Cocoa button opens a System Preference page

Question

In a OSX Cocoa app, I would like a button that would open the "speech" preference pane. Is that possible? I'm just trying to save them the time to go System Preferences > Speech > Text to Speech

Answer 1

The following is a fairly easy (and reliable) way to at least get System Preferences open to the Speech.prefPane:

- (IBAction)openSpeechPrefs:(id)sender {
    [[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openURL:
     [NSURL fileURLWithPath:@"/System/Library/PreferencePanes/Speech.prefPane"]];
}

However, it won't necessarily be switched to the Text to Speech tab, but rather the last tab the user had selected.

It is possible to actually switch to the Text to Speech tab as well, but it's a bit more involved. You can use AppleScript to send commands to the System Preferences application, but using the ScriptingBridge.framework (See Scripting Bridge Programming Guide) is much faster.

You'll need to add the ScriptingBridge.framework to your project, and then use a command like the following in Terminal to generate a SBSystemPreferences.h header file to work with:

sdef "/Applications/System Preferences.app" | sdp -fh --basename SBSystemPreferences -o ~/Desktop/SBSystemPreferences.h

Add that SBSystemPreferences.h header to your project, then change -openSpeechPrefs: to the following:

- (IBAction)openSpeechPrefs:(id)sender {
    SBSystemPreferencesApplication *systemPrefs = 
    [SBApplication applicationWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.systempreferences"];

    [systemPrefs activate];

    SBElementArray *panes = [systemPrefs panes];
    SBSystemPreferencesPane *speechPane = nil;

    for (SBSystemPreferencesPane *pane in panes) {
        if ([[pane id] isEqualToString:@"com.apple.preference.speech"]) {
            speechPane = pane;
            break;
        }
    }
    [systemPrefs setCurrentPane:speechPane];

    SBElementArray *anchors = [speechPane anchors];

    for (SBSystemPreferencesAnchor *anchor in anchors) {
        if ([anchor.name isEqualToString:@"TTS"]) {
            [anchor reveal];
        }
    }
}

EDIT:

Sample project using the ScriptingBridge.framework method: http://github.com/NSGod/OpenSystemPrefsTTS

Answer 2

For the guys who run into the same issue that I mentioned in the comment, just go to the ~/Desktop (cos I specify this position) and you'll see the SBSystemPreferences.h has been created.

However, in this header, some class declarations are missing. So you have to add this declarations explicitly.

In my case, class "item" is undefined. So add this: @class SBSystemPreferencesItem;

Then compile it and see what's still missing, which declaration needs to be added.

Answer 3

NSURL *URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.speech?TTS"];
[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openURL:URL];

Credits go to following site: https://macosxautomation.com/system-prefs-links.html

List of URLs for reference:

Accessibility Preference Pane
Main    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess
Display x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Seeing_Display
Zoom    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Seeing_Zoom
VoiceOver   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Seeing_VoiceOver
Descriptions    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Media_Descriptions
Captions    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Captioning
Audio   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Hearing
Keyboard    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Keyboard
Mouse & Trackpad    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Mouse
Switch Control  x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?Switch
Dictation   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.universalaccess?SpeakableItems
Security & Privacy Preference Pane
Main    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security
General x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?General
FileVault   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?FDE
Firewall    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Firewall
Advanced    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Advanced
Privacy x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy
Privacy-Accessibility   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Accessibility
Privacy-Assistive   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Assistive
Privacy-Location Services   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_LocationServices
Privacy-Contacts    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Contacts
Privacy-Diagnostics & Usage x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Diagnostics
Privacy-Calendars   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Calendars
Privacy-Reminders   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Reminders
Privacy-Facebook    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Facebook
Privacy-LinkedIn    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_LinkedIn
Privacy-Twitter x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Twitter
Privacy-Weibo   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Weibo
Privacy-Tencent Weibo   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_TencentWeibo
Dictation & Speech Preference Pane
Dictation   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.speech?Dictation
Text to Speech  x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.speech?TTS
Sharing Preference Pane
Main    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing
Screen Sharing  x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Services_ScreenSharing
File Sharing    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Services_PersonalFileSharing
Printer Sharing x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Services_PrinterSharing
Remote Login    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Services_RemoteLogin
Remote Management   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Services_ARDService
Remote Apple Events x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Services_RemoteAppleEvent
Internet Sharing    x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Internet
Bluetooth Sharing   x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preferences.sharing?Services_BluetoothSharing