Open Radar

 
01-Mar-2012 11:50 PM Mark Rada:
Summary:

Trying to access the currently focused application through the system wide accessibility token does not work.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Get a reference to the system wide object (AXUIElementCreateSystemWide())
2. Use AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue() to copy the kAXFocusedApplicationAttribute attribute
3. Check the error code returned from AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue()
4. CFShow() the pointer used in the AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue() call

Expected Results:

I expect that I will get an AXUIElementRef object placed in the pointer given to AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue().

Actual Results:

The pointer is never changed and the error code returned by AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue() tells me that there was some kind of error (kAXErrorCannotComplete).

Regression:

I do not know at what point this broke.

Notes:

I have included sample code to show the failure. It first shows that the role for the system wide object can be copied properly, and then it tries the same process to get the focused application but fails.

{{{

#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>

int main() {
  AXUIElementRef system = AXUIElementCreateSystemWide();
  CFTypeRef       value = NULL;
  AXError          code = 0;

  code = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(system, kAXRoleAttribute, &value);
  NSLog(@"\nAttr: %@\nCode: %i\nValue: %@\n\n", kAXRoleAttribute, code, value);

  code = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValue(system, kAXFocusedApplicationAttribute, &value);
  NSLog(@"\nAttr: %@\nCode: %i\nValue: %@\n\n", kAXFocusedApplicationAttribute, code, value);
}

}}}