How do you programmatically put folder icons on the Finder sidebar, given that you have to use a custom icon for the folder?

Question

Am currently working on a project, and though I can add sidebar items by adding to the com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file then restarting Finder, I can't seem to know how to make the folder icons show up using its assigned custom icon.

Can anyone point me to a link or a solution that would make me do this? Thanks a bunch in advance!

Answer 1

There's no supported way to do this using pure Cocoa. Use the LSSharedFileList API, instead. It's the supported way to manage the sidebar lists, and you can provide a custom icon (as an IconRef from Icon Services) when you insert an item.

Answer 2

I was too stubborn to not do the obvious. I did:

[[NSWokspace sharedWorkspace] setIcon:someIcon forFile:someFile options:0];

to set the image icon for the folder. I from then I did com.apple.sidebarlists.plist NSUserDefaults appending, and restarted Finder through Apple Events. That made it all work.