docs » hs.sharing

Share items with the macOS Sharing Services under the control of Hammerspoon.

This module will allow you to share Hammerspoon items with registered Sharing Services. Some of the built-in sharing services include sharing through mail, Facebook, AirDrop, etc. Other applications can add additional services as well.

For most sharing services (this has not been tested with all), the user will be prompted with the standard sharing dialog showing what is to be shared and offered a chance to submit or cancel.

This example prepares an email with a screenshot:

mailer = hs.sharing.newShare("com.apple.share.Mail.compose")
mailer:subject("Screenshot generated at " .. os.date()):recipients({ "user@address.com" })
mailer:shareItems({ [[
    Add any notes that you wish to add describing the screenshot here and click the Send icon when you are ready to send this

]], hs.screen.mainScreen():snapshot() })

Common item data types that can be shared with Sharing Services include (but are not necessarily limited to):

API Overview

API Documentation

Constants

builtinSharingServices
Signature hs.sharing.builtinSharingServices[]
Type Constant
Description

A table containing the predefined sharing service labels defined by Apple.

This table contains the default sharing service identifiers as identified by Apple. Depending upon the software you have installed on your system, not all of the identifiers included here may be available on your computer and other Applications may provide sharing services with identifiers not included here. You can determine valid identifiers for specific data types by using the hs.sharing.shareTypesFor function which will list all identifiers that will work for all of the specified items, even those which do not appear in this table.

Functions

fileURL
Signature hs.sharing.fileURL(path) -> table
Type Function
Description

Returns a table representing a file URL for the path specified.

Parameters:

  • path - a string specifying a path to represent as a file URL.

Returns:

  • a table containing the necessary labels for converting the specified path into a URL as required by the macOS APIs.

Notes:

  • this function is a wrapper to hs.sharing.URL which sets the second argument to true for you.
  • see hs.sharing.URL for more information about the table format returned by this function.
shareTypesFor
Signature hs.sharing.shareTypesFor(items) -> identifiersTable
Type Function
Description

Returns a table containing the sharing service identifiers which can share the items specified.

Parameters:

  • items - an array (table) or list of items separated by commas which you wish to share with this module.

Returns:

  • an array (table) containing strings which identify sharing service identifiers which may be used by the hs.sharing.newShare constructor to share the specified data.

Notes:

  • this function is intended to be used to determine the identifiers for sharing services available on your computer and that may not be included in the hs.sharing.builtinSharingServices table.
URL
Signature hs.sharing.URL(URL, [fileURL]) -> table
Type Function
Description

Returns a table representing the URL specified.

Parameters:

  • URL - a string or table specifying the URL.
  • fileURL - an optional boolean, default false, specifying whether or not the URL is supposed to represent a file on the local computer.

Returns:

  • a table containing the necessary labels for representing the specified URL as required by the macOS APIs.

Notes:

  • If the URL is specified as a table, it is expected to contain a url key with a string value specifying a proper schema and resource locator.

  • Because macOS requires URLs to be represented as a specific object type which has no exact equivalent in Lua, Hammerspoon uses a table with specific keys to allow proper identification of a URL when included as an argument or result type. Use this function or the hs.sharing.fileURL wrapper function when specifying a URL to ensure that the proper keys are defined.

  • At present, the following keys are defined for a URL table (additional keys may be added in the future if future Hammerspoon modules require them to more completely utilize the macOS NSURL class, but these will not change):
    • url - a string containing the URL with a proper schema and resource locator
    • filePath = a string specifying the actual path to the file in case the url is a file reference URL. Note that setting this field with this method will be silently ignored; the field is automatically inserted if appropriate when returning an NSURL object to lua.
    • __luaSkinType - a string specifying the macOS type this table represents when converted into an Objective-C type

Constructors

newShare
Signature hs.sharing.newShare(type) -> sharingObject
Type Constructor
Description

Creates a new sharing object of the type specified by the identifier provided.

Parameters:

Returns:

  • a sharingObject or nil if the type identifier cannot be created on this system

Methods

accountName
Signature hs.sharing:accountName() -> string | nil
Type Method
Description

The account name used by the sharing service when posting on Twitter or Sina Weibo.

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • a string containing the account name used by the sharing service, or nil if the sharing service does not provide this.

Notes:

  • According to the Apple API documentation, only the Twitter and Sina Weibo sharing services will set this property, but this has not been fully tested.
alternateImage
Signature hs.sharing:alternateImage() -> hs.image object | nil
Type Method
Description

Returns an alternate image, if one exists, representing the sharing service provided by this sharing object.

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • an hs.image object or nil, if no alternate image representation for the sharing service is defined.
attachments
Signature hs.sharing:attachments() -> table | nil
Type Method
Description

If the sharing service provides an array of the attachments included when the data was posted, this method will return an array of file URL tables of the attachments.

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • an array (table) containing the attachment file URLs, or nil if the sharing service selected does not provide this.

Notes:

  • not all sharing services will set a value for this property.
callback
Signature hs.sharing:callback(function | nil) -> sharingObject
Type Method
Description

Set or clear the callback for the sharingObject.

Parameters:

  • a function, or nil, to set or remove the callback for the sharingObject

Returns:

  • the sharingObject

Notes:

  • the callback should expect 3 or 4 arguments and return no results. The arguments will be as follows:
    • the sharingObject itself
    • the callback message, which will be a string equal to one of the following:
      • "didFail" - an error occurred while attempting to share the items
      • "didShare" - the sharing service has finished sharing the items
      • "willShare" - the sharing service is about to start sharing the items; occurs before sharing actually begins
    • an array (table) containing the items being shared; if the message is "didFail" or "didShare", the items may be in a different order or converted to a different internal type to facilitate sharing.
    • if the message is "didFail", the fourth argument will be a localized description of the error that occurred.
canShareItems
Signature hs.sharing:canShareItems(items) -> boolean
Type Method
Description

Returns a boolean specifying whether or not all of the items specified can be shared with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.

Parameters:

  • items - an array (table) or list of items separated by commas which are to be shared by the sharing service

Returns:

  • a boolean value indicating whether or not all of the specified items can be shared with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.
image
Signature hs.sharing:image() -> hs.image object | nil
Type Method
Description

Returns an image, if one exists, representing the sharing service provided by this sharing object.

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • an hs.image object or nil, if no image representation for the sharing service is defined.
messageBody
Signature hs.sharing:messageBody() -> string | nil
Type Method
Description

If the sharing service provides the message body that was posted when sharing has completed, this method will return the message body as a string.

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • a string containing the message body, or nil if the sharing service selected does not provide this.

Notes:

  • not all sharing services will set a value for this property.
recipients
Signature hs.sharing:recipients([recipients]) -> current value | sharingObject
Type Method
Description

Get or set the subject to be used when the sharing service performs its sharing method.

Parameters:

  • recipients - an optional array (table) or list of recipient strings separated by commas which specify the recipients of the shared items.

Returns:

  • if an argument is provided, returns the sharingObject; otherwise returns the current value.

Notes:

  • not all sharing services will make use of the value set by this method.
  • the individual recipients should be specified as strings in the format expected by the sharing service; e.g. for items being shared in an email, the recipients should be email address, etc.
serviceName
Signature hs.sharing:serviceName() -> string
Type Method
Description

The service identifier for the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • a string containing the identifier for the sharing service.

Notes:

  • this string will match the identifier used to create the sharing service object with hs.sharing.newShare
shareItems
Signature hs.sharing:shareItems(items) -> sharingObject
Type Method
Description

Shares the items specified with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.

Parameters:

  • items - an array (table) or list of items separated by commas which are to be shared by the sharing service

Returns:

  • the sharingObject, or nil if one or more of the items cannot be shared with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.

Notes:

subject
Signature hs.sharing:subject([subject]) -> current value | sharingObject
Type Method
Description

Get or set the subject to be used when the sharing service performs its sharing method.

Parameters:

  • subject - an optional string specifying the subject for the posting of the shared content

Returns:

  • if an argument is provided, returns the sharingObject; otherwise returns the current value.

Notes:

  • not all sharing services will make use of the value set by this method.
title
Signature hs.sharing:title() -> string
Type Method
Description

The title for the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.

Parameters:

  • None

Returns:

  • a string containing the title of the sharing service.

Notes:

  • this string differs from the identifier used to create the sharing service object with hs.sharing.newShare and is intended to provide a more friendly label for the service if you need to list or refer to it elsewhere.