How to map a custom protocol to an application on the Mac?

Question

I\'m trying to register a custom protocol to an application on the Mac, i.e:

1. User clicks on link with \"abcdef://some/url/here\"
2. An installed applicat

Answer 1

As of today, the best way I found to solve this problem on a Mac with the least overhead is using the command line duti which allows me to define in a very simple text file all my associations:

brew install duti

You will need two things. First bundle ids of the Apps you want to associate:

mdls -name kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier /Applications/MacVim.app

Second the UTI of the file type, Apple provides a list, but you can also explore the supported UTI by your app like this:

mdls -name kMDItemContentTypeTree /Applications/MacVim.app

Now make a text file somewhere in your system where you associate bundle ids with UTI:

# ~/.default-apps.duti
#
# bundle id       UTI                  role
com.apple.Safari  public.html          all
org.vim.MacVim    txmt
org.vim.MacVim    public.ruby-script

Notice that I can associate a URL handler like txmt and also file types like Ruby scripts.

In that file you I keep track of all my app preferences and reproduce them immediately after a complete fresh install or when getting an account on other Mac just running:

duti ~/.default-apps.duti