There is a problem with the backlight of my mac. Sometimes when I turn it on the backlight does not come on. However if I manually force the screen to sleep and wake a couple of times it does light up. So I want to write an applescript to automate this process.
I have looked at ...
How do I wake from display sleep in OSX 10.7.4?
But that is not written in Applescript (or if it is I cannot figure out how to run it.
I have tried the following
do shell script "pmset displaysleepnow"
tell application "Google Chrome"
activate
end tell
do shell script "pmset displaysleepnow"
tell application "Google Chrome"
quit
end tell
But the screen blanks and never relights. I have also tried using caffeine as per some questions about this. I have tried using code to move the mouse and/or click the mouse programmatically.
If I just run the displaysleepnow followed by the 'activate chrome' that works, but if the displaysleepnow is executed again nothing appears to reactivate it.
I am using macOS 10.14.4
Synopsis
One way to approach this is to:
Obtain the current date/time plus x number of seconds in the future.
Schedule the system/display to "wake" in the future using the date/time obtained at point 1.
Then set your display to sleep.
Solution
Consider utilizing the following AppleScript to meet your requirement:
set wakeAfterSeconds to "15"
set myPassword to "xxxxxxxxxx"
set now to do shell script "date -r $(date +%s) '+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S'"
set wakeTime to do shell script "date -jv +" & wakeAfterSeconds & "S -f " & ¬
quoted form of "%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S" & " " & quoted form of now & " " & ¬
quoted form of "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S"
do shell script "pmset schedule wake " & quoted form of wakeTime & ¬
" && pmset displaysleepnow" password myPassword with administrator privileges
Code Explanation
The line that reads;
set now to do shell script "date -r $(date +%s) '+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S'"
essentially executes the following bash date command, using the Applescript do shell script command, to obtain the current date/time:
$ date -r $(date +%s) '+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S'
This assigns the current date/time, formatted as MM/DD/YY HH:MM:SS, to the variable named now.
The lines reading;
set wakeTime to do shell script "date -jv +" & wakeAfterSeconds & "S -f " & ¬
quoted form of "%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S" & " " & quoted form of now & " " & ¬
quoted form of "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S"
obtain a future date/time by adding x no. of seconds to the current date/time (i.e. it adds 15 seconds). This future date/time, (which again is computed using the shells date utility), is assigned to the variable named wakeTime.
The lines that read:
do shell script "pmset schedule wake " & quoted form of wakeTime & ¬
" && pmset displaysleepnow" password myPassword with administrator privileges
utilize the pmset utility to perform the following two tasks:
Schedules the display to "wake" at a future date/time, i.e. after 15 seconds.
Sets the system to "sleep" now.
Additional notes:
You'll need to set the no. of seconds assigned to the wakeAfterSeconds variable to a value which is appropriate for your system. You may find that you need to increase, or decrease, this value.
In essence the number of seconds that you set the wakeAfterSeconds value to must be longer than the number of seconds it takes for your display to enter sleep mode - it's got to be asleep before it can be woken !
Setting a shedule to wake your computer using the pmset utility must be run as root, therefore it requires your password. So you'll need to set the value of the myPassword variable as necessary.
You mentioned;
... if I manually force the screen to sleep and wake a couple of times it does light up.
In which case you may want to consider wrapping the aforementioned code in a repeat statement.
For instance, the following repeats the process twice:
set wakeAfterSeconds to "15"
set myPassword to "xxxxxxxxxx"
repeat 2 times
set now to do shell script "date -r $(date +%s) '+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S'"
set wakeTime to do shell script "date -jv +" & wakeAfterSeconds & "S -f " & ¬
quoted form of "%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S" & " " & quoted form of now & " " & ¬
quoted form of "+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S"
do shell script "pmset schedule wake " & quoted form of wakeTime & ¬
" && pmset displaysleepnow" password myPassword with administrator privileges
delay wakeAfterSeconds
end repeat
Utilize "Login Items" to auto run the application:
Also, you may want to consider adding the aforementioned AppleScript application to your Login Items. This would automatically run the application when you start-up your computer. To do this:
Firstly ensure the scripts "File Format" has been saved as an "Application" via your AppleScript Editor.
Launch "System Preferences" and select "Users & Groups".
Select your user account in the panel on the left side, and click "Login Items"
Click the plus icon + and select the AppleScript Application.
Relaunch your computer.
Older Mac OSX:
On older versions of macOS (namely OSX) the pmset utility did not include a displaysleepnow command. It just had the pmset sleepnow command. So, for those wanting to run this on older OSX you'll need to change the last do shell script command to:
do shell script "pmset schedule wake " & quoted form of wakeTime & ¬
" && pmset sleepnow" password myPassword with administrator privileges
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Before OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), I could ensure an applescript dialog had focus by telling the "current application" to activate:
tell current application
activate
set output to (do shell script "printf '" & hostsLine & commentString & "' >> /private/etc/hosts" with administrator privileges)
end tell
This would bring the password dialog to the front to type in. The dialog no longer appears with focus in Yosemite and you have to click on it before you can type.
Searching on stack exchange and elsewhere hasn't provided any solutions/workarounds.
Does anyone have a way that works in OS X 10.10?
UPDATE 1: In case anyone else runs into this problem, it appears to be a new sandboxing issue. A non-password dialog box gets focus properly. In fact, a non-password dialog before the "with administrator privileges" password dialog will cause the password dialog to also have focus. I added a dialog to confirm Safari was still the front app while testing and discovered this. As a workaround, I have added a preceding dialog with timeout of 1 (second) until a better solution can be found.
tell me -- alternate method: tell current application
activate
display dialog "Trying to get focus…" with title "Can't focus in Yosemite" buttons {"Cancel", "Idle"} cancel button "Cancel" giving up after (1)
set output to (do shell script "printf '" & hostsLine & commentString & "' >> /etc/hosts" with administrator privileges)
end tell
Interestingly, BBedit's Authenticated Save helper script (for the MAS version of the app) uses a "with administrator privileges" password dialog. But it gets focus properly in Yosemite. Something different between a native app call to applescript vs. an Applescript tell command for an app to do so?
on documentShouldFinalizeAuthenticatedSave(theDocument, tempFilePath, destinationPath)
-- on input: tempFilePath points to the contents of the document written to a temp file, ready to move to the destination; destinationPath is where the file should be copied.
-- on exit: if the operation succeeded, delete the temp file (or else the application will assume the operation failed) and return YES for success
-- this is pretty straightforward: "cp tmpFilePath destinationPath"
do shell script "cp" & " " & quoted form of tempFilePath & " " & quoted form of destinationPath with administrator privileges
-- now remove the temp file, this indicates to the application that we did the work
do shell script "rm" & " " & quoted form of tempFilePath
return true
end documentShouldFinalizeAuthenticatedSave
UPDATE 2: If anyone is curious, this part of a Safari helper script for my wife to block spammy popup ad sites like mackeeper.zeobit.com that have modal dialog boxes. Editing /etc/hosts was a little too complicated/daunting and she wanted a turnkey solution. I can post the whole script if there's interest. It works fine under 10.9, but the focus for password issue is annoying in 10.10.
You could try... Tell me instead of Tell current application. "Tell me" basically tells the applescript to activate and run the "do shell script" command. This makes more sense. "do shell script" is an applescript command so it makes sense to ask applescript to run it. Maybe this will help with your problem.
Good luck.
Personally, I would remove the need to enter a password. The simplest way to do this is to append the following line to the /private/etc/sudoers file.
wife_user_name ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
To remove the need for a password for all Administrator accounts, change the following line in the /private/etc/sudoers file from
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
to
%admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
Next, change your applescript line from
set output to (do shell script "printf '" & hostsLine & commentString & "' >> /private/etc/hosts" with administrator privileges)
to
set output to (do shell script "sudo printf '" & hostsLine & commentString & "' >> /private/etc/hosts")
Changes to the /private/etc/sudoers file can be accomplished by using the Terminal and TextEdit applications. Open the Terminal application and type the following commands:
cd ~/desktop
sudo cp -n /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.orignal
sudo cp /etc/sudoers sudoers.txt
sudo chmod ug+w sudoers.txt
open sudoers.txt
visudo -c -f sudoers.txt
sudo cp -X sudoers.txt /etc/sudoers
When done, the sudoers.txt file on your desktop can be put in the trash.
To undo your changes, use the command:
sudo cp /etc/sudoers.original /etc/sudoers
This was tested using OS X 10.10.1
Below is a brief explanation of what each command does:
cd ~/desktop
This makes sure you are working from your desktop folder.
sudo cp -n /etc/sudoers /etc/sudoers.original
This backups your sudoers file. The backup can be used to undo your changes. The -n option insures that an existing sudoers.original file will not be overwritten.
sudo cp /etc/sudoers sudoers.txt
Copies the sudoers file to your desktop. The .txt extension is added so OS X will know this is a text file.
sudo chmod ug+w sudoers.txt
Changes the file’s permissions to allow write access.
open sudoers.txt
Opens the file in the TextEdit application. You need to edit the file and save the changes.
visudo -c -f sudoers.txt
Checks the edited file for syntax errors. The output should be sudoers.txt: parsed OK.
sudo cp -X sudoers.txt /etc/sudoers
Copies the file back to the /etc directory.
I stumbled upon this post trying to get the password dialog to get focus in an Alfred script that I am working on. I finally got it to work reliably by adding tell me to activate prior to my shell command. The resultant script was:
tell me to activate
do shell script "<command>" with administrator privileges
Hope this works for you.
2015-01-08 Edit
Mike, I understand your question as: "I have an AppleScript with a do shell script that asks for an admin password, but I have to click on the password dialog before I can type in it. How can I ensure the dialog has focus, saving me the nuisance of clicking it?"
My response to you is: "What if your AppleScript never asked for a password in the first place? Wouldn't you be happier?"
If so, then here's a solution. That question demonstrates how you can bypass the dialog by supplying a password parameter along with the with administrator privileges parameter.
Ok, Mike this is my second try at an answer.
Instead of using
tell current application
activate
set output to (do shell script "printf '" & hostsLine & commentString & "' >> /private/etc/hosts" with administrator privileges)
end tell
as you proposed at the start of your above question, try using
tell current application
activate
tell me to set output to (doShellScript for "printf '" & hostsLine & commentString & "' >> /private/etc/hosts" with administratorPrivileges)
end tell
where the doShellScript handler would be
on doShellScript for command as text given administratorPrivileges:adminPriv as boolean : false
if adminPriv then
set message to (name of current application) & " wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this."
set again to ""
set pw to ""
set icn to 1
repeat
set fullCommand to "printf '%s\\n' " & (quoted form of pw) & " | sudo -p '' -S " & command
try
return do shell script fullCommand
on error eStr number eNum partial result rList from badObj to expectedType
set errorMessage to "Sorry, try again." & return & return & "sudo: 1 incorrect password attempt"
if eStr ≠ errorMessage or eNum ≠ 1 then
error eStr number eNum partial result rList from badObj to expectedType
end if
end try
set actual to again & message
set values to display dialog actual default answer "" with icon icn with hidden answer
set again to "Sorry, incorrect passord. Try again." & linefeed
set pw to text returned of values
set icn to 2
end repeat
end if
return do shell script command
end doShellScript
An example dialog is shown below.
Your application name and icon will be different. The main thing is that the focus will be on the password text box when the dialog pops up.
dave.
I had a similar issue for which I had an applescript execute a continuous ping in Terminal, and then a dialog box would pop up in order for user to click OK to kill that ping and start a different one. The issue was similar as the dialog box kept showing behind the Terminal window. As I would have to execute this script numerous times in an urgent situation with very limited time, this was very annoying. I was finally able to resolve it by telling System Events to wait 1 second after it starts the continuous ping, and then keystroke CMD+Tab to switch back to the running script before opening the dialog box. The CMD+Tab initially only intermittently resolved it until I added the delay 1.
Example of issue:
tell application "Terminal" to do script pingCommand
set userDialog to display dialog "Client Connection Test Completed" buttons {"Ping Server", "Cancel"}
With above code, the dialog would always come behind the Terminal window.
Example of resolution:
tell application "Terminal" to do script pingCommand
delay 1
tell application "System Events" to key code 48 using {command down}
set userDialog to display dialog "Client Connection Test Completed" buttons {"Ping Server", "Cancel"}
I was facing the same problem, and created a solution that would bring my applet's dialog to the front.
I wrote a function called ActivateMe() that replaces the "activate" or "tell me to activate" commands that would proceed the "display dialog" command.
This function gets the current process name, and then executes the following AppleScript commands via a shell script.
delay 0.1
tell application "System Events"
set frontmost of process \"" & processName & "\" to true
end tell"
Here's the function. Enjoy.
on ActivateMe()
set myPath to path to me as text
if myPath ends with ":" then
set n to -2
else
set n to -1
end if
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"
set processName to text item n of myPath
if (processName contains ".") then
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
set processName to text 1 thru text item -2 of processName
end if
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
set a to "delay 0.1"
set b to "tell application \"System Events\""
set c to "set frontmost of process \"" & processName & "\" to true"
set d to "end tell"
do shell script "osascript -e '" & a & "' -e '" & b & "' -e '" & c & "' -e '" & d & "'"
end ActivateMe
Appears to be a bug in 10.10.x most likely due to sandboxing. Fixed in 10.11 (El Cap) as the unmodified script gets focus from the activate command once again like it did in 10.9 and earlier versions.
after an automator script that asks a user to choose a folder i have this applescript-
on run {input, parameters}
try
set theFolder to input
tell application "Finder" to set name of theFolder to "test"
on error e number n
set theLine to (do shell script "date +'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'" as string) & " " & "OOPs: " & e & " " & n
do shell script "echo " & theLine & " >> ~/Library/Logs/AudioModdeer-events.log"
end try
return input
end run
my log gives me the following error-
2013-09-03 16:50:56 OOPs: AppleEvent handler failed. -10000
2013-09-03 16:51:28 OOPs: Can’t set name of {alias Macintosh HD:Users:Audio:Music:Ableton:User Library:Samples:Samples:} to test. -10006
You have to reference one item from the Input list...
set theFolder to first item of input
I'm pretty much a newbie to AppleScript, but I found out today that the following works, too:
move contents of <oldFolder> to make new folder at alias <currentLocation> with properties {name:"<newName>"}
Hope this works for you, too.
I am trying to pass 3 variables to a text file that gets sent to server, however one of my variables (pword) does not get sent.
Below is my code:
set pword to do shell script "echo" with administrator privileges
##Enable remote login
do shell script "launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist" user name (short user name of (system info)) password pword with administrator privileges
##Get ip
set tIP to do shell script "ifconfig en0|grep 'inet '|cut -d ' ' -f 2"
##Get username
set userName to short user name of (system info)
##Create text file with user data
do shell script "echo " & tIP & userName & pword & ">> /Users/" & userName & "/Documents/tests.txt"
##Create path where user data is stored
set thePath to "/Users/" & userName & "/Documents/tests.txt"
##Send the data to the server
do shell script "curl -T " & thePath & " ftp://username:password#server"
##Delete the text file
do shell script "rm /Users/" & userName & "/Documents/tests.txt"
Any idea why only userName and tIP get written to the text file and not pword?
Thanks.
To get the password you should use:
set pword to text returned of (display dialog "Enter Password:" default answer "" with hidden answer)
Bash is great, but unless you plan to make this whole thing a bash script (which it looks like you've practically already done) you might as well use some of AppleScript's perks.
When you send stuff to the shell you must quote them to make sure they are sent as a whole... in case they haves spaces or something else where the shell would mistake them as separate instead of whole. So I would try this...
do shell script "echo " & quoted form of (tIP & userName & pword) & " >> " & quoted form of ("/Users/" & userName & "/Documents/tests.txt")
Note that some of your other code would also benefit from "quoted form of" to ensure future-proofing your code. It's good coding practice to use this whether it is needed or not.
I have the following line in AppleScript
set msgDate to (current date) as string
set removalString to "\"rm -f ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.playlister.\"" as string
do shell script "echo do shell script " & removalString & msgDate & ".plist" & ">> ~/Library/Playlister/" & msgDate & ".applescript"
What I'm trying to do, yet again, is pass the string
do shell script "rm -f ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.playlister.whateverthedatestampis.plist"
with the quotes in the correct place. I'm moving stuff around quite a bit in a blind attempt to get the quotes right, and I've almost gotten it, but not quite.
Any insight or assistance is appreciated!
Are you trying to do this?
set msgDate to (current date) as text
set removalString to "rm -f ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.playlister."
do shell script "echo do shell script \\\"" & removalString & msgDate & ".plist\\\"" & " >> ~/Library/Playlister/" & quoted form of msgDate & ".applescript"