Tag Archives: macos

New app alert (Copy Cleaner for macOS)

I’ve just released my first macOS app, a menu bar app. It’s called Copy Cleaner and it works in the background to remove tracking from URLs that are copied to your clipboard. The UX is very seamless since you use your mac normally, and common trackers (utm_source, etc) are removed automatically for you.

Working on a macOS app (on the mac App Store) was a nice diversion for me. I’m used to working in Xcode, but not on mac apps. Granted a menu bar app is different from a traditional desktop application that sits in your dock.

I built this app since it’s tackles something that I run into weekly. When I’m browsing iOS, JS, ruby, etc. newsletters, I end up clicking on many long URLs – filled with query trackers. By building this app, I don’t have to clean up my URLs manually any more. This app takes care of it.

Example

Copy this: https://www.example.com/?utm_source=newsletter&sfmc_activityid=abc12345-1234-1234-abcd-12345abcdefg&sfmc_id=123456789&utm_campaign=campaign-id-2020&utm_content=123456&utm_id=abcdefgh-1234-5678-9101-123a123abcde&utm_medium=email&utm_term=email%2campaign

You’ll paste this: https://www.example.com/

That’s it. The app works silently in the background. With Apple’s Clipboard and the app running on your mac, the URL cleaning works on both mac & iPhone.

Let me know if you have any questions. You can reach me on Twitter @rexfeng

P.S. – We’re on Product Hunt!

zsh PS1 setup

macOS Catalina uses zsh as the new default shell (instead of bash) in Terminal. This means that many people will be looking to re-setup their CLI with ~/.zshrc instead of ~/.bash_profile.

While customizing my .zshrc was a hassle, it was also an opportunity to clean up my profile and remove legacy settings.

Zsh offers an optional right side prompt, but I only used the left side prompt for now.

Here are some misc tips that I’ve found helpful:

  • For basic PS1 exports (time/date, current dir, user, etc), you can find examples here. Things like %D for the current date, %~ for the current directoy, and more.
  • In your PS1 export, you can start color formatting with %F{117} and end color formatting with %f. Replace 117 with whatever color your desire. You can find color codes here.
  • You can make your tab auto completion case insensitive (ignore case) by adding:
    zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list 'm:{[:lower:]}={[:upper:]}'
    autoload -Uz compinit && compinit -i
  • You can show your current git branch with:
    autoload -Uz vcs_info
    precmd() { vcs_info }
    zstyle ':vcs_info:git:*' formats '(%b)'
    setopt prompt_subst
    Note: you also need to add $vcs_info_msg_0_ in your PS1 export line.

I’ve thought about creating a zshrc WYSIWYG tool, ala Halloween Bash, but I’ve shelved those plans since there’s only so much time in a day. With macOS Catalina inevitable for macOS users, more and more people are going to be looking for easy ~/.zshrc customization.

Using SVG / PDF assets in your iOS app

This guide covers a simple way to use SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) assets in your iOS app. This was tested on macOS High Sierra 10.13 with Xcode 9.4 and Swift 4.

There are many websites where you can find SVG icons. Check out Material or ionicons

  1. Install homebrew & python3 for macOS (if you don’t have it)
  2. Install cairosvg. The code below installs various dependencies 
    brew install python3 cairo pango gdk-pixbuf libffi

pip3 install cairosvg
  3. Convert your SVG icons to PDF files. Make sure to navigate to the location of your SVG icon files. Run this command for each icon file (with the relevant *.svg & *.pdf input / output file name): 
    cairosvg icon.svg -o icon.pdf
  4. Drag your PDF files into your Xcode Assets.xcassets folder
  5. Adjust the settings for each icon in your xcassets. You may want to adjust:
    1. Name – this is important as you will refer to this in your Swift code to use the icon
    2. Set ‘Render As’ to ‘Template Image’
    3. Check the box for ‘Resizing – Preserve Vector Data’
    4. Set ‘Scales’ to ‘Single Scale’
  6. Use your icon in your app. I did this programmatically in Swift, and this works in your ViewController. Make sure to update the ‘iconName’ to match what is in your xcassets for your icon file. 
    if let icon = UIImage(named: "iconName") {
    let image = UIImageView(image: icon)
    image.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
    image.tintColor = UIColor.blue
    view.addSubview(image)

    NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
        image.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.leadingAnchor),
        image.centerYAnchor.constraint(equalTo: view.centerYAnchor),
        image.widthAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 24),
        image.heightAnchor.constraint(equalToConstant: 24),
        ])
}
  7.  That’s it. Your SVG file was converted to a PDF file, added into your Xcode assets, and called from your ViewController!