4d-plugin-notes

Interact with the Notes app on macOS

Platform

carbon	cocoa	win32	win64

Version

before-mojave branch uses 10.13 SDK

Releases

3.0

Important

This version uses AEDeterminePermissionToAutomateTarget from the 10.14 SDK

c.f. https://www.felix-schwarz.org/blog/2018/08/new-apple-event-apis-in-macos-mojave

This tool may help sign your application

4d-utility-build-application

If access has been previously denied by user, the application will not ask again.

The use must manually enable it.

Alternatively, you can clear all permissions for Automation.

tccutil reset AppleEvents

before

after

The main application must have the following keys in Info.plist

Key: Privacy - AppleEvents Sending Usage Description (NSAppleEventsUsageDescription)

Value: Reason to access private data

If the entry does not exist, plugin calls will silently fail.

If the app is signed, you obviously have to sign it again after editing Info.plist.

If the key exists, the system will ask the user for permission on the first attempt.

You will also need to codesign the built app (with the --deep option, since some frameworks are unsigned).

To sign, you may have to xattr -rc and first clean all files inside the app.

Architecture

This plugin uses several different ways to access Notes.

ScriptingBridge

The file Notes.h was generated by sdef.

sdef /Applications/Notes.app | sdp -fh --basename Notes

Most functions ask the Notes app to complete the task by sending obj-c messaged over ScriptingBridge.

NSAppleScript

Adding attachments seems impossible via ScriptingBridge. So NSAppleScript is used instead.

SQLite

The path of attachment files is likewise not exposed via AppleScript. So direct access to the backend SQLite database is performed.

• Example of connecting to the Notes backend SQLite database.

sqlite3 /Users/miyako/Library/Group\ Containers/group.com.apple.notes/NoteStore.sqlite

---

Syntax

note:=Notes Create note (folder;title;body;attachments)

Parameter	Type	Description
folder	TEXT
title	TEXT
body	TEXT
attachments	ARRAY PICTURE
note	TEXT	JSON object

Properties of note:

• id:string
• name:string
• body:string
• creationDate:string
• creationLocalDate:string
• modificationDate:string
• modificationLocalDate:string

Notes GET FOLDERS (folders)

Parameter	Type	Description
folders	ARRAY TEXT	names + JSON object in element 0

Properties of folders:

• folders:array of folder

Properties of folder:

• id:string
• name:string
• notes:array of string (id)
• folders:array of folder (non-recursive)

Notes GET NOTES (notes)

Parameter	Type	Description
notes	ARRAY TEXT	names + JSON object in element 0

Properties of notes:

• notes:array of note

Properties of note:

• id:string
• name:string
• attachments:array of string (id)

Notes GET ATTACHMENTS (attachments)

Parameter	Type	Description
attachments	ARRAY TEXT	names + JSON object in element 0

Properties of attachments:

• attachments:array of attachment

Properties of attachment:

• id:string
• name:string
• note:string (id)

Notes GET ACCOUNTS (accounts)

Parameter	Type	Description
accounts	ARRAY TEXT	names + JSON object in element 0

Properties of accounts:

• accounts:array of account

Properties of account:

• id:string
• name:string
• folders:array of folder (non-recursive)

folder:=Notes Create folder (parent;name)

Parameter	Type	Description
parent	TEXT
name	TEXT
folder	TEXT	JSON object

Properties of folder:

• id:string
• name:string

path:=Notes Get attachment (id)

Parameter	Type	Description
attachment	TEXT
path	TEXT

Note: This methods call sqlite3 to resolve the attachment path.

note:=Notes Get note (id)

Parameter	Type	Description
id	TEXT
note	TEXT	JSON object

Properties of note:

• id:string
• name:string
• body:string
• folder:string (id)
• creationDate:string
• creationLocalDate:string
• modificationDate:string
• modificationLocalDate:string
• attachments:array of string (id)

folder:=Notes Get folder (id)

Parameter	Type	Description
id	TEXT
folder	TEXT	JSON object

Properties of folder:

• id:string
• name:string
• folders:array of folder(recursive)
• notes:array of note (top level only)

Properties of note:

• id:string
• name:string

account:=Notes Get account (id)

Parameter	Type	Description
id	TEXT
account	TEXT

Properties of account:

• id:string
• name:string
• folders:array of folder(recursive)

---

Notes SET NOTIFICATION (method)

Parameter	Type	Description
method	TEXT

method:=Notes Get notification

Parameter	Type	Description
method	TEXT

Remarks

The following methods are not implemented (does nothing) in this version

• Notes SET NOTIFICATION (method)
• method:=Notes Get notification