docs » hs.settings

Serialize simple Lua variables across Hammerspoon launches Settings must have a string key and must be made up of serializable Lua objects (string, number, boolean, nil, tables of such, etc.)

This module is based partially on code from the previous incarnation of Mjolnir by Steven Degutis.

API Overview

API Documentation

Constants

bundleID
Signature hs.settings.bundleID
Type Constant
Description

A string representing the ID of the bundle Hammerspoon's settings are stored in . You can use this with the command line tool defaults or other tools which allow access to the User Defaults of applications, to access these outside of Hammerspoon

dateFormat
Signature hs.settings.dateFormat
Type Constant
Description

A string representing the expected format of date and time when presenting the date and time as a string to hs.setDate(). e.g. os.date(hs.settings.dateFormat)

Functions

clear
Signature hs.settings.clear(key) -> bool
Type Function
Description

Deletes a setting

Parameters:

  • key - A string containing the name of a setting

Returns:

  • A boolean, true if the setting was deleted, otherwise false
get
Signature hs.settings.get(key) -> string or boolean or number or nil or table or binary data
Type Function
Description

Loads a setting

Parameters:

  • key - A string containing the name of the setting

Returns:

  • The value of the setting

Notes:

  • This function can load all of the datatypes supported by hs.settings.set(), hs.settings.setData() and hs.settings.setDate()
getKeys
Signature hs.settings.getKeys() -> table
Type Function
Description

Gets all of the previously stored setting names

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • A table containing all of the settings keys in Hammerspoon's settings

Notes:

  • Use ipairs(hs.settings.getKeys()) to iterate over all available settings
  • Use hs.settings.getKeys()["someKey"] to test for the existance of a particular key
set
Signature hs.settings.set(key[, val])
Type Function
Description

Saves a setting with common datatypes

Parameters:

  • key - A string containing the name of the setting
  • val - An optional value for the setting. Valid datatypes are:
    • string
    • number
    • boolean
    • nil
    • table (which may contain any of the same valid datatypes)
  • if no value is provided, it is assumed to be nil

Returns:

  • None

Notes:

  • This function cannot set dates or raw data types, see hs.settings.setDate() and hs.settings.setData()
  • Assigning a nil value is equivalent to clearing the value with hs.settings.clear
setData
Signature hs.settings.setData(key, val)
Type Function
Description

Saves a setting with raw binary data

Parameters:

  • key - A string containing the name of the setting
  • val - Some raw binary data

Returns:

  • None
setDate
Signature hs.settings.setDate(key, val)
Type Function
Description

Saves a setting with a date

Parameters:

  • key - A string containing the name of the setting
  • val - A number representing seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 (e.g. os.time()), or a string containing a date in RFC3339 format (YYYY-MM-DD[T]HH:MM:SS[Z])

Returns:

  • None

Notes:

  • See hs.settings.dateFormat for a convenient representation of the RFC3339 format, to use with other time/date related functions
watchKey
Signature hs.settings.watchKey(identifier, key, [fn | nil]) -> identifier | current value
Type Function
Description

Get or set a watcher to invoke a callback when the specified settings key changes

Parameters:

  • identifier - a required string used as an identifier for this callback
  • key - the settings key to watch for changes to
  • fn - the callback function to be invoked when the specified key changes. If this is an explicit nil, removes the existing callback.

Returns:

  • if a callback is set or removed, returns the identifier; otherwise returns the current callback function or nil if no callback function is currently defined.

Notes:

  • the identifier is required so that multiple callbacks for the same key can be registered by separate modules; it's value doesn't affect what is being watched but does need to be unique between multiple watchers of the same key.

  • Does not work with keys that include a period (.) in the key name because KVO uses dot notation to specify a sequence of properties. If you know of a way to escape periods so that they are watchable as NSUSerDefault key names, please file an issue and share!