LaunchAgent - Is there something like RunAtScreenSaver?

Question

I am looking for a way to execute my app (it's a background task) at times, where the machine is "idle". A good incident would be when the screensaver launches. I already read the manual auf launchd and already use a LaunchAgent to lauch my app at certain intervals, but I found nothing that might help me launching my app when the screensaver is active.

Is there any possibility to do that?

Thanks in advance!

Josh

Answer 1

For Snow Leopard the screenIsLocked and screenIsUnlocked notifications aren't available anymore. What I've used successfully are these:

[[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] notificationCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(locked:) name:NSWorkspaceScreensDidSleepNotification object:nil];

[[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] notificationCenter] addObserver:self selector:@selector(unlocked:) name:NSWorkspaceScreensDidWakeNotification object:nil];

Answer 2

Have another process that runs in the background and listens for distributed notifications named com.apple.screenIsLocked and com.apple.screenIsUnlocked . (That's for Snow Leopard. Leopard used different notification names. Use Notification Watcher and experimentation to find out what they are.) When one of those notifications comes in, launch or nicely-quit* your real app, as appropriate.

*You'll want to use an Apple Event for this.

Answer 3

I'm a new user, so I can't comment on or vote up portenkirchner's suggestion. Matt Swann has moved his ScriptSaver .

It does exactly what I want, run an AppleScript program when I unlock the screensaver.

Answer 4

You can use ScriptSaver by Matt Swann. This is a Mac OS X screensaver which can run AppleScripts when it activates and deactivates.

http://swannman.wordpress.com/projects/scriptsaver/