Cocoa: Hide one application

Question

Is it possible to hide one specific application using cocoa?

I know you can hide all other applications using the following code

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] performSelectorOnMainThread:@selector(hideOtherApplications) withObject:NULL waitUntilDone:NO];

But is it possible to hide just one specific application say Safari for example?

Answer 1

you can do it with applescript:

tell application "System Events" to set visible of process "Safari" to false

or call the same applescript from within cocoa by calling:

NSString * source = @"tell application \"System Events\" to set visible of process \"Safari\" to false";
NSAppleScript * script = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:source];
[script executeAndReturnError:nil];
[script release];

Answer 2

Or if you want to avoid Apple Script and use the bundle identifier instead of the application name which could be localized as Mike pointed:

for (NSDictionary *app in [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchedApplications])
{
    if ([@"com.apple.Safari" isEqualToString:[app objectForKey:@"NSApplicationBundleIdentifier"]])
    {
        ProcessSerialNumber psn;
        GetCurrentProcess(&psn); // Initialize the Process Manager
        psn.highLongOfPSN = [[app objectForKey:@"NSApplicationProcessSerialNumberHigh"] intValue];
        psn.lowLongOfPSN = [[app objectForKey:@"NSApplicationProcessSerialNumberLow"] intValue];
        ShowHideProcess(&psn, NO);
    }
}

Answer 3

If you are targeting Mac OS 10.6+, you can use the new NSRunningApplication class:

- (BOOL) hideAppWithBundleID:(NSString *)bundleID
{
    NSArray *apps = [NSRunningApplication runningApplicationsWithBundleIdentifier:bundleID];
    if ([apps count] == 0)
        return NO;
    return [(NSRunningApplication *)[apps objectAtIndex:0] hide];
}