# hs.sharing

Share items with the macOS Sharing Services under the control of Hammerspoon.

This module will allow you to share Hammerspoon items with registered Sharing Services. Some of the built-in sharing services include sharing through mail, Facebook, AirDrop, etc. Other applications can add additional services as well.

For most sharing services (this has not been tested with all), the user will be prompted with the standard sharing dialog showing what is to be shared and offered a chance to submit or cancel.

This example prepares an email with a screenshot:

mailer = hs.sharing.newShare("com.apple.share.Mail.compose")
mailer:subject("Screenshot generated at " .. os.date()):recipients({ "[email protected]" })
mailer:shareItems({ [[
    Add any notes that you wish to add describing the screenshot here and click the Send icon when you are ready to send this

]], hs.screen.mainScreen():snapshot() })

Common item data types that can be shared with Sharing Services include (but are not necessarily limited to):

basic data types like strings and numbers
hs.image objects
hs.styledtext objects
web sites and other URLs through the use of the hs.sharing.URL function
local files through the use of file URLs created with the hs.sharing.fileURL function

# API Overview

Constants - Useful values which cannot be changed

builtinSharingServices

Functions - API calls offered directly by the extension

fileURL
shareTypesFor
URL

Constructors - API calls which return an object, typically one that offers API methods

newShare

Methods - API calls which can only be made on an object returned by a constructor

accountName
alternateImage
attachments
callback
canShareItems
image
messageBody
permanentLink
recipients
serviceName
shareItems
subject
title

# API Documentation

# Constants

# builtinSharingServices


Signature	`hs.sharing.builtinSharingServices[]`
Type	Constant
Description	A table containing the predefined sharing service labels defined by Apple.
Notes	None
Source	extensions/sharing/sharing.lua line 34

# Functions

# fileURL


Signature	`hs.sharing.fileURL(path) -> table`
Type	Function
Description	Returns a table representing a file URL for the path specified.
Parameters	path - a string specifying a path to represent as a file URL.
Returns	a table containing the necessary labels for converting the specified path into a URL as required by the macOS APIs.
Notes	this function is a wrapper to hs.sharing.URL which sets the second argument to `true` for you. see hs.sharing.URL for more information about the table format returned by this function.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/sharing.lua line 41

# shareTypesFor


Signature	`hs.sharing.shareTypesFor(items) -> identifiersTable`
Type	Function
Description	Returns a table containing the sharing service identifiers which can share the items specified.
Parameters	items - an array (table) or list of items separated by commas which you wish to share with this module.
Returns	an array (table) containing strings which identify sharing service identifiers which may be used by the hs.sharing.newShare constructor to share the specified data.
Notes	this function is intended to be used to determine the identifiers for sharing services available on your computer and that may not be included in the hs.sharing.builtinSharingServices table.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 102

# URL


Signature	`hs.sharing.URL(URL, [fileURL]) -> table`
Type	Function
Description	Returns a table representing the URL specified.
Parameters	URL - a string or table specifying the URL. fileURL - an optional boolean, default `false`, specifying whether or not the URL is supposed to represent a file on the local computer.
Returns	a table containing the necessary labels for representing the specified URL as required by the macOS APIs.
Notes	If the URL is specified as a table, it is expected to contain a `url` key with a string value specifying a proper schema and resource locator. Because macOS requires URLs to be represented as a specific object type which has no exact equivalent in Lua, Hammerspoon uses a table with specific keys to allow proper identification of a URL when included as an argument or result type. Use this function or the hs.sharing.fileURL wrapper function when specifying a URL to ensure that the proper keys are defined. At present, the following keys are defined for a URL table (additional keys may be added in the future if future Hammerspoon modules require them to more completely utilize the macOS NSURL class, but these will not change): url - a string containing the URL with a proper schema and resource locator filePath = a string specifying the actual path to the file in case the url is a file reference URL. Note that setting this field with this method will be silently ignored; the field is automatically inserted if appropriate when returning an NSURL object to lua. __luaSkinType - a string specifying the macOS type this table represents when converted into an Objective-C type
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 146

# Constructors

# newShare


Signature	`hs.sharing.newShare(type) -> sharingObject`
Type	Constructor
Description	Creates a new sharing object of the type specified by the identifier provided.
Parameters	type - a string specifying a sharing type identifier as listed in the hs.sharing.builtinSharingServices table or returned by the hs.sharing.shareTypesFor.
Returns	a sharingObject or nil if the type identifier cannot be created on this system
Notes	None
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 80

# Methods

# accountName


Signature	`hs.sharing:accountName() -> string \| nil`
Type	Method
Description	The account name used by the sharing service when posting on Twitter or Sina Weibo.
Parameters	None
Returns	a string containing the account name used by the sharing service, or nil if the sharing service does not provide this.
Notes	According to the Apple API documentation, only the Twitter and Sina Weibo sharing services will set this property, but this has not been fully tested.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 361

# alternateImage


Signature	`hs.sharing:alternateImage() -> hs.image object \| nil`
Type	Method
Description	Returns an alternate image, if one exists, representing the sharing service provided by this sharing object.
Parameters	None
Returns	an hs.image object or nil, if no alternate image representation for the sharing service is defined.
Notes	None
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 470

# attachments


Signature	`hs.sharing:attachments() -> table \| nil`
Type	Method
Description	If the sharing service provides an array of the attachments included when the data was posted, this method will return an array of file URL tables of the attachments.
Parameters	None
Returns	an array (table) containing the attachment file URLs, or nil if the sharing service selected does not provide this.
Notes	not all sharing services will set a value for this property.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 341

# callback


Signature	`hs.sharing:callback(fn) -> sharingObject`
Type	Method
Description	Set or clear the callback for the sharingObject.
Parameters	fn - A function, or nil, to set or remove the callback for the sharingObject
Returns	the sharingObject
Notes	the callback should expect 3 or 4 arguments and return no results. The arguments will be as follows: the sharingObject itself the callback message, which will be a string equal to one of the following: "didFail" - an error occurred while attempting to share the items "didShare" - the sharing service has finished sharing the items "willShare" - the sharing service is about to start sharing the items; occurs before sharing actually begins an array (table) containing the items being shared; if the message is "didFail" or "didShare", the items may be in a different order or converted to a different internal type to facilitate sharing. if the message is "didFail", the fourth argument will be a localized description of the error that occurred.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 239

# canShareItems


Signature	`hs.sharing:canShareItems(items) -> boolean`
Type	Method
Description	Returns a boolean specifying whether or not all of the items specified can be shared with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.
Parameters	items - an array (table) or list of items separated by commas which are to be shared by the sharing service
Returns	a boolean value indicating whether or not all of the specified items can be shared with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.
Notes	None
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 216

# image


Signature	`hs.sharing:image() -> hs.image object \| nil`
Type	Method
Description	Returns an image, if one exists, representing the sharing service provided by this sharing object.
Parameters	None
Returns	an hs.image object or nil, if no image representation for the sharing service is defined.
Notes	None
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 487

# messageBody


Signature	`hs.sharing:messageBody() -> string \| nil`
Type	Method
Description	If the sharing service provides the message body that was posted when sharing has completed, this method will return the message body as a string.
Parameters	None
Returns	a string containing the message body, or nil if the sharing service selected does not provide this.
Notes	not all sharing services will set a value for this property.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 381

# permanentLink


Signature	`hs.sharing:permanentLink() -> URL table \| nil`
Type	Method
Description	If the sharing service provides a permanent link to the post when sharing has completed, this method will return the corresponding URL.
Parameters	None
Returns	the URL for the permanent link, or nil if the sharing service selected does not provide this.
Notes	not all sharing services will set a value for this property.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 450

# recipients


Signature	`hs.sharing:recipients([recipients]) -> current value \| sharingObject`
Type	Method
Description	Get or set the subject to be used when the sharing service performs its sharing method.
Parameters	recipients - an optional array (table) or list of recipient strings separated by commas which specify the recipients of the shared items.
Returns	if an argument is provided, returns the sharingObject; otherwise returns the current value.
Notes	not all sharing services will make use of the value set by this method. the individual recipients should be specified as strings in the format expected by the sharing service; e.g. for items being shared in an email, the recipients should be email address, etc.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 272

# serviceName


Signature	`hs.sharing:serviceName() -> string`
Type	Method
Description	The service identifier for the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.
Parameters	None
Returns	a string containing the identifier for the sharing service.
Notes	this string will match the identifier used to create the sharing service object with hs.sharing.newShare
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 421

# shareItems


Signature	`hs.sharing:shareItems(items) -> sharingObject`
Type	Method
Description	Shares the items specified with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.
Parameters	items - an array (table) or list of items separated by commas which are to be shared by the sharing service
Returns	the sharingObject, or nil if one or more of the items cannot be shared with the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.
Notes	You can check to see if all of your items can be shared with the hs.sharing:canShareItems method.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 185

# subject


Signature	`hs.sharing:subject([subject]) -> current value \| sharingObject`
Type	Method
Description	Get or set the subject to be used when the sharing service performs its sharing method.
Parameters	subject - an optional string specifying the subject for the posting of the shared content
Returns	if an argument is provided, returns the sharingObject; otherwise returns the current value.
Notes	not all sharing services will make use of the value set by this method.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 315

# title


Signature	`hs.sharing:title() -> string`
Type	Method
Description	The title for the sharing service represented by the sharingObject.
Parameters	None
Returns	a string containing the title of the sharing service.
Notes	this string differs from the identifier used to create the sharing service object with hs.sharing.newShare and is intended to provide a more friendly label for the service if you need to list or refer to it elsewhere.
Examples	None
Source	extensions/sharing/libsharing.m line 401