How do you get the Bundle Identifier from an application's name in Cocoa?

Question

Say you have the name of an application, Mail.app, how do you programmatically obtain com.apple.mail from the application name?

David Kennedy of Zenopolis · Accepted Answer · 2020-02-11T10:16:17.053

17

The following method will return an application's Bundle Identifier for a named application:

- (NSString *) bundleIdentifierForApplicationName:(NSString *)appName
{
    NSWorkspace * workspace = [NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace];
    NSString * appPath = [workspace fullPathForApplication:appName];
    if (appPath) {
        NSBundle * appBundle = [NSBundle bundleWithPath:appPath];
        return [appBundle bundleIdentifier];
    }
    return nil; 
}

For Mail you can call the method like so:

NSString * appID = [self bundleIdentifierForApplicationName:@"Mail"];

appID now contains com.apple.mail

Swift 5.1

import AppKit

func bundleIdentifier(forAppName appName: String) -> String? {

    let workspace = NSWorkspace.shared
    let appPath = workspace.fullPath(forApplication: appName)
    if let appPath = appPath {
        let appBundle = Bundle(path: appPath)
        return appBundle?.bundleIdentifier
    }
    return nil
}

// For Mail you can call the method like so:

let appID = bundleIdentifier(forAppName: "Mail")

Deprecation

The fullPathForApplication: / fullPath(forApplication:) method has been deprecated in macOS 10.15 - it is unclear what the answer is going forward.

edited Feb 11 '20 at 10:16

answered Feb 23 '12 at 10:03

David Kennedy of Zenopolis

924
8
12

Thanks! That's exactly what i was looking for. However, in my tests `Mail.app` works as well, which isn't surprising given that apple says `.app` is optional in many of its docs. However, `MAil.app` and `Mail.APP` also seem to work, so I guess perhaps application name isn't exactly case sensitive either. – Tony Feb 25 '12 at 04:34
OK I'll remove the note that says otherwise – David Kennedy of Zenopolis Feb 25 '12 at 09:22
Note that `fullPathForApplication:appName` is soft-deprecated in macOS 10.15. I couldn't find any alternative, so I guess Apple wants us to only use bundle identifiers... – Sindre Sorhus Jan 31 '20 at 08:06
Thank you Sindre Sorhus, I've added a deprivation notice. – David Kennedy of Zenopolis Feb 11 '20 at 10:18

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 21 '18 at 23:35

Expanding on Francesco Germinara's answer in Swift 4, macOS 10.13.2:

extension Bundle {
    class func bundleIDFor(appNamed appName: String) -> String? {
        if let appPath = NSWorkspace.shared.fullPath(forApplication: appName) {
            if let itsBundle = Bundle(path: appPath) { // < in my build this condition fails if we're looking for the ID of the app we're running...
                if let itsID = itsBundle.bundleIdentifier {
                    return itsID
                }
            } else {
                //Attempt to get the current running app.
                //This is probably too simplistic a catch for every single possibility
                if let ownID =  Bundle.main.bundleIdentifier {
                    return ownID
                }
            }
        }
        return nil
    }
}

Placing it your Swift project, you can call it like this:

let id = Bundle.bundleIDFor(appNamed: "Mail.app")

or

let id = Bundle.bundleIDFor(appNamed: "Mail")

soundflix · Answer 3 · 2022-11-26T10:00:28.307

You can write:

Swift 5

Import AppKit // Not needed if you already import Cocoa or SwiftUI
    
func bundleIdentifier(forAppName appName: String) -> String? {
    NSWorkspace.shared.runningApplications.first(where:
    { $0.bundleURL?.lastPathComponent == appName })?.bundleIdentifier
}
    
let id = bundleIdentifier(forAppName: "Mail.app")

If you have app names without extension, replace inside the closure with the following code:

$0.bundleURL.localizedName == appName

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 23 '12 at 06:42

0

It's the value for the key CFBundleIdentifier in Contents/Info.plist

answered Feb 23 '12 at 06:42

ABS

2,092
1
13
6

Adding to that, the application's "Contents" folder can be usually found in /Applications//.app/Contents/ – Ron U Sep 20 '20 at 09:37

score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 25 '14 at 21:29

This is a possible swift implementation

func bundleIdentifierForApplicationName(appName : String) -> String
{
    var workspace = NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace()
    var appPath : String = workspace.fullPathForApplication(appName)
    if (appPath != "") {
        var appBundle : NSBundle = NSBundle(path:appPath)
     return appBundle.bundleIdentifier
    }
   return ""
}

How do you get the Bundle Identifier from an application's name in Cocoa?

5 Answers5

Swift 5.1

Deprecation