I have found the applescript code on internet, to start a terminal and launch Elasticsearch
the code is
tell app "Terminal"
do script "elasticsearch-5.5.0/bin/./elasticsearch"
end tell
It works fine,
now I want to add more stuff on it, I need to open 4 more new tab not new window just tab (command + T). and then run different command such as log tail command, start kibana like one after another in each tab.
I am new to applescript and got tired by searching samples and tutorials, can anyone suggest a solution or your idea to achieve the automation.
Terminal's scripting dictionary isn't very good — a lot of 'Apple Event Handler Failed' errors — but you can manage it with code like the following:
tell application "Terminal" to activate
my makeTab("ls -al")
my makeTab("top")
my makeTab("cd ~/Documents")
on makeTab(cmd)
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "t" using {command down}
tell application "Terminal"
do script cmd in last tab of front window
end tell
delay 0.2
end makeTab
Just put whatever commands you want run inside the makeTab() call.
I've made my first apple script (with a bit of help).
It works fine:
delay 5
tell application "SelfControl"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell process "SelfControl"
click button "Start" of window 1
end tell
end tell
This was running inside applescript. Now I'm trying to run it as an application, So I've added the line
on run {input, parameters}
[at the top]
and the lines
return input
end run
[at the bottom]
and then exported as an application. however I get the error
"current application doesn’t match the parameters {input, parameters} for run." when I try to run.
Any advice?
What use do you have of these parameters in your code?
How are you going to give them as an input and receive the output?
When I exported AppleScript codes as applications, I didn't add these lines and they worked completely fine. Just try to export without them!
The on run handler with parameters belongs to the Automator AppleScript action.
Every script / application script provides an implicit on run handler (without parameters) and without return value.
on run
...
end run
This handler is only needed explicitly if other basic handlers like on idle or on open are specified, too. In all other cases just omit it.
It's possible to run multiple instances or copies of the same app on a Mac. But AppleScript can't seem to identify them separately. Say my app is "FileMaker Pro" and I have multiple copies of it running. Having AppleScript tell "FileMaker Pro" to quit, I believe quits the first one that ran, which might not be the one I want it to quit.
I want to write a script that first will identify the frontmost application, then go off and do some other stuff (which might bring other apps to the front) then SAFELY quit the original frontmost application that it identified at the start.
Some googling I've done has found suggestions where I identify the the frontmost application by process id and then
do shell script "kill ..."
but from what I can tell "kill" doesn't ask to save changes, etc. (so it doesn't SAFELY quit").
I want this script to do exactly what the AppleScript quit command or manually choosing quit from the file menu would do, including ask to save changes or whatever else.
Is this possible? If so how?
For a copy of an application: it's possible by using the path of the application instead of the name.
tell application "System Events"
tell (first application process whose frontmost is true)
set x to its application file -- get the path of this application (the result is an alias of "System Events")
end tell
set thisAppPath to path of x -- get the path (a string)
end tell
--- *** go off and do some other stuff ****
---
--- SAFELY quit the original frontmost application that it identified at the start.
tell application thisAppPath -- the path must be a string
try -- *** use 0 to no limit ***
with timeout of 240 seconds -- a time limit is given to the user to save changes, etc.
quit
end timeout
on error -- (timeout error): the user do nothing because the application is still open
-- do something
end try
end tell
--
-- script after the application quits
--
I'm experimenting with Applescript for the first time, and am trying to build a script to setup my default layout of applications for developing at work. This involves placing applications across multiple Mission Control spaces. My problem at hand is simply moving about the spaces. I found in many posts similar to this that such action could be achieved with
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Finder"
keystroke "1" using control down
end tell
end tell
if the appropriate key binding was in place. I made the Preferences change so I could use control+1 to move to the first MC space. However, running the script doesn't do anything. This is the event log output:
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "1" using control down
end tell
No errors that I can see, but again: new to Applescript. I've tried many variations of this command including wrapping control down in curly braces and wrapping the call to "System Events" inside a call to "Finder" like this
tell application "Finder"
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "1" using control down
end tell
end tell
but the output is exactly the same with no shift in view. I think I'm missing something here...
According to this question's responses, I tried adding in a delay to make sure I wasn't stepping on my own feet with running the script with CMD-r but nothing happens. I hear the sound effect when you try to click out of an important focus window (if that makes any sense), it's a short beep. Am I talking to the applications improperly?
EDIT
Ok I got something working, but I'm a little confused why this is the case.
tell application "Finder"
activate
delay 0.2
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "a" using control down
end tell
This accomplishes what I need, but I have to change the key binding to a letter. I can replicate the error tone by pressing control+1 when Applescript Editor is active. I guess there's a shortcut for AE that uses the key combo. But why is that running when Finder is supposed to be active?
To answer your question, in your working code the difference is that you activate the Finder before you issue the keystroke command. Keystroke commands are always sent to the frontmost application so you must always make sure to activate an application first as you have done.
If control-1 didn't work then I suspect either some Finder command uses that combo or some other application uses that in a global context meaning it intercepts that command no matter which application is frontmost. Otherwise it should work for you.
Finally, I would remove your system events line of code from the Finder tell block of code. There's no reason the tell the Finder to tell system events to perform a command. Just put that line on its own after the "end tell" line.
Good luck.
I've just been working with this - I don't want to activate finder before triggering what should be a global shortcut. Keystroke was not working, however I tried key code and that indeed works:
on run {}
tell application "System Events"
key code {18} using {command down}
end tell
return "success"
end run
There is a list of key codes at this question: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/36943/how-do-i-automate-a-key-press-in-applescript
This should work:
tell application "Finder"
activate
end tell
delay 0.2
tell application "System Events"
key code 18 using {control down}
end tell
I found this tool to be a good alternative that does not have that issue.
Installation is as simple as:
brew install socsieng/tap/sendkeys
Usage:
sendkeys send --initial-delay 0 --delay 0.001 --characters 'Hello'
https://github.com/socsieng/sendkeys
Consider the following AppleScript:
on is_running(appName)
tell application "System Events" to (name of processes) contains appName
end is_running
set safRunning to is_running("Safari")
if safRunning then
tell application "Safari"
-- Stuff I only want executed if Safari is running goes here.
end tell
return "Running"
else
return "Not running"
end if
The problem: when I run this via the osascript command line utility, if Safari is not running, it gets launched and the script reports "Running". This is not the behaviour I desire or would expect. Note that it works as desired/expected when run within AppleScript Editor.
Is this an osascript bug / known issue? Or is it somehow intended behaviour for reasons I'm missing? Can anyone get it to work as desired? (BTW I'm running OSX 10.7.5; I can't see how to get osascript to report a version number).
If you comment out the tell / end tell lines, it behaves as I'd expect: if Safari is not running, it doesn't launch it, and prints "Not running". So it seems to me like the tell is what's causing Safari to be launched, but it doesn't need to be actually executed, just present in the script...? For a while I wondered if maybe this was just how tell is supposed to work, but since it doesn't work like this in AppleScript Editor, I guess not...
In fact, here's another, madder, version with similar behaviour:
on is_running(appName)
tell application "System Events" to (name of processes) contains appName
end is_running
set safRunning to is_running("Safari")
return safRunning
if false then
tell application "Safari"
end tell
end if
This still always launches Safari, even though tell is inside an if false block after the return statement! (But again, this is fine in AppleScript Editor.)
BTW, this behaviour isn't limited to Safari, but it also isn't universal:
Affected apps include: Safari, TextEdit, iPhoto, AppleScript Editor, iTerm, ...
Non-affected apps include: Google Chrome, iTunes, Preview, Mail, Terminal, Address Book, Echofon, ...
So, does anyone have any ideas about how I might fix or route around this? Is it an osascript bug? Or am I missing something about AppleScript's semantics?
For context: I'm trying to write a script (to be embedded/called from some python) which queries open browsers for the URLs of any tabs they have open; I've got it all working fine except that it always launches Safari, whether it's open or not. I've boiled down that undesirable behaviour to the simple test case shown above. I'm not aware of any way to run this script from python without using osascript, other than appscript, which I don't want to use because it's no longer developed/supported/recommended.
Many thanks for all inputs / insights!
I suspect the reason you are getting this is because each time you call the script from the command line with osascript the script is being compiled.
The act of compiling on a tell application will afaik make the app launch.
Calling the script from the command line with osascript from a pre-compiled file i.e .scpt does not cause this behaviour because the is no compiling to be done.
But calling it from a plain text (.txt,.sh ) file will so the app will launch.
If you do not want to use a .scpt file and want to use a plain text file then you could try the trick of putting a run script command in the applescript.
on is_running(appName)
tell application "System Events" to (name of processes) contains appName
end is_running
set safRunning to is_running("Safari")
if safRunning then
run script "tell application \"Safari\"
open location \"http://google.com\"
end tell"
return "Running"
else
return "Not running"
end if
The script in the run script is only compiled when needed. You will need to escape any characters like quotes as in my example.
It will be easier if you write the script in a normal applescript document first and compiled it to check for errors.
Then copy it to the plain text file.
UPDATE **
The method I used above was from a old script I had used to solved this issue a while before I answered here.
The answer works and is not trying to be elegant. ;-)
I actually like user1804762 method below. As it does work but feel the Answer is not clear enough so I will give an example on using it.
set appName to "Safari"
if application appName is running then
tell application id (id of application appName)
open location "http://google.com"
end tell
return "Running"
else
return "Not running"
end if
This script can be run from the command line with osascript
example:
osascript /Users/USERNAME/Desktop/foo.scpt
Notice that the script is saved as a compiled script. This will work ok and you can also save and use it as a plain text script.
i.e.
osascript /Users/USERNAME/Desktop/foo.applescript
Some Info:
"Enhanced Application Object Model":
tell application "iTunes"
if it is running then
pause
end if
end tell
You can also do it that way:
if application "iTunes" is running then
tell application "iTunes" to quit
end if
You can also do this:
get name of application "iTunes"
get version of application "iTunes"
And to complete the journey:
get id of application "TextEdit" --> "com.apple.TextEdit"
tell application id "com.apple.TextEdit"
make new document
end tell
That was the "Enhanced Application Object Model". If an app still launches (for example, the first time you compile & execute the script) I assume it is because AS has to get some info from the app which it did not found in the dictionary (or something like that...?).
OK, I know this question is really old, but I stumbled on it looking for a different issue and had to pipe in considering how complicated some of these responses are.
The simple code to achieve what you want(ed) is:
tell application "System Events"
if application process "Safari" exists then
-- do stuff you want to do only if Safari exists
end if
end tell
On older systems, the syntax used to be:
tell application "System Events"
if exists of application process "Safari" is true then
-- do stuff you want to do only if Safari exists
end if
end tell
One of these should definitely work for you, intrepid searcher of Applescript solutions for action only when an app is running.
Oh! Bonus tip: And if you're not sure what the application process name is exactly (it is usually but not always the app name), before coding your final script run…
tell application "System Events"
get every application process
end tell
And find your app process name in the results.
Here's a screen grab of running that command. (Note the zillions of Google Chrome Helper instances. Thanks Google!)
HTH!
tell application "Finder"
set applicationsnames to get the name of every process whose visible is true
end tell
set appName to "Safari"
if applicationsnames does not contain appName then
say (appName & " is not running")
--add here what you want to happen
end if
return applicationsnames
This is returning {"Finder", "JavaAppLauncher", "firefox", "Microsoft Word", "iTunes", "AppleScript Editor"} for me
Hope this helps
All the previously made answers suffer from the same issue, though:
They look for the app by its name. However, the user may rename the app, and then the script will believe the app does not run, when in fact it does.
To properly check for a running app, it should be found by its bundle ID, which the user cannot change.
The bundle ID can be inquired with this command, for instance, when the app is already running:
tell application "System Events"
get bundle identifier of application process "Safari"
end tell
Or like this for any installed app:
get id of application "Safari"
To check whether an app with a particular bundle ID is running, use this code:
tell application "System Events"
set ids to bundle identifier of every application process
if ids contains "com.apple.safari" then
return "Running"
else
return "Not running"
end if
end tell
Furthermore, here's an example to check if an app is running, then quit it, then relaunch it, ensuring that the very same app is relaunched that was running before, and not some other copy that may also exist:
set bundleID to "com.apple.safari"
set apps to runningApps(bundleID)
set appCount to length of apps
if appCount is not 0 then
quit application id bundleID
repeat while length of runningApps(bundleID) = appCount
-- wait for the app to quit
end repeat
open first item of apps
end if
on runningApps(bundleID)
-- The try block is to catch the rare case of having more than one
-- copy of an app running at the same time. Unfortunately, in that
-- case this code will not run as expected, because we don't get the
-- correct list of multiple items back then. But at least the script
-- will not crash from it but handle it gracefully.
tell application "System Events"
try
return application file of (every application process whose bundle identifier = bundleID)
end try
end tell
return {}
end runningApps
I had the same problem as described here trying to set up an AppleScript (triggered by a BetterTouchTool gesture) that plays/pauses VLC or iTunes, but only iTunes if VLC is not running (due to my workflow) and, naturally, only VLC while it's running. (I use the automatic pause/play trigger for iTunes in VLC's settings, for launch and quit of the app.)
VLC was always launched on the first use of the BetterTouchTool-trigger after every relaunch of BTT as the dictionary-cache is deleted at that point and the AppleScript handler has to launch every scripted application if a tell is aimed at it in order to call its dictionary.
I didn't find anything that avoided this anywhere; there were some attempts, but none worked for me as the dictionary-call by the script handler is nothing we can influence. I came up with this dirty workaround:
Create a separate AppleScript file only containing the line that includes the tell for VLC
Save it at some place where it won't annoy you
Replace the line containing the tell in the original AppleScript with a line that runs that script
This will lead to the first compilation of the script not calling the application (VLC, in my case) directly, only the script, which means that the application will not need to launch.
VLC will need to launch once that separate file is called, but, well, if you call that file in order to tell VLC something, you will have VLC already opened (or will want it open) anyway.
The AppleScript I call through my BetterTouchTool-trigger (a specific tap on the trackpad, in my case) looks like this:
if application "iTunes" is running and not application "VLC" is running then
tell application "iTunes" to playpause
end if
if application "VLC" is running then
run script "/Users/jannis/bin/PlayVLC.scpt"
end if
The separate AppleScript file ("PLayVLC.scpt, saved in a folder called "bin" in my user folder which I created manually ages ago for such purposes) is just this:
tell application "VLC" to play
If you open that script manually, it will of course also launch VLC. But that hopefully won't be necessary often, or ever.
I actually have no idea if this creates any deeper problems I don't know of as I'm not a pro coder; if so, please notify me. I hope this helps anyone!