Mac OSX OSX and sandbox stuff

[Dennis Lenz]

Hi everyone,

i´ve managed to successfully compile my App to OSX. Now i´ve also managed to read from the app´s "Contents/Resources" folder as this is what "working_directory" does output me.

BUT!

How can i SAVE to this location? My app does read things but it doesn´t save/update anything inside the *.app folder. All this is a bit unclear. It says:

• Mac OS - Storage will depend on whether the application is sandboxed or not (following Apples rules).

..but i get the feeling that it is always and only sandboxed? I thought the working directory would be something like "~/Application Support/MyAppName" - where i could load save and store things like my hearts desire.

But obivously i was wrong.

Can *please* anybody enlighten me on this topic? What about the sandbox problem?
(OSX 10.11 El Capitan, XCode 7, GM:S v1.9 EA)

THANKS!

EDIT: It looks like it actually does save things - which is great. Unfortunately i have no idea WHERE.

 

[Dennis Lenz]

So it does obviously store things in my text files. When i reload my application, the changes are remembered. Now comes the fun thing: The text files haven´t changed at all!

How come it does know the changes then? Where is that stuff stored? Obvioulsy it will read from a different location than from where it saves to.

 

[Dennis Lenz]

As you can see, my App does work fine - but it doesnt find files in the Application support folder. (See screenshot).

When i manually copy the "KGM_BETA" folder with all its files into the App Package (Show Package Contents function) -> Contents/Resources - my App WILL find the folder.
But i dont want it to load/save from the App itself! What am i supposed to do? In the OSX Settings in Game Maker Studio i´ve setup everything what i think might be correct:

As stated above, the whole thing works on Windows (AppData/Local/KGM_BETA).

Please can anybody help me with that issue? I´m jumping out of the window otherwise ;-) Thanks!!

 

[Dennis Lenz]

Just checked, what "working_directory" returns on OSX (when launching compiled app): Its something like Appname/Contents/Resources... but i don´t want that. I definately need the user Application Support folder.
On windows that returns the AppData folder which is correct.

Anybody? I can´t be the only one that ever tried that?

 

[Dennis Lenz]

show_message(string(working_directory));
show_message(string(program_directory));

...both return the same on OSX?

EDIT: They don´t. Apologies But still my problem remains.

 

[rwkay]

if you are looking for the folder for user information you want to get the game_save_id https://docs.yoyogames.com/source/dadiospice/002_reference/miscellaneous/game_save_id.html this (on Windows, Mac, Linux) returns the directory that is used for the save area (i.e. the Sandbox)

Russell

 

[Dennis Lenz]

if you are looking for the folder for user information you want to get the game_save_id https://docs.yoyogames.com/source/dadiospice/002_reference/miscellaneous/game_save_id.html this (on Windows, Mac, Linux) returns the directory that is used for the save area (i.e. the Sandbox)

Russell

Thanks so much! That should be the command / function i was looking for all the time! It returns a correct path.
Unfortunately i still can´t access that particular folder. I dont know what to do ... this is all crazy somehow

For testing purposes i did this: (OSX)

gLib_Pic_Dir = game_save_id+"pictures";
if (directory_exists(gLib_Pic_Dir))

... and so on. But - it tells me that the folder doesn´t exist. (But it does). Are there any sandbox things that i am not aware of? Or any OSX directory related things? Oh well...

 

[rIKmAN]

Thanks so much! That should be the command / function i was looking for all the time! It returns a correct path.
Unfortunately i still can´t access that particular folder. I dont know what to do ... this is all crazy somehow

For testing purposes i did this: (OSX)

gLib_Pic_Dir = game_save_id+"pictures";
if (directory_exists(gLib_Pic_Dir))

... and so on. But - it tells me that the folder doesn´t exist. (But it does). Are there any sandbox things that i am not aware of? Or any OSX directory related things? Oh well...

Does "game_save_id" include a trailing slash at the end?
If not you need to add the slash yourself - ie. game_save_id + "/pictures";
It may even need a trailing slash - ie. game_save_id + "/pictures/";

Use show_message, show_debug_message or draw_text to print out 'gLib_Pic_Dir' after you have assigned it and see if it contains what you expect (a valid path)

Also I'm not 100% sure whether you need / or \ on a Mac so maybe play with those too.

 

[Dennis Lenz]

Yes, the path is valid (from what it outputs) nor is it an empty string. game_save_id outputs a slash at the end as well.

In my case its "/Users/sonicfire1980/Library/Application Support/KGM_BETA/".

The whole line looks currently like this:
gLib_Pic_Dir = scr_working_directory()+"library"+slash()+"pictures";

"scr_working_directory()" returns either working_directory (win) or game_save_id (osx) and "slash()" returns either "\" (win) or "/" (osx).

Screenshot:

As you can see, i´ve copied "KGM_BETA" (with library/pictures in it) to the application support folder. Still it doesn´t find files or folders... :-( Oh lord. That *must* be a sandbox-thing?

NOTE: The program running in the background has been compiled before (not just "green arrow" launch remotely).

 

[Dennis Lenz]

Any ideas? I´ve read that OSX uses something like "Library/Containers/com.yourdomainname.yourappname" for sandboxed apps. However, since "game_save_id" returns a path to "...Application Support" i assume it is NOT running sandboxed?
Then why on earth does "directory_exists" return zero?

EDIT: I´ve now included my KGM_BETA contents (scripts, pictures) into GM:S Include section - now when i export the OSX APP these files are included in the final App. That´s great. When i launch KGM now it finds the files - i assume it reads them from the App itself.

Now the thing that baffles me:
It even stores settings / updates. When i reload my App the settings have been remembered.

But for gods sake i can´t find the location on my Mac WHERE that has been stored. Not in documents, not in any Library/Containers/KGM_BETA nor in Library/Application Support/KGM_BETA.

I must be missing something here? It basically works but the save location is not visible to me? And that is the only thing i NEED to know...

 

[Dennis Lenz]

EDIT: It works. And it does store files in Users/myUserName/Library/Application Support/KGM_BETA. I had to show hidden files for it to work using:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

"Library" in Users/myUserName was previouls hidden.