Re: Finder Integration
Re: Finder Integration
- Subject: Re: Finder Integration
- From: Ben Staveley-Taylor <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 03 Oct 2011 10:11:55 +0100
Finder icon badging ('badg' resource) is not that much use these days because most file icons are no longer static but are generated by QuickLook on the fly, except in the smallest of views. QuickLook does not honour the 'badg' resource, I've been told.
Another reason that a badg resource is not ideal, even if it worked, is that if you put a badge on an icon this way it's permanent. In DropBox terms, imagine if you applied a "sync succeeded" badge to a file, but then for some reason DropBox failed to load. Because the badge is permanently in the file system the file would go on being drawn with the "success" badge, giving you the false impression that all was fine. Also I presume the badge would travel with the file when copied to other Macs, which you probably don't want. You need a dynamic system so that if the utility fails to load the badge is not drawn and therefore the user knows something is wrong.
There are threads (but no solutions!) on the QuickLook-Dev mailing list:
http://lists.apple.com/archives/quicklook-dev/2011/Sep/threads.html#00004
http://lists.apple.com/archives/quicklook-dev/2009/Nov/threads.html#00003
I did raise a bug to ask for this Finder functionality, and my bug was marked as a duplicate, but nothing has happened since 2009 so I wouldn't hold your breath. I suspect that this UI is simply not something Apple want because it is not extensible. Applying a badge to an icon is a one-time thing: one utility can do it, but what happens when your utility and DropBox are both installed and both want to apply a badge to a file? It would become a visual mess. If you stack the badges somehow, which one goes on top?
On 30 Sep 2011, at 18:08, email@hidden wrote:
>> On 29 Sep 2011, at 20:39, Damon Allison wrote:
>>> I am researching options for integrating with Finder. In particular, I would like my application to provide file and directory icon overlays similar to how Dropbox.app overlays green and blue images on top of file and folder images.
>
> I've never used Dropbox, but - on the offhand chance that you want overlays only on certain icons, not generic ones - you can add overlays by adding a 'badg' resource to the file's resource fork (or to the hidden .icon\r file inside the folder).
>
> Check out:
> http://developer.apple.com/legacy/mac/library/documentation/Carbon/Conceptual/Icon_Service_nd_Utilities/IconServUtili.pdf
> and
> http://www.cocoabuilder.com/archive/cocoa/95797-finder-icon-badging.html
>
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