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Mac OS ​

For Mac OS, we need to create our own application.

  1. Launch Script Editor
  2. Use the following script, paying attention to the path to emacsclient:
bash
on open location this_URL
    set EC to "/usr/local/bin/emacsclient --no-wait "
    set filePath to quoted form of this_URL
    do shell script EC & filePath & " &> /dev/null &"
    tell application "Emacs" to activate
end open location
  1. Save the script in /Applications/OrgProtocolClient.app, changing the script type to “Application”, rather than “Script”.
  2. Edit /Applications/OrgProtocolClient.app/Contents/Info.plist, adding the following before the last </dict> tag:
bash
<key>CFBundleURLTypes</key>
<array>
  <dict>
    <key>CFBundleURLName</key>
    <string>org-protocol handler</string>
    <key>CFBundleURLSchemes</key>
    <array>
      <string>org-protocol</string>
    </array>
  </dict>
</array>
  1. Save the file, and run the OrgProtocolClient.app to register the protocol.

To disable the “confirm” prompt in Chrome, you can also make Chrome show a checkbox to tick, so that the OrgProtocol app will be used without confirmation. To do this, run in a shell:

bash
defaults write com.google.Chrome ExternalProtocolDialogShowAlwaysOpenCheckbox -bool true

If you’re using Emacs Mac Port, it registered its ‘Emacs.app‘ as the default handler for the URL scheme ‘org-protocol‘. To make OrgProtocol.app the default handler instead, run:

bash
defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure LSHandlers -array-add \
'{"LSHandlerPreferredVersions" = { "LSHandlerRoleAll" = "-"; }; LSHandlerRoleAll = "org.yourusername.OrgProtocol"; LSHandlerURLScheme = "org-protocol";}'

Then restart your computer.

If you’re using the Emacs Homebrew formula, you may need one of the following additional configurations:

  1. Add option ‘-c‘ to ‘emacsclient‘ in the script, and start emacs from command line with ‘emacs –daemon‘
    bash
    on open location this_URL
    set EC to "/usr/local/bin/emacsclient -c --no-wait "
    set filePath to quoted form of this_URL
    do shell script EC & filePath & " &> /dev/null &"
    tell application "Emacs" to activate
end open location
  2. Add ‘(server-start)‘ in .emacs (in this case you do not need option ‘-c‘ for ‘emacsclient‘ in the script, and you do not need to start emacs with ‘emacs –daemon‘

  • Testing org-protocol

    To test that you have the handler setup and registered properly from the command line you can run:

    bash
    open org-protocol://roam-ref\?template=r\&ref=test\&title=this

    If you get an error similar too this or the wrong handler is run:

    No application knows how to open URL org-protocol://roam-ref?template=r&ref=test&title=this (Error Domain=NSOSStatusErrorDomain Code=-10814 “kLSApplicationNotFoundErr: E.g. no application claims the file” UserInfo={_LSLine=1489, _LSFunction=runEvaluator}).

    You may need to manually register your handler, like this:

    bash
    /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -R  -f /Applications/OrgProtocolClient.app

    Here is a link to the lsregister command that is really useful: https://eclecticlight.co/2019/03/25/lsregister-a-valuable-undocumented-command-for-launchservices/