how to use QSetting with Mac App Groups

[gietal]

Hi,

how would I go about saving user settings on mac group container with QSetting?

reading the documentation it seems like QSetting only save the file in one of these location:

• $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.MySoft.Star Runner.plist
• $HOME/Library/Preferences/com.MySoft.plist
• /Library/Preferences/com.MySoft.Star Runner.plist
• /Library/Preferences/com.MySoft.plist

for a sandboxed app, it would be something like:
~/Library/Containers/com.MySoft.Star Runner/Data/Library/Preferences/com.MySoft.Star Runner.plist

but for app group, it should be something like:
~/Library/Group Containers/(teamID).com.MySoft.Star Runner/Library/Preferences/com.MySoft.Star Runner.plist

is it possible for QSetting to save user settings in the group container ?

more on mac app group: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/AddingCapabilities/AddingCapabilities.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012582-CH26-SW61

[SGaist]

Hi and welcome to devnet,

From a quick read through the related documentation, I don't see anything related to the App Groups stating that the application settings should reside there. On the contrary, it seems to be for sharing data (which settings are not) and/or inter process communication.

After a second read, the documentation isn't the most clear about the handling of application settings. You can share settings for apps in a group using NSUserDefaults and thats the goal of the OP which is not the same as storing application specific settings.

[Edit: fixed information]

[gietal]

@SGaist thanks for the response,

my situation is that I have 2 apps that I'd like to share some user defaults settings.
in a native Mac app with Swift, we could easily achieve this by using:

let sharedUserDefaults = UserDefaults(suiteName: "groupId.com.appGroupName")

which will automatically create/load plist files located under:
~/Library/Group Containers/groupId.com.appGroupName/Library/Preferences/groupId.com.appGroupName.plist

is there any alternative that does this with Qt?

[mpergand]

Looking at the docs, i found:

enum QSettings::Scope
This enum specifies whether settings are user-specific or shared by all users of the same system.

QSettings::UserScope 0
Store settings in a location specific to the current user (e.g., in the user's home directory).
QSettings::SystemScope 1
Store settings in a global location, so that all users on the same machine access the same set of settings.

Not tested ...

[SGaist]

@gietal said in how to use QSetting with Mac App Groups:

UserDefaults

Thanks of the information. I somehow missed that one.

After a quick verification in QSettings sources, I haven't seen anything specific for the App Group use case.

However, what you can do is use Objective-C++ through NSUserDefaults and it init::suiteName method. Then you can use that class to manage your shared settings.