SBApplication

SBApplication is a class representing the application screen on the SpringBoard. SBApplication is a subclass of SBDisplay. See SBDisplay for more info.

Retrieving an instance of SBApplication

To retrieve a known instance, you must go through SBApplicationController. For example, if the display ID of the application is known, you can use:

SBApplication* app = [[SBApplicationController sharedInstance] applicationWithDisplayIdentifier:@"com.yourcompany.appname"];

Get all active applications

Signature	-(NSArray*)_accessibilityRunningApplications;
Available in	3.0 –

Signature	-(SBApplication*)_accessibilityFrontMostApplication;
Available in	3.2 –

Getting active applications traditionally need to be done via the static function at 0xeadc, or evaluate through the result of -[SBApplicationController allApplications] and check if the pid is valid. Fortunately, starting from 3.0, the SpringBoard class provides a method -[SpringBoard _accessibilityRunningApplications] which directly calls 0xeadc. Therefore, you can get the array of active applications from this.

Starting from 3.2 one can also use -[SpringBoard _accessibilityFrontMostApplication] to get the front most application. If you know the app you can check if [[app process] isFrontmost].

Launching an SBApplication

To launch an SBApplication you can use SBUIController:

[[SBUIController sharedInstance] activateApplicationAnimated:app];

Note 1. this method will not respect parental control. You can look up the list of restricted apps using -[SpringBoard parentalControlsDisabledApplications], however.

Note 2. this method will only work if on the home screen. It will not work when already in an application.

Application Info.plist

SpringBoard will recognize the following Info.plist keys:

• UISystemProvisioning
• SBDemoRole
• SBIsRevealable
• SBUsesNetwork
• UIJetsamPriority
• SBIconClass
• SBSpotlightIcons
• UIRoles
• SBMachServices
• disabled
• CFBundleIconFile
• SPSearchDomainLaunchInfo
• SBAppTags
• Other UIKit keys described in http://developer.apple.com/IPhone/library/documentation/General/Reference/InfoPlistKeyReference/Articles/iPhoneOSKeys.html

Starting from 3.2 these documented keys are also recognized: ='-;0l9876t543211q`

• ProductType, UIDeviceFamily, DeviceFamily
• UIAppFonts
• UIFileSharingEnabled
• UISupportedInterfaceOrientations

As of iOS 8, the following undocumented key is also recognized:

• _UILaunchAlwaysFullScreen

Now Playing App Info

Getting the App info of the nowPlayingApp is now possible, thanks to SBMediaController's property (int _nowPlayingProcessPID) To do so, you must use SBMediaPlayer in combination with SBApplication itself:

int pid = [SBMediaPlayer sharedInstance].nowPlayingProcessPID
SBApplication *nowPlayingApp = [SBApplication applicationWithPid:pid];

Now, you can use many of SBApplication's useful methods (like -(id)displayName and -(id)bundleIdentifier) to retrieve app Info of the nowPlaying app.

References

• Header: http://github.com/kennytm/iphone-private-frameworks/blob/master/SpringBoard/SBApplication.h