Applying custom icons to all files of a type

You should be able to select one of the files. Then, "Get Info" (command-i) and paste the icon. Then "In the Open With" tab, choose the app and click "Change All"?

EDIT: There is a third party software that changes the Sidebar icons back to color. Search the forums, I don't remember off hand which it is. The downside is that you need to redo it after every update. Got it...

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/40989/colorfulsidebar

Hmm...could this be of use?

I think that you are looking at a lot of work here. There are some default icons that the system uses, but typically a document icon is containied in the default application, and the various document icons are defined in the application's Info.plist for each particular type of document (a non-standard application bundle would just get generic document icons). None of these use the creation date to vary the icon, so you would probably need to group your documents together like everyone else does - into folders.

Your path isn't correct - it should be

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsr egister

TextEdit really isn't all that great for editing configuration files, so you might check out TextWrangler - it will also let you use admin access.

and when I do manage to edit that info list - then TextEdit crashes

It may no longer be possible to hack into the info.plist of an Apple-supplied application because these apps are protected by "code signatures".

I made a copy of Lion's TextEdit.app on my Desktop, and this copy launched normally. I then made an insignificant change to its info.plist, changing a copyright date from 1995 to 1996. The app copy would no longer launch, and the TextEdit crash report in Console included:

---------

Crashed Thread: 0 Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)

Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000

Application Specific Information:

dyld: launch, running initializers

/usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib

xpchelper reply message validation: code signature invalid

The code signature is not valid: The operation couldn’t be completed. (OSStatus error -67061.)

Application Specific Signatures:

code signature invalid

--------------------

I then changed the copyright date entry back to 1995, and the app copy again launched normally.

Matt Wolanski wrote:

I have developer tools - maybe what I need to do is create my own app from scratch - and then build into it instructions for telling other apps to open the file in question.

If you succeed be sure to submit it to MAS!

Good luck, but I think you are fighting the system, which mainly uses file structure and metadata to identify things. The idea is that each application tells the system what kinds of files it can handle, and the icons to use for the files that it can create/edit. If the application is the default for a particular kind of file, then that is also usually where the icon comes from.

As mentioned, you are also looking at dealing with code signing and various sandboxing methods, so mangling an existing application probably isn't going to work much longer, if it does at all now. It is easy enough for an application or script to assign custom icons, so a folder action or perhaps a utility in the Finder's toolbar is the way to go.

I am guessing that you have the desired icons, and I have some scripts that will set icons, so it sounds like it may just be a matter of defining a workflow that will work to apply them to the files.

To include an image when composing your reply, highlight the text you want to use for your link and click on the camera icon (at the top of the editor box).

A new Cocoa-AppleScript application can be created from the AppleScript Editor > File > New from Template > Cocoa-AppleScript Applet menu item, pasting in the following script:

-- set icon
on run -- application double-clicked
tell current application's NSOpenPanel's openPanel()
setFloatingPanel_(true)
setTitle_("Choose file items to set an icon for:")
setPrompt_("Choose") -- the button name
setDirectoryURL_(current application's NSURL's URLWithString_(POSIX path of (path to desktop)))

setCanChooseFiles_(true)
setCanChooseDirectories_(false)
setShowsHiddenFiles_(false)
setTreatsFilePackagesAsDirectories_(false)
setAllowsMultipleSelection_(true)

set theResult to runModal() as integer
if theResult is current application's NSFileHandlingPanelCancelButton then tell me to quit -- cancel button
set theFiles to URLs() as list
end tell

repeat with eachFile in theFiles -- coerce the file paths in place
tell eachFile to set its contents to its |path|() as text
end repeat
open theFiles
end run
on open theItems -- items dropped onto the application
try -- get a path to the image to be used for the icon
set imageFile to POSIX path of (choose file with prompt "Select an image file for the icon:" of type "public.image")
on error -- cancel button
tell me to quit
end try

set errorList to {} -- this will be a list of problem files, if any
repeat with eachItem in theItems
if not setIcon(imageFile, eachItem) then
set end of errorList to (eachItem & return)
end if
end repeat

if errorList is not {} then -- oops, show items where there was a problem
display alert "Error setting icon." message "Icons of the following items were not set:" & return & return & errorList as text
end if

tell me to quit -- done
end open
to setIcon(imageFilePath, fileItemPath) -- set the icon of a file item
set mySharedWorkspace to current application's NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace()
set myImage to current application's NSImage's alloc's initWithContentsOfFile_(imageFilePath)
try
return mySharedWorkspace's setIcon_forFile_options_(myImage, fileItemPath, 0) as boolean
on error errorMessage
return false
end try
end setIcon

After saving, the resulting application can be double-clicked, or you can drop files onto it (the script can't be run from the script editor). It can be tweaked further to include image files in the application bundle to select from (the icon images can be any image, not just icon files), or to be used in the Finder's toolbar, but for now the basic application should get you started.