Currently we have either Preview or Acrobat opening pdf documents by default.
I'm trying to see what I can do to automatically associate pdf documents with a new app called Nitro on the command line. Can anyone point me in the direction?
Question
Change file association.
+14
You'll want to look at LSHandlers. These are what associate a file type/extension to an app. The file it updates is "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist". I just installed Acrobat and a new handler was added after I launched it and set the app as the default for PDFs. There might be others you'll need to add for Nitro so try it on a clean/new build and see how you go. You can add to the existing plist or if you're deploying on a new build you can pretty much just delete the file and write out a new one. I do have some shell script that I use to add a bunch of handlers for Outlook and Chrome.
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.plistAmongst all the ones I already have set this one was added...
Dict {
LSHandlerContentType = com.adobe.pdf
LSHandlerRoleAll = com.adobe.reader
LSHandlerPreferredVersions = Dict {
LSHandlerRoleAll = -
}
}I generally find that a log out/in (or reboot) is needed to reload the handlers but there is also a command you can run but I find that that doesn't always work. From memory the command you need to "lsregisters".
+14You'll want to look at LSHandlers. These are what associate a file type/extension to an app. The file it updates is "~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist". I just installed Acrobat and a new handler was added after I launched it and set the app as the default for PDFs. There might be others you'll need to add for Nitro so try it on a clean/new build and see how you go. You can add to the existing plist or if you're deploying on a new build you can pretty much just delete the file and write out a new one. I do have some shell script that I use to add a bunch of handlers for Outlook and Chrome.
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.plistAmongst all the ones I already have set this one was added...
Dict {
LSHandlerContentType = com.adobe.pdf
LSHandlerRoleAll = com.adobe.reader
LSHandlerPreferredVersions = Dict {
LSHandlerRoleAll = -
}
}I generally find that a log out/in (or reboot) is needed to reload the handlers but there is also a command you can run but I find that that doesn't always work. From memory the command you need to "lsregisters".
Thanks @shannon_pasto - would you mind sharing one of those scripts for adding the handler?
sure. This is what I use to set Chrome as the default browser. Hopefully you can work out your URLHandlers and the app bundle identifier...
#!/bin/sh
CurrentlyLoggedInUser=$(/usr/bin/stat -f %Su /dev/console)
setLSHandler() {
# function to setup any default apps, LSHandlerURLScheme or LSHandlerContentType
# usage: setLSHandler LSHandlerURLScheme mailto com.microsoft.outlook
_lsHandlerType="${1}"
_lsHandler="${2}"
_appID="${3}"
sudo -u "${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}" /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :LSHandlers:0 dict" "${LSfile}"
sudo -u "${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}" /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :LSHandlers:0:${_lsHandlerType} string ${_lsHandler}" "${LSfile}"
sudo -u "${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}" /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :LSHandlers:0:LSHandlerRoleAll string ${_appID}" "${LSfile}"
sudo -u "${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}" /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :LSHandlers:0:LSHandlerPreferredVersions dict" "${LSfile}"
sudo -u "${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}" /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :LSHandlers:0:LSHandlerPreferredVersions:LSHandlerRoleAll string -" "${LSfile}"
unset _lsHandlerType
unset _lsHandler
unset _appID
}
# set up for LaunchServices configuration
LSfile="/Users/${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure.plist"
LSdir=$(dirname "${LSfile}")
if [ ! -d "${LSdir}" ]; then
/bin/echo "Creating the LaunchServces path"
sudo -u "${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}" /bin/mkdir "${LSdir}"
fi
# create then LS Handler file
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Add :LSHandlers array" "${LSfile}" >/dev/null 2>&1
/bin/echo "Setting Google Chrome as the default browser"
URLhandlers=(public.url public.html public.xhtml http https)
URLhandlerCount=$(( ${#URLhandlers[@]} - 1 ))
i=0
while [ $i -le "${URLhandlerCount}" ]; do
setLSHandler "LSHandlerURLScheme" "${URLhandlers[$i]}" "com.google.Chrome"
i=$(( i + 1 ))
done
sudo -u "${CurrentlyLoggedInUser}" /usr/bin/plutil -convert binary1 "${LSfile}"
exit 0
Hope that makes sense.
Cheers,
Shannon
+14Thanks - there's some good stuff in that. Much appreciated
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