I noticed that neither NSWorkspace nor NSFileManager appear to have any way with which to programatically display the Finder’s “Get Info” window. This seems a bit of an oversight (either on my part or on Apple’s, your pick!) so I present for your consumption a category off NSWorkspace for programmatically displaying said window given any file or folder path. As with other code I’ve posted here, I’ve used my own whitespace/brace style rather than Apple’s. -JonathanGrynspan

NSWorkspace+GTAdditions.h

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>

@interface NSWorkspace(GTAdditions) /* returns YES if the window was successfully displayed, NO otherwise */

• (BOOL)gt_openInformationWindowForFile: (NSString *)path; @end

NSWorkspace+GTAdditions.m

#import “NSWorkspace+GTAdditions.h”

static NSString *getInfoScript = @”tell application "Finder.app"\n” “open information window of %@ ("%@" as POSIX file)\n” “activate\n” “end tell”;

@implementation NSWorkspace (GTAdditions)

• (BOOL)gt_openInformationWindowForFile: (NSString *)path { NSMutableString *command; NSAppleScript *script; id fileType; BOOL result;

  fileType = [[[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileAttributesAtPath: path traverseLink: NO] fileType]; if (fileType) { command = path mutableCopy] autorelease]; [command replaceOccurrencesOfString: @”\” withString: @”\\” options: 0 range: [[NSMakeRange(0, [command length])]; [command replaceOccurrencesOfString: @”"” withString: @”\"” options: 0 range: NSMakeRange(0, [command length])]; if ([fileType isEqual: NSFileTypeDirectory] && ![self isFilePackageAtPath:path]) { command = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat: getInfoScript, @”folder”, command]; } else { command = [NSMutableString stringWithFormat: getInfoScript, @”file”, command]; } } else { command = nil; }

  result = NO; if (command) { script = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource: command]; if ([script executeAndReturnError: NULL]) result = YES; [script release]; }

  return result; } @end

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For most workspace related operations, Applescript tends to be the best to use - because of its wide range of functions. A lot of things missing from the NSWorkspace class are actually available via this method. Although not being the most desirable, it gets the job done. —-