Using Core Image Filters On/Under a NSWindow

So just to kick off I thought I'd drop a little Cocoa code to apply a Core Image filter to, or underneath, a window. This is similar to what Apple themselves use in Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard" to create a blur under menus, etc. Firstly, you'll need to define some things:

typedef void * CGSConnection;
extern OSStatus CGSNewConnection(const void **attributes, CGSConnection * id);

Then you'll need to use the following code to create a filter and apply it to a window. For this example, I use a blur placed beneath a window's contents (similar to menus, or Glass in Vista):

-(void)enableBlurForWindow:(NSWindow *)window
{
 CGSConnection thisConnection;
 uint32_t compositingFilter;
 int compositingType = 1; // Under the window

 /* Make a new connection to CoreGraphics */
 CGSNewConnection(NULL, &thisConnection);

 /* Create a CoreImage filter and set it up */
 CGSNewCIFilterByName(thisConnection, (CFStringRef)@"CIGaussianBlur", &compositingFilter);
 NSDictionary *options = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:3.0] forKey:@"inputRadius"];
 CGSSetCIFilterValuesFromDictionary(thisConnection, compositingFilter, (CFDictionaryRef)options);

 /* Now apply the filter to the window */
 CGSAddWindowFilter(thisConnection, [window windowNumber], compositingFilter, compositingType);
}