Basically, a Mac application has a
.app
extension, but it’s not really a file — it’s a package. You can view the application’s contents by navigating to it in the Finder, right-clicking it and then choosing “Show Package Contents”.The internal folder structure may vary between apps, but you can be sure that every Mac app will have a
Contents
folder with a MacOS
subfolder in it. Inside the MacOS
directory, there’s an extension-less file with the exact same name as the app itself. This file can be anything really, but in its simplest form it’s a shell script. As it turns out, this folder/file structure is all it takes to create a functional app!Access the PC version of PicsArt! With over 1 billion downloads to date, PicsArt is the most popular photo editing app in the world. Download it today for FREE and make awesome edits using our collage maker, photo editor, free image library, millions of stickers, double exposure tools, and so much more. A few issues though. The icons have to be some of the ugliest I have ever seen on a mac app. Updates are very slow. 2.0 has been promised as any day now for over 9 months. The simplicity of the app creates problems as it is lacking some refinement. That way, the app can also act as a droplet: drag files onto it and the files will appear to the script as arguments, and are accessible via $1, $2, $3 (or loop through them with for f in '$@'). Don’t waste your time with Appify or Platypus — they are either obsolete, bad-tempered or just not as intuitive and powerful as Automator. If you've been rooting around the Mac App Store for an app that'll help you prepare and file your tax return, you've likely come up empty-handed — there aren't any on Apple's Mac app store. That said, you don't actually need an app: There are plenty of great web-based services to help you get your taxes done on time and, hopefully, audit-free.
Enter appify
![Free Free](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118686287/705214337.png)
After this discovery, Thomas Aylott came up with a clever “appify” script that allows you to easily create Mac apps from shell scripts. The code looks like this:
Installing and using appify is pretty straightforward if you’re used to working with UNIX. (I’m not, so I had to figure this out.) Here’s how to install it:
- Save the script to a directory in your
PATH
and name itappify
(no extension). I chose to put it in/usr/local/bin
, which requires root privileges. - Fire up Terminal.app and enter
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/appify
to make appify executable without root privileges.
After that, you can create apps based on any shell script simply by launching Terminal.app and entering something like this:
Obviously, this would create a stand-alone application named
Your App Name.app
that executes the your-shell-script.sh
script.After that, you can very easily add a custom icon to the app if you want to.
Adding a custom app icon
- Create an
.icns
file or a 512×512 PNG image with the icon you want, and copy it to the clipboard (⌘ + C). (Alternatively, copy it from an existing app as described in steps 2 and 3.) - Right-click the
.app
file of which you want to change the icon and select “Get Info” (or select the file and press ⌘ + I). - Select the app icon in the top left corner by clicking it once. It will get a subtle blue outline if you did it right.
- Now hit ⌘ + V (paste) to overwrite the default icon with the new one.
Note that this will work for any file or folder, not just
.app
files.Examples
Chrome/Chromium bootstrappers
I like to run Chrome/Chromium with some command-line switches or flags enabled. On Windows, you can create a shortcut and set the parameters you want in its properties; on a Mac, you’ll need to launch it from the command line every time. Well, not anymore :)
The
&
at the end is not a typo; it is there to make sure Chromium is launched in a separate thread. Without the &
, Chromium would exit as soon as you quit Terminal.app.Launch a local web server from a directory
![Mac Mac](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118686287/838834321.jpg)
Say you’re working on a project and you want to debug it from a web server. The following shell script will use Python to launch a local web server from a specific directory and open the index page in your default browser of choice. After appifying it, you won’t even need to open the terminal for it anymore.
Act Apps For Mac Os
More?
Act Apps For Android
Needless to say, the possibilities are endless. Just to give another example, you could very easily create an app that minifies all JavaScript and CSS files in a specific folder. Got any nice ideas? Let me know by leaving a comment!