Re: Guidance on use of Application Support folder
Re: Guidance on use of Application Support folder
- Subject: Re: Guidance on use of Application Support folder
- From: Stuart Malin <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:27:56 -0500
I sorta would agree, Jens, and certainly many apps do put user-specific files here, but the Apple docs specifically say this is NOT how the Application Support folder should be used.
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"A support file is any type of file that supports the application but is not required for the application to run. Document templates and sample files are simple examples of support files. However, you might store more application-bound information, such as custom configurations or preset data files for your application’s workspace. In these instances, the information is intrinsically tied to a specific application (as opposed to the user’s data) but is not essential for the application to run."
<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFileSystem/Articles/WhereToPutFiles.html>
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In the "File System Overview", is this:
Table 1 Subdirectories of the Library directory
Subdirectory
Directory contents
Application Support
Contains application-specific data and support files such as third-party plug-ins, helper applications, templates, and extra resources that are used by the application but not required for it to operate. This directory should never contain any kind of user data. By convention, all of these items should be put in a subdirectory named after the application. For example, third-party resources for the application MyApp would go in Application Support/MyApp/. Note that required resources should go inside the application bundle itself.
<http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPFileSystem/Articles/LibraryDirectory.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20002282-BAJHCHJI>
Note the line: "This directory should never contain any kind of user data."
~~~
There is some discussion of relevance here:
<http://www.cocoadev.com/index.pl?ApplicationSupportFolder>
On Feb 12, 2010, at 11:13 AM, Jens Alfke wrote:
>
> On Feb 12, 2010, at 8:05 AM, Stuart Malin wrote:
>
>> I am building an app that needs to store per-user data that is not document specific. I have created a folder under ~/Library for this, and am not using ~/Library/Application Support. Is there guidance from Apple on where such per-user, non-document-specific data is supposed to be stored?
>
> I would say that's what Application Support is for. There are apps that create their own direct subfolders of ~/Library, but I think that's messy.
>
> —Jens
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