[tom_waters]

Does anyone know if it is possible to send keyboard input to an application that is not in the current responder chain?

I am implementing spring loaded folders in my finder replacement, and would like to get the space bar presses sent to my app whenever any other app is dragging over me. At present, I have it working after a delay by using the validateDrop messages in my tableView delegate, but I would like to support the classic finder style keyboard actions.

I've tried sending [[self window] makeKeyWindow] on my draggingEntered method, but that doesn't seem to work, I call [[self window] isKeyWindow] immediately after, and it returns NO.

[lindberg]

Only the active application gets key events posted to it. If you want, you can force your application to the front via [[NSApplication sharedApplication] activateIgnoringOtherApps:YES]. [[NSApplication sharedApplication] isActive] tells you whether you're currently the active application or not.

Other than that, there's no way to get the keystrokes from Cocoa. Maybe there's something in the lower-level APIs, but I don't know. The HID stuff in the IOKit may be one place to look, but I think Apple is still working on those APIs.