PListChecker

After spending too many hours wondering why my document icons weren't showing up under Mac OS X, and finally figuring out that it was caused by a typo in my 'plst' resource, I wrote this utility to help other Mac OS X programmers. Drag a packaged application, or a single-fork application containing a 'plst' resource, or an Info.plist file and drop it on PlistChecker. PlistChecker displays a report listing any problems it found.

What PListChecker does:

Verifies the UTF-8 encoding.
Reports any XML/plist parsing errors.
Reports any undocumented top-level keys.
Checks the types of the values for most documented keys, and keys within the CFBundleDocumentTypes, UTExportedTypeDeclarations, and UTImportedTypeDeclarations arrays.
Reports keys recommended by Apple documents that are missing from the plist.

These checks are based on my understanding of what a plist should look like, and should not be taken as gospel. PListChecker does not examine InfoPlist.strings files.

Version 1.0.1 changes: Allow <string>Yes</string> as an alternative to <true/> for LSPrefersCarbon, LSPrefersClassic, LSRequiresCarbon, and LSRequiresClassic.

Version 1.0.2 changes: When launched under an OS version earlier than 9.0, it now shows an alert and quits instead of crashing.

Version 1.1 changes:

Recognize CFBundleHelpBookFolder, CFBundleHelpBookName.
Recognize obsolete keys NSIcon, NSExtensions, NSExecutable.
Recognize document type keys CFBundleTypeMIMETypes, NSDocumentClass, NSExportableAs.

Version 1.2 changes: The UTF-8 check now rejects characters that use 2 bytes when 1 would have sufficed, or that use 3 bytes when 2 would have sufficed.

Version 1.2.1 change: A file starting with a UTF-16 byte order mark is now recognized as UTF-16, rather than incorrect UTF-8.

Version 1.3 changes:

The report text is now antialiased when running on OS X.
The About box is movable.
When dealing with an unbundled application with a 'plst' resource, PListChecker now verifies that the PList type and creator codes match the application's actual type and creator codes, and that the value of CFBundleIconFile is a number.
There is a specific error message if a standard key is typed with incorrect capitalization.
The keys LSUIElement and LSHasLocalizedDisplayName are recognized.
The key CFBundleExecutable is now on the recommended list, though it probably doesn't really serve a purpose for unbundled applications.

Version 1.3.1 changes:

The keys LSMinimumSystemVersion, LSMultipleInstancesProhibited, LSHasLocalizedDisplayName, LSGetAppDiedEvents are now recognized.
When the key NSHumanReadableCopyright is missing, you no longer get a warning that a recommended key is missing, because no Apple applications seem to use it.
In the case of a 'plst' resource, you no longer get a warning when CFBundleExecutable is missing.

Version 1.4 changes:

There is now a preference dialog with a "verbose" option. With this unchecked, you get either only errors and warnings, or the text "** No problems found! **".
Application names longer than 31 characters or containing Unicode characters are now displayed correctly.
The window title now shows the version number after the application name.
If there is no problem with the character encoding, the report does not mention it.
The Cut, Clear, and Paste menu commands are disabled, since the report text is read-only.
There is a Window menu.
The menu item "About PListChecker" is not followed by an ellipsis.

Version 1.5 changes:

The top level keys CGDisableCoalescedUpdates, UTExportedTypeDeclarations, UTImportedTypeDeclarations, LSRequiresNativeExecution are recognized.
The LSUIElement key now expects a string 1 or 0, in accordance with Apple docs.
The keys LSPrefersCarbon, LSPrefersClassic, LSRequiresCarbon, LSRequiresClassic now expect a value that is either a string 1 or 0 or a boolean.
The CFBundleDocumentTypes key LSItemContentTypes is recognized.

Version 1.5.1 changes:

The top level key LSEnvironment is recognized.
The CFBundleDocumentTypes key NSPersistentStoreTypeKey is recognized.

PlistChecker.zip, 140K