How to get Finder sidebar favorites content cocoa?

Question

I need to get paths of objects displayed in Favorites section of Finder Sidebar (for current user). How can I achieve this?

Answer 1

Use LSSharedFileList API(LaunchServices/LSSharedFileList.h.)

 LSSharedFileListRef favoriteItems = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL,
                                                            kLSSharedFileListFavoriteItems, NULL);

Answer 2

There's not a Cocoa API, per se. You would use the LSSharedFileList API. The API is public but the only documentation is the header file, /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Headers/LSSharedFileList.h. You want the kLSSharedFileListFavoriteItems (and maybe kLSSharedFileListFavoriteVolumes) list type(s).

Answer 3

Getting the shared file list is only the first part, you still may want to get an actual string object with your path. Here is a little code snippet that will let you get a path for each object in the favorites section of the finder sidebar.

UInt32 seed;
LSSharedFileListRef sflRef = LSSharedFileListCreate(NULL,
                                                    kLSSharedFileListFavoriteItems,
                                                    NULL);
CFArrayRef items = LSSharedFileListCopySnapshot( sflRef, &seed );
for( size_t i = 0; i < CFArrayGetCount(items); i++ )
{
    LSSharedFileListItemRef item = (LSSharedFileListItemRef)CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(items, i);
    if( !item )
        continue;
    CFURLRef outURL = NULL;
    LSSharedFileListItemResolve( item, kLSSharedFileListNoUserInteraction, (CFURLRef*) &outURL, NULL );
    if( !outURL )
        continue;
    //The actual path string of the item
    CFStringRef itemPath = CFURLCopyFileSystemPath(outURL,kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle);
    // TODO: Do whatever you want to do with your path here!!!!
    CFRelease(outURL);
    CFRelease(itemPath);
}
CFRelease(items);
CFRelease(sflRef);