Very rough example Quicksilver plugin in Swift

by iOS Example

NB: This is a scratchpad — not a real Quicksilver plugin

I initially wanted to write a Quicksilver plugin for HomeKit, but it looks like there is currently not an Apple-provided HomeKit SDK for MacOS (as of 20220329).

Instead, this repo is just an area for me to tinker while I figure out how to write a Quicksilver plugin in Swift.

The good news is that as of 20220329 this repo successfully can be installed as a plugin! The swift code in QSHomePlugin/QSHomePlugin.swift seems to be working for:

  • defining actions that can be called from Quicksilver
  • defining catalog entries that will be present in Quicksilver

If desired, it seems that the ObjC QSHomePlugin{Action,Source}.{h,m} files can be removed entirely, and as long as:

  • the class names in Info.plist are prefixed with the Swift module name (e.g. QSHomePlugin.QSHomePluginSwiftAction), and
  • the method names and signatures match the pattern expected by Quicksilver (e.g. @objc func foo(_ firstArg: Type, secondArg internName: Type) -> retType)

… QS seems very happy to use the Swift classes and methods with no fuss!

Further, it also seems fine to use the pattern I mentioned at https://n8henrie.com/2021/04/calling-swift-from-objective-c-in-2021/ to use the standard QS ObjC approach to call Swift code, for example:

- (QSObject *)performActionOnObject:(QSObject *)dObject
{
    Class providerClass = NSClassFromString(@"QSHomePlugin.QSHomePluginSwiftAction");
    NSLog(@"Calling some stuff from ObjC: %@", providerClass);
    QSHomePluginSwiftAction* plugin = [[QSHomePluginSwiftAction alloc]init];
    return [plugin performSwiftActionFromObjC:dObject];
}

A fair amount of print debugging is currently present just to show that things are actually getting used and called.

Please refer to the official plugin dev documentation, which I’ll be updating with some Swift instructions soon.

About Quicksilver Plugins on Github

This repository contains the current source code of a the Quicksilver Plugin / Module. If you’re having issues with this plugin, feel free to log them at the Quicksilver issue tracker.

Always be sure to check the Google Groups first incase there’s a solution to your problem, as well as the QSApp.com Wiki.

Before You Try It Out

Before trying out any of these plugins, it’s always a good idea to BACKUP all of your Quicksilver data.

This is easily done by backing up the following locations (~ stands for your home directory, a.k.a. /Users/you):

~/Library/Preferences/com.blacktree.Quicksilver.plist
~/Library/Application Support/Quicksilver
~/Library/Caches/Quicksilver

Before Building

Before being able to build any of these plugins, you MUST download and build the Quicksilver source code. This will create some files you need in /tmp/QS. Note that to build a plug-in using its Debug configuration, you must first build Quicksilver using the Debug configuration.

For some plugins to compile correctly a source tree must also be set for QS_SOURCE_ROOT that points to the location of the Quicksilver source you’ve downloaded onto your local machine.

Setting Name: QS_SOURCE_ROOT Display Name: a suitable name, e.g. Quicksilver source code root Path: /Users/<user>/<path to Quicksilver source code>

See the QSApp.com wiki for more information on Building Quicksilver.

Also check out the Quicksilver Plugins Development Reference, especially the Building and Testing section.

Legal Stuff

By downloading and/or using this software you agree to the following terms of use:

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this software except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

Which basically means: whatever you do, I can’t be held accountable if something breaks.

GitHub

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