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I've checked out Apple's Quick Look Programming Guide: Introduction to Quick Look page in the Mac Dev Center, but as a more of a science programmer rather than an Apple programmer, it is a little over my head (but I could get through it in a weekend if I bash my head against it long enough).

Does anyone know of a good basic Quick Look Generators tutorial that is simple enough for someone with only very modest experience with Xcode?

For those that are curious, I have a filetype called .evt that has an xml header and then binary info after the header. I'm trying to write a generator to display the xml header. There's no application bundle that it belongs to. Thanks!

physicsmichael
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  • There is a question on Server Fault with links to how to make a qlgenerator: http://serverfault.com/questions/6863/how-do-i-view-csv-files-in-quicklook – Chealion Apr 13 '10 at 06:13

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You might want to start with looking at sample code. Some people learn faster from seeing an example. Here's a generator example:

https://developer.apple.com/library/content/samplecode/QuickLookSketch/Introduction/Intro.html

Josh
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Ken Aspeslagh
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    Thanks for the link. I'm an example learner for sure. Have you seen examples of QLGs that are not attached to an App? For example, I rename my_friends.txt to my_friends.fnd and want to just view the file with Quick Look. – physicsmichael Apr 13 '10 at 17:27
  • I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "not attached to an App". Can you explain what the problem you're having is? – Ken Aspeslagh Apr 15 '10 at 13:36
  • To extend my other comment, lets say I have a file my_friends.fnd that lists my friends. If I quick look this, it doesn't know how to render a preview, right? There is no program associated with the ".fnd" exention (maybe a command line program or something, but not a .app bundle). How do I write a QLG for that? Most tutorials go in the direction of referencing a .app that owns the file. – physicsmichael Apr 19 '10 at 15:58
  • QuickLook doesn't use the file's app to get a preview, it uses the generator. That's the whole point. ;) Here's a sample I found by Googling: http://brushviewer.sourceforge.net/ It's a viewer for photoshop brush files (abr). Might be a good example to start with. – Ken Aspeslagh Apr 20 '10 at 03:09
  • The URL in the answer is no longer valid. [This](http://code.google.com/p/quicklook-csv/) csv project might be helpful. – zaph Jul 30 '12 at 15:12