CocoaDev

I am writing a program that creates ScreenSaver modules. I am using the .slideSaver bundle to create the actual ScreenSaver. One option I am trying to implement is the ability to configure the standard apple .slideSaver options in my program.

I have located the preferences file created by System Preferences>Screen Effects. The preference files are stored in $(HOME)/Library/Preferences/ByHost. The problem is that all these files have a an odd entry in their names. For example one file I have is com.apple.screensaver.Beach.0050e4eea57e.plist I have no idea what this (0050e4eea57e) entry is or how to determine it.

Thank you very much for looking reading this. ek.

For what I know, you should not need to know, NSUserDefaults will handle that for you. Just do preferences like in any other app, and said NS-class will handle all the byhost stuff for you. That said, I think it is the MAC-address in the name. – EnglaBenny

That is the MAC address in the name, but that’s effectively an implementation detail and you shouldn’t rely on that - in order to set preferences in a specific preferences domain, you’re looking for the CFPreferencesSetValue() call:

 CFPreferencesSetValue(key, value, CFSTR("com.ek.screensaver"), kCFPreferencesCurrentUser, kCFPreferencesCurrentHost);

which sets the key-value pair in the com.ek.screensaver plist with the right info.

More info on this at:

 http://developer.apple.com/documentation/CoreFoundation/Conceptual/CFPreferences/CFPreferences.html

or the API reference:

 http://developer.apple.com/documentation/CoreFoundation/Reference/CFPreferencesUtils/Reference/reference.html

It’s important to note that while CFPreferencesSetValue() is the only way to set a by-host preference, you can retrieve the right thing transparently by using NSUserDefaults’ -objectForKey: method. See the page on preferences domain search paths at the Programming Topics link (the first one).

• ChrisParker

It appears that with Mac OS X 10.5.2, Apple has changed the formula for generating ByHost preferences from the MAC address to, well, something else (looks like a CFUUID; see IDentifiers).

Examples:

Old: com.apple.screensaver.AABBCCDDEEFF.plist (MAC addr) New: com.apple.screensaver.AAAAAAAA-BBBB-CCCC-DDDD-EEEEEEEEEEEE.plist

Anyone know exactly what system values are being baked into this new ID?

–DanSandler

It’s the IOPlatformUUID

If you just need to know what it is, run this on the command line:

Otherwise, here is some code that will fetch it for you: Note that you will need to link to IOKit.framework and Foundation.framework for this to work.

• (NSString*)getUUIDString { CFTypeRef uuidAsCFString; NSString *uuidString;

  io_service_t platformExpert = IOServiceGetMatchingService(kIOMasterPortDefault, IOServiceMatching(“IOPlatformExpertDevice”));

  if (platformExpert) { uuidAsCFString = IORegistryEntryCreateCFProperty(platformExpert, CFSTR(kIOPlatformUUIDKey), kCFAllocatorDefault, 0); IOObjectRelease(platformExpert); uuidString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@”%@”,uuidAsCFString]; }

  return uuidString; }

–Mathew Eis