(URL);

                if (foundIt)
                    break;
            }
        }
        CFRelease(loginItems);
    }
    return (BOOL)foundIt;
}

+ (void) setStartAtLogin:(NSURL *)itemURL enabled:(BOOL)enabled
{
    OSStatus status;
    LSSharedFileListItemRef existingItem = NULL;

    LSSharedFileListRef loginItems = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL, kLSSharedFileListSessionLoginItems, NULL);
    if (loginItems) {
        UInt32 seed = 0U;
        NSArray *currentLoginItems = [NSMakeCollectable(LSSharedFileListCopySnapshot(loginItems, &seed)) autorelease];
        for (id itemObject in currentLoginItems) {
            LSSharedFileListItemRef item = (LSSharedFileListItemRef)itemObject;

            UInt32 resolutionFlags = kLSSharedFileListNoUserInteraction | kLSSharedFileListDoNotMountVolumes;
            CFURLRef URL = NULL;
            OSStatus err = LSSharedFileListItemResolve(item, resolutionFlags, &URL, /*outRef*/ NULL);
            if (err == noErr) {
                Boolean foundIt = CFEqual(URL, itemURL);
                CFRelease(URL);

                if (foundIt) {
                    existingItem = item;
                    break;
                }
            }
        }

        if (enabled && (existingItem == NULL)) {
            LSSharedFileListInsertItemURL(loginItems, kLSSharedFileListItemBeforeFirst,
                                          NULL, NULL, (CFURLRef)itemURL, NULL, NULL);

        } else if (!enabled && (existingItem != NULL))
            LSSharedFileListItemRemove(loginItems, existingItem);

        CFRelease(loginItems);
    }       
}

If you want an easy to implement checkbox, make a @property BOOL startAtLogin; in one of your classes and implement it as follows. Just bind the checkbox value to the property and it should all work seamlessly.

- (NSURL *)appURL
{
    return [NSURL fileURLWithPath:[[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]];
}

- (BOOL)startAtLogin
{
    return [LoginItem willStartAtLogin:[self appURL]];
}

- (void)setStartAtLogin:(BOOL)enabled
{
    [self willChangeValueForKey:@"startAtLogin"];
    [LoginItem setStartAtLogin:[self appURL] enabled:enabled];
    [self didChangeValueForKey:@"startAtLogin"];
}

Solution 2:

There is a decent description of what to do at CocoaDev.

Basically, you'll want to use the API in LaunchServices/LSSharedFileList.h if you can target Mac OS X 10.5 or later. Before 10.5 there was no clean API, so you have to manually manipulate the login items (Sample code at the Developer Connectiong).

Here's the sample code^(dead) for Leopard I mentioned in the comments. Found via this blog post. The code you need to enable or disable startup at login is in Controller.m.

Solution 3:

Call the method pasted below with a file URL pointing at your application to add it to the current user's login items.

To disable again, you'll need to get that same loginListRef, convert it to an array, and iterate through it until you find the item with the url you want to disable. Finally, call LSSharedFileListItemRemove with the appropriate arguments.

Good luck :)

- (void)enableLoginItemWithURL:(NSURL *)itemURL
{
    LSSharedFileListRef loginListRef = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL, kLSSharedFileListSessionLoginItems, NULL);

    if (loginListRef) {
        // Insert the item at the bottom of Login Items list.
        LSSharedFileListItemRef loginItemRef = LSSharedFileListInsertItemURL(loginListRef, 
                                             kLSSharedFileListItemLast, 
                                             NULL, 
                                             NULL,
                                             (CFURLRef)itemURL, 
                                             NULL, 
                                             NULL);     
        if (loginItemRef) {
            CFRelease(loginItemRef);
        }
        CFRelease(loginListRef);
    }
}