I'm currently attempting to have my system pipe audio to a specific output depending on which monitor that application is running on. For instance, if a web browser is playing videos on monitor A, sound comes out of output 1. If it is on monitor B, it comes out of output 2. Is there any way to poll which monitor any/all applications are located/active on macOS?
The question hasn't given many details, but in principle you can recover the position of the window using code like the:
tell application "System Events"
tell process "App Name"
set windowPos to position of first window
end tell
end tell
... and then compare that to the frame of each desktop to discover which display the window is in. If you need to determine the frame of each desktop programmatically (instead of hand-coding them in), that will take some extra work: either digging the values out of a system plist file or using AppleScriptObjC to get the frame dimensions from NSScreen. Let me know if you need that, and I'll update when I get a chance.
Related
I have 2 air applications that I wrote. They auto fullscreen after 10 seconds. Before then, they need to be sent to their proper displays. "app_1" needs to run on display 1, "app_2" needs to run on display 2.
Essentially, I have this code:
do shell script "cd /Applications/app_1.app/Contents/MacOS/ ; open app_1;"
which works for me flawlessly. Both apps are launched that way, and there is some code for ensuring that the apps weren't already open, and closing them if they were.
I tried to add in a script to position the app after it is launched:
do shell script "cd /Applications/app_1.app/Contents/MacOS/ ; open app_1;"
tell first window of application "app_1" to set bounds to {0,0,1920,1080}
This gives me an error:
app_1 got an error: Can't set bounds of window 1 to {0,0,1920,1080}
I tried adding a delay of a couple seconds before the set bounds, in case the application hadn't yet launched when the set bounds fired off, however this didn't change anything.
I also tried setting the bounds to something like {100,100,200,200} just to see if I had the screen coordinates wrong or something, but still the exact same error, only with the {100,100,200,200} instead of the original 1920x1080 coordinates.
Anyone have any insight on this? I've been trying to find the solution on google for a couple of hours now.
It sounds like your app isn't exposing the standard "window" class. I don't know if AIR apps are supposed to automatically take care of this and it's not working—if so, you'll want to debug that.
But another alternative is to use UI Scripting to control its windows externally. Instead of this:
tell first window of application "app_1" to set bounds to {0,0,1920,1080}
Do this:
tell application "System Events"
set position of first window of application process "app_1" to {0, 0}
set size of first window of application process "app_1" to {1920,1080}
end tell
However, this will only work if you've gone to the Universal Access pane of System Preferences and checked "Enable access for assistive devices" (or done the same via API, "sudo touch /var/db/.AccessibilityAPIEnabled", etc.).
I'm trying to write a script that can control different windows from different programs (set position and size). I've got things just about working but I'm having problem accurately identifying windows. Right now I've got:
tell application "System Events"
tell application "Mail"
set windowName to name of window 1
end tell
end tell
This is a pretty simplified version of what I have working now. I'm grabbing the window information for many different applications and storing them as properties which are being called upon by another script later:
tell application "System Events"
tell application "Mail"
set position of window windowName to valueX
end tell
end tell
This works as long as the name of the window doesn't change. In many other applications I have no problems because window titles don't change (iCal, iChat, etc). In Mail the window title changes depending on how many e-mails are in your e-mail box. If an e-mail comes in between the first part of the script and the last then the script fails.
I can't really refer to the window by it's index number because those change as the order of the windows change (front to back). I thought maybe the window ID would work, but I need my script to work even if an application has been quit and restarted and the ID number changes if the application is relaunched. Am I SOL, or is there something I hadn't thought of?
Not SOL, but you'll have to do a little more work. There's only a few types of windows. You have the main browser window and you have email messages, whether it be a draft they are composing or an email message they're reading. Maybe you're concerned with the preferences window too. So you have to store the type of window. If it's a browser then you also will have to store the currently selected message. If it's an email window then you store the message id too. For browsers you just open a new browser window and restore the selection. For email messages you just open the messages. You'll have to check Mail's dictionary for other types of windows, but the idea will be the same.
I want to write an app for Mac OS X. The app/utility would act according to preset schedule. I will have different time intervals at which I want this app to show a certain image in full screen regarding if there are other apps running at the time.
The real question is how to check this time interval in the background and bring this app in-front and enter full screen. I know how to go full screen, but I am stuck at bringing this app in-front of all other apps.
To schedule a method to be called after an interval, just use NSTimer and one of its +scheduledTimer... methods.
To force your application to be active, call [NSApp activateIgnoringOtherApps:YES].
If you want your window to appear above absolutely everything, including the screensaver, set its level to NSScreenSaverWindowLevel + 1.
The only solution that comes immediately to mind is use AppleScript, e.g. if you execute the following AppleScript from within your app:
tell application "MyBackgroundApp"
activate
end tell
There is an Apple Tech Note with sample code for sending AppleScript from a Cocoa app using NSAppleScript.
How to force Mac window to foreground?
Is there a way to obtain the current setting for desktop wallpaper change either using Apple Script or defaults read? Basically I want to know by looking at the plist file if the option of changing wallpaper every X minutes is enabled or not.
See the AppleScript dictionary for the Desktop Suite class of the System Events helper app. It contains the property:
picture rotation (integer) : never, using interval, using login, after sleep
There are separate values for each desktop, for instance, if you have more than one monitor active. For example:
tell application "System Events"
get picture rotation of its first desktop
end tell
I'm building an Applescript that will scan my network every X minutes, checking for my house's Xbox360 or PS3 and enabling my Transmission BitTorrent client Speed-Limit Mode when either console is online.
Currently I can only Pause all transfers or resume all transfers using applescript, as there are separate key-commands for start/stop transfer. I want it to go into speed-limit mode though, not stop completely.
My issue is that the Speed-Limit (Turtle) mode is the same key to turn it on/off. If anyone touches the speed-limit manually, it will be out of sync and will actually turn speed-limit off when the consoles come online. Also if one console comes online, the speed-limit will come on, but then if the other console comes on, the limit will be turned off.
The menu item becomes 'checked' when the speed-limit is active, but I do not know how to test for this. There was nothing in the applescript dictionary for the transmission app.
How can I determine whether a menu item is 'checked'(It even shows an actual check-mark) in Applescript?
[Edit:] I'm currently trying to figure out how to turn the Speed-Limit on via RPC, rather than trying to script it using the GUI or keycommands, since the developers don't provide any applescript access.
http://trac.transmissionbt.com/browser/trunk/doc/rpc-spec.txt
I had the exact same issue, and finally figured out how to check if Transmission's Speed Limit menu item is checked (and you could easily modify this to check for menu items in other applications). This has been dead for almost a year now, but hopefully this helps.
tell application "Transmission" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Transmission"
set speedLimitCurrentlyOn to (value of attribute "AXMenuItemMarkChar" of menu item "Speed Limit" of menu "Transfers" of menu bar 1 as string) ≠ ""
display dialog "Speed Limit On: " & speedLimitCurrentlyOn
end tell
end tell
PS:
I adapted this from the AppleScript here: http://mac.softpedia.com/progDownload/Transmission-Auto-Speed-Limit-Download-60275.html
What information you are able to divine from any given application via AppleScript is entirely up to said application's developer. If Transmission doesn't define any way for you to determine this state, then you're not going to be able to do so with any degree of reliability.
It would make far more sense to invest $40-$50 in a router with quality of service controls that would allow you to prioritize your network traffic by port or by device.