Calling App Expose In Lion

Question

Is there any way to call App Expose in Lion programmatically, for example on an event tap, etc?

Answer 1

If you don't mind using a TOTALLY UNDOCUMENTED API, which might change at any point without notice:

void CoreDockSendNotification(CFStringRef, void *);
(...)
CoreDockSendNotification(@"com.apple.expose.front.awake", NULL);

Other known arguments are @"com.apple.expose.awake" and @"com.apple.dashboard.awake", which activate Mission Control and Dashboard, respectively. @"com.apple.showdesktop.awake" used to activate Show Desktop, but no longer works on current versions of macOS.

Note that most applications should not use these calls -- these actions are intended to be invoked directly by the user.

Answer 2

Expose does not exist in Lion, it has been merged with Spaces into the Mission Control application. You can launch Mission Control:

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:@"Mission Control"];