Splitting full-screen apps with AppleScript - macos

Question

I have been using this script in Automator, which toggles apps between full-screen and windowed mode. I am a frequent user of split-screen applications (introduced in El Capitan), so is there any way to modify this script to enable split-screen? I know there's no keyboard shortcut for splitting, so this is definitely a shot in the dark.

Answer 1

I managed to cobble something together, working off an AppleScript/python thing that I found in this MacScripter post. It does the following:
Pulls a list of open application windows from System Events, and allows the user to select one or two (for full screen or split screen)
Launches "Mission Control"
GUI-scripts the Dock to find references to the various window-buttons and spaces in Mission Control that we need to access
Programmatically drags the buttons around to create a new fullscreen or splitscreen space
Clicks on the newly created space to activate it
You might be able to trim some time down on all the half-second delays, but Mission Control is expecting human interaction and handles things lazily. It will miss GUI requests that come too fast.
(* collect names of open app windows *)
tell application "System Events"
set windowNames to {}
set theVisibleProcesses to every process whose visible is true
repeat with thisProcess in theVisibleProcesses
set windowNames to windowNames & (name of every window of thisProcess whose role description is "standard window")
end repeat
end tell
(* choose 1 name for fullscreen, two names for split screen *)
set selectedItems to choose from list windowNames with title "Split It" with prompt "Choose items to add to split view." with multiple selections allowed without empty selection allowed
if selectedItems is false or (count of selectedItems) > 2 then return
set selectedWindow1 to item 1 of selectedItems
if (count of selectedItems) = 2 then
set selectedWindow2 to item 2 of selectedItems
end if
tell application "Mission Control"
launch
end tell
(*
The dock has a set of nested UI elements for Mission Control, with the following structure:
"Mission Control"'s group 1 (the base container)
group 1, group 2, .... (groups for each desktop)
buttons for open windows on each desktop
group "Spaces Bar"
a single button (the '+' buttan to add a new space)
a list
buttons for the desktops and any already-made spaces
*)
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Dock"'s group "Mission Control"'s group 1
tell group "Spaces Bar"'s list 1
set {p, s} to {position, size} of last UI element
set XTarget to (item 1 of p) + (item 1 of s) + 100
set YTarget to (item 2 of p) + (item 2 of s) + 100
end tell
tell group 1
set viewButton1 to button selectedWindow1
set {x, y} to get viewButton1's position
my mouseDrag(x, y, XTarget, YTarget, 0.5)
end tell
tell group "Spaces Bar"'s list 1
set {p, s} to {position, size} of last UI element
set XTarget to (item 1 of p) + (item 1 of s) + 10
set YTarget to (item 2 of p) + (item 2 of s) + 10
end tell
try
tell group 1
set viewButton2 to button selectedWindow2
set {x, y} to get viewButton2's position
my mouseDrag(x, y, XTarget, YTarget, 0.5)
end tell
end try
tell group "Spaces Bar"'s list 1
delay 0.5
set lastUI to last UI element
click lastUI
end tell
end tell
end tell
on mouseDrag(xDown, yDown, xUp, yUp, delayTime)
do shell script "
/usr/bin/python <<END
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import CGEventCreateMouseEvent
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import CGEventCreate
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import CGEventPost
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import kCGEventLeftMouseDown
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import kCGEventLeftMouseUp
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import kCGMouseButtonLeft
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import kCGHIDEventTap
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import kCGEventLeftMouseDragged
from Quartz.CoreGraphics import kCGEventMouseMoved
import time
def mouseEvent(type, posx, posy):
theEvent = CGEventCreateMouseEvent(None, type, (posx,posy), kCGMouseButtonLeft)
CGEventPost(kCGHIDEventTap, theEvent)
def mousemove(posx,posy):
mouseEvent(kCGEventMouseMoved, posx,posy);
def mousedrag(posx,posy):
mouseEvent(kCGEventLeftMouseDragged, posx, posy);
def mousedown(posxdown,posydown):
mouseEvent(kCGEventLeftMouseDown, posxdown,posydown);
def mouseup(posxup,posyup):
mouseEvent(kCGEventLeftMouseUp, posxup,posyup);
ourEvent = CGEventCreate(None);
mousemove(" & xDown & "," & yDown & ");
mousedown(" & xDown & "," & yDown & ");
time.sleep(" & (delayTime as text) & ");
mousedrag(" & xUp & "," & yUp & ");
time.sleep(" & (delayTime as text) & ");
mouseup(" & xUp & "," & yUp & ");
END"
end mouseDrag

Answer 2

I agree with Ted Wrigley's answer above, but I would make the following changes:
(...)
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Dock"'s group "Mission Control"'s group 1
tell group "Spaces Bar"'s list 1
set countSpaces to count of UI elements
set {p, s} to {position, size} of last UI element
set XTarget to (item 1 of p) + (item 1 of s) + (100 * countSpaces)
set YTarget to (item 2 of p) + (item 2 of s) + 100
end tell
(...)
If you want to run this script multiple times, you need to count the number of open Spaces to correctly find the right spot to drag the window to. Otherwise, the windows are always are always dragged to the 2nd position of the Spaces Bar.