Fastest way to programmatically open prefpane?

Question

AppleScript was too slow, so I tried ScriptingBridge to open System Preferences.app and set the current pane, which is also too slow. Is there a faster way to do it? properly

Answer 1

No brainer:

system("open -a System\\ Preferences");

And to choose a Pane to open:

open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Internet.prefPane
open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/DateAndTime.prefPane
...

Find the right file in /System/Library/PreferencePanes/ and open it.

I'm sure there's a more cocoa way to do it, still... works with every language.

Answer 2

How exactly did you use the Scripting Bridge?

I tried with this code and I think it performs reasonably well:

SystemPreferencesApplication *SystemPreferences = [SBApplication applicationWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.systempreferences"];
@try {
    [SystemPreferences activate];
    SystemPreferences.currentPane = [SystemPreferences.panes objectWithID:@"com.apple.preference.security"];
} @catch (NSException *exception) {
    NSLog(@"%@", [exception description]);
}

Here is another option just for fun which is Cocoa, but not documented at all (and only works with system preference panes). You may use it to compare performances, but don't use it in production code.

id bezelServicesTask = [NSConnection rootProxyForConnectionWithRegisteredName:@"com.apple.BezelServices" host:nil];
[bezelServicesTask performSelector:@selector(launchSystemPreferences:) withObject:@"Security.prefPane"];

Answer 3

Use Launch Services or NSWorkspace to open the prefpane bundle. That's the programmatic version of the open(1) command.