application stops working when set to background - swift

Question

The code works fine when the window is open in the foreground and when I press the space key, the mouse moves as expected, but as soon as I move to another application and I press the space key, the mouse no longer moves as expected with the keystroke, How do I keep the application working even when it is set to the background
import Cocoa
class ViewController: NSViewController {
var timer: Timer!
#objc func movethemouse() {
let mouseLocx = NSEvent.mouseLocation.x
let mouseLocy = NSEvent.mouseLocation.y
let screenH = NSScreen.main?.frame.height
let deltaX = CGFloat(Int(1))
let deltaY = CGFloat(Int(1))
let newLoc = CGPoint(x: mouseLocx + deltaX , y: screenH! - mouseLocy - deltaY )
CGDisplayMoveCursorToPoint(CGMainDisplayID(), newLoc)
}
override func viewDidLoad() {
super.viewDidLoad()
// Do any additional setup after loading the view.
}
override func viewDidAppear() {
view.window?.makeFirstResponder(self)
}
override var acceptsFirstResponder : Bool {
return true
}
var count3=0
var flag = false
override func keyDown(with event: NSEvent) {
if (event.keyCode == 49){
flag = true
if count3 == 0 {
timer = Timer.scheduledTimer(timeInterval: 0.001, target:self, selector: #selector(ViewController.movethemouse), userInfo: nil, repeats:true)
print(event)
}
count3 += 1
}
}
override func keyUp(with event: NSEvent) {
print(event)
if (event.keyCode == 49) {
if flag {
timer.invalidate()
count3 = 0
print(event)
}
}
}
}

Answer 1

You need to capture system wide events. Here's some sample code that will get everything in the system. Note that you have to enable assistive mode for XCode (during development) or your app (running outside XCode) for this to work.
func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ aNotification: Notification) {
if getAccessibility() {
snarfKeys()
}
// etc...
}
func getAccessibility() -> Bool {
let trusted = AXIsProcessTrusted()
if !trusted {
print("process is not trusted")
}
return trusted
}
func snarfKeys() {
NSEvent.addGlobalMonitorForEvents(matching: .keyUp, handler: keyPress)
NSEvent.addGlobalMonitorForEvents(matching: .leftMouseUp, handler: mousePress)
}
snarfKeys does the magic, but as noted above and in the code, the process needs to be trusted to be able to add global event monitoring.