How to get which file is requested to open using a mac application?

Question

I have created a mac application which can be open my file extensions.

But when I tested it, I dont get the path of the file requested to open using the application, instead I got the "psn_0_151589".

I checked it for itunes, textedit, xcode and other applications.

Below is my python app sample main code where i process path of the opened file

import sys
import os.path
print("File opened with this app :: ",sys.argv[1])
if(os.path.exists(sys.argv[1]):
  print("valid file :: { do something...}\n")
else:
  print("Invalid file path received :: { do nothing }\n") 

OUTPUT :

File opened with this app :: psn_0_151589
Invalid file path received :: { do nothing }

Hope someone knows how to get the filepath which was opened using any application.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Mac OS X application bundles don't receive the files to be opened as command line arguments. As every application usually only has a single instance, this'd restrict opening further files. Instead, it's a message sent when the application is already running. The argument you receive is the process serial number. More information here.

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You could alternatively wrap your Python script in an Automator application's Run Shell Script action (#!/usr/bin/python being the "shell"). When you select to pass input as arguments, they'll be made available in argv, see the sample code: