Programmatically open Mac App Store

Question

I am trying to programmatically open the Mac App Store in a custom Mac App. I started with the link below.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id403961173?mt=12

I tried the following code, however it opens the browser rather than the Mac App Store.

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openURL:
 [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id403961173?mt=12"]];

Any suggestions on how I can do this?

score 69 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 09 '14 at 15:09

69

URLs of this pattern open up the Mac App Store:

macappstore://itunes.apple.com/app/id403961173?mt=12

So in your case:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openURL:
 [NSURL URLWithString:@"macappstore://itunes.apple.com/app/id403961173?mt=12"]];

will open the MAS and load the product page associated with id #403961173 (here: Angry Birds).

To just load the MAS, with no particular product page use this URL:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openURL:
 [NSURL URLWithString:@"macappstore://itunes.apple.com/"]];

edited Feb 09 '14 at 15:09

Qantas 94 Heavy

answered Apr 13 '11 at 23:08

Regexident

1

Indeed it is. :) It's called a [URI scheme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URI_scheme), btw. ;) You can even [register your own for your app](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5463998/how-to-programmatically-register-a-custom-url-scheme) Particularly handy for incorporating bookmarklet support. ;) – Regexident Apr 13 '11 at 23:20
Regexident, This method do not work under sandbox, you will get "deny file-write-data /Applications/App Store.app" – Jiulong Zhao Jun 28 '12 at 22:18
@DavidL: yes, that warning is during debug only now under Xcode 4.5.2 – Jiulong Zhao Nov 09 '12 at 20:27
Cool; for merely launching/activating the MAS it seems that `macappstore://` or even just `macappstore:` is sufficient (as of at least OS X 10.8.3). – mklement0 Apr 17 '13 at 15:59
Is there a way to open a specific developer page listing all of the developers apps using this approach? – inexcitus Sep 04 '18 at 11:23
I'm for almost 4 years searching answers for this question and still could not find a code that works. – Cezar Wagenheimer Dec 19 '22 at 18:07

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 08 '12 at 17:03

7

If you just want to show the updates page you can use this URL: macappstore://showUpdatesPage

answered Nov 08 '12 at 17:03

Yoav

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 13 '11 at 23:08

0

open the webpage in a UIWebView. the webview will then open itunes, or at least ask to open itunes.

that may be iphone specific. but whatever the WebView is for mac.

answered Apr 13 '11 at 23:08

The Lazy Coder

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 13 '11 at 23:09

0

How about:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:@"/Applications/App Store.app"]

answered Apr 13 '11 at 23:09

Marc Abramowitz

3

This will only open the MAS. But what it won't allow you is to choose a product page to open it with. That's where the URL scheme comes into play. – Regexident Apr 13 '11 at 23:12
1

Though if you want to open a specific app in the App store, then [Regexident's answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5656746/programmatically-open-mac-app-store/5656762#5656762) is better. – Marc Abramowitz Apr 13 '11 at 23:14

4 Answers4