I'm very new to AppleScript and I'm trying to do this. I have an Safari process running on my machine. I wish I could go to the running safari and stimulate an enter key event.
Is it possible to do so?
The code I'm trying is:
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\"
key code 36
end tell"
return "Running"
else
return "Not running"
end if
Inside the run script the key code 36 (for stimulating enter) is giving me error:
error "Expected end of line but found identifier." number -2741
Any guesses where I'm making mistake?
Try:
if application "Safari" is running then
activate application "Safari"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke return
else
return "Not running"
end if
Related
So I am writing a script that would set up my working environment by opening and then getting several apps in fullscreen via a single command line. I am having trouble with the "getting the apps in fullscreen" part, and the script execution is very confusing to me.
My hardware is a MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2017) running on macOS Catalina 10.15.7.
Here is the part of the script that behaves erraticaly when executed:
script1.scpt:
tell application "Sublime Text"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell front window of (first process whose frontmost is true)
set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" to true
end tell
key code 123 using {control down}
end tell
end tell
When executed while the app (here, Sublime Text) is not in fullscreen via the command osascript script1.scpt, the app is activated and goes fullscreen, but key code 123 using {control down} does not work, without producing any error message or sound.
When executed while the app is already in fullscreen via the command osascript script1.scpt, the app is activated, stays in fullscreen as intended but I get this error message:
execution error: System Events got an error: Can't get window 1 of process 1 whose frontmost = true. Invalid index. (-1719)
Also, key code 123 using {control down} does not work either.
When executed via a shell script calling script1.scpt while the app is not in fullscreen, the app behaves exactly as in case 1.
When executed via a shell script calling script1.scpt while the app is already in fullscreen, the app behaves exactly as it should and everything seems fine. But if I lengthen the script to get 2 apps in fullscreen in a row as in script2.scpt (see below), the 2nd app does stricly nothing, and I get the error message of case 2 again.
script2.scpt:
tell application "Sublime Text"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell front window of (first process whose frontmost is true)
set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" to true
end tell
key code 123 using {control down}
end tell
end tell
tell application "Skim"
activate
tell application "System Events"
tell front window of (first process whose frontmost is true)
set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" to true
end tell
key code 123 using {control down}
end tell
end tell
I have been spending hours trying to understand what is going on without success, so any help or clue would be very welcome.
The only way I found to get things working is to separate the code in separate steps with 0.5sec pauses in-between them, like in the following shell script code block. But I would like to find a faster and "cleaner" solution to my problem.
osascript -e "tell application \"Sublime Text\" to activate" ;
sleep 0.5 ;
osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\"" -e "tell front window of (first process whose frontmost is true)" -e "set value of attribute \"AXFullScreen\" to true" -e "end tell" -e "end tell" ;
sleep 0.5 ;
osascript -e "tell application \"Skim\" to activate" ;
sleep 0.5 ;
osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\"" -e "tell front window of (first process whose frontmost is true)" -e "set value of attribute \"AXFullScreen\" to true" -e "end tell" -e "end tell" ;
sleep 0.5 ;
osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\" to activate" ;
sleep 0.5 ;
osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\"" -e "tell front window of (first process whose frontmost is true)" -e "set value of attribute \"AXFullScreen\" to true" -e "end tell" -e "end tell" ;
sleep 0.5 ;
osascript -e "tell application \"Terminal\" to activate" ;
sleep 0.5 ;
osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\"" -e "tell front window of (first process whose frontmost is true)" -e "set value of attribute \"AXFullScreen\" to true" -e "end tell" -e "end tell"'
EDIT: For the moment being, I managed to get my script doing what I wanted it to do pretty reliably. Not completely satisfied though, because I still have to rely on fixed delays and this makes the execution a bit slow. This is what the code looks like:
in .bash_profile:
cd ~/<path>/ ;
osascript workspace_on.scpt
workspace_on.scpt:
tell app "System Events" to tell process "Terminal" to set the value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of window 1 to true
delay 0.6
tell app "Sublime Text" to activate
delay 0.6
tell app "System Events" to tell process "Sublime Text" to set the value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of window 1 to true
delay 0.6
do shell script "open -a skim ~/<path>/main.pdf"
delay 1
tell app "Skim" to set interaction mode of document 1 to full screen mode
delay 0.6
do shell script "open ~/<path>"
delay 1
tell app "System Events" to tell process "Finder" to set the value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of window "latex-template" to true
Just to copy-and-paste my most recent comment from above:
“Like you, I've spent a bit too much time figuring out this problem. It's quite a frustrating situation because I had a few light bulb moments of inspiration that, in theory, ought to have worked, and worked well, but ultimately didn't work at all. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ But in the process, I've at least written out a naive implementation that incorporates conditional checks and operates on each app one-by-one. It's not what I had aimed for in my head, but it works. See below.”
set Apps to {"TextEdit", "ManOpen", "Usenapp", "QuickTime Player"}
tell application id "com.apple.SystemEvents"
set dock to list 1 in the process named "Dock"
repeat with A in the Apps
tell my application named A to activate
set _P to (a reference to the process named A)
set _W to (a reference to _P's front window)
set _B to (a reference to the value of _W's ¬
attribute "AXFullScreenButton")
set _M to (a reference to (_P's menu bar 1's ¬
menu bar items's menu 1's menu items ¬
whose name = "Enter Full Screen"))
tell (a reference to (the dock's ¬
first UI element whose ¬
name = A)) to if ¬
exists then click
tell _W to repeat 60 times -- 60 x 0.5 = 30 seconds
delay 0.5
if it exists then
click _B
if (the value of attribute ¬
"AXFullScreen") ¬
then exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end repeat
end tell
System information:
AppleScript version: 2.8 system version: 12.6 ("Monterey")
I am trying to automate this process.
step 1: change system date to a specific date.
step 2: open an application.
step 3: change system date back to normal.
Now on Automator, I have three apple scripts placed like this.
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Terminal"
do script with command "sudo date 082704002018"
activate
end tell
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "mypassword" & return
delay 3
end tell
end run
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Terminal"
do script with command "open -a applicationName"
activate
end tell
end run
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Terminal"
do script with command "sudo ntpdate -u time.apple.com"
activate
end tell
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "mypassword" & return
delay 3
end tell
end run
The problem is that Automator only runs the first code. I'm not sure how to make it run all the codes in order.
Sorry if this is a stupid question. I am completely new to automator and applescript.
Thank you
I'm not quite sure why you chose to use three separate AppleScripts. You can combine them all into one AppleScript as I have done in this following example. I'm not quite sure why you used the “activate” commands. I don't think they are necessary so I removed those lines of the code. Anyway, this following code should work for you…
tell application "Terminal"
do script with command "sudo date 082704002018"
end tell
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "mypassword" & return
delay 3
end tell
tell application "Terminal"
do script with command "open -a applicationName"
delay 1
do script with command "sudo ntpdate -u time.apple.com"
end tell
delay 1
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "mypassword" & return
delay 3
end tell
Alternately, launching Terminal app to run shell scripts is not necessary all the time as you can run shell scripts in AppleScript by using the “do shell script” command. This following applescript code is your code using only eight lines of code.
do shell script "sudo date 082704002018"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "mypassword" & return
delay 3
do shell script "open -a applicationName"
delay 1
do shell script "sudo ntpdate -u time.apple.com"
delay 1
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "mypassword" & return
If my versions of your code throw errors, it may be necessary to adjust the delay commands or re-insert the activate commands
If you are hell-bent on using your version of the code and three separate Applescripts, just remove the on run {input, parameters} and end run lines of code from each AppleScript and that should eliminate your problem
I have created aliases of applescripts to open multiple panes on iTerm. However, ever since the latest update the scripts stopped working. I keep getting this error:
syntax error: Expected end of line but found identifier. (-2741)
Here's the script:
newPaneDown() {
osascript -e "
tell application \"iTerm\"
make new terminal
tell the current terminal
activate current session
tell the last session
tell i term application \"System Events\" to key code 2 using {shift down, command down}
end tell
end tell
end tell"
}
newPaneLeft() {
osascript -e "
tell application \"iTerm\"
make new terminal
tell the current terminal
activate current session
tell the last session
tell i term application \"System Events\" to key code 2 using command down
end tell
end tell
end tell"
}
newPanes4x4() {
/usr/bin/env osascript <<-EOF
tell application "iTerm"
activate
launch session "Panes"
tell i term application "System Events" to keystroke "d" using command down
tell i term application "System Events" to keystroke "D" using command down
tell i term application "System Events" to keystroke "[" using command down
tell i term application "System Events" to keystroke "[" using command down
tell i term application "System Events" to keystroke "D" using command down
end tell
EOF
}
alias p2='newPaneLeft'
alias p3='newPaneDown && newPaneLeft'
alias p4='newPanes4x4'
Applescript is not backwards compatible since iTerm2 Version 3.
The new Applescript syntax is described here.
You should replace:
make new terminal
with
create window with default profile
I'm using AppleScript to open PostgreSQL in a Terminal tab like this:
#!/bin/bash
function new_tab() {
TAB_NAME=$1
COMMAND=$2
osascript \
-e "tell application \"Terminal\"" \
-e "tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke \"t\" using {command down}" \
-e "do script \"printf '\\\e]1;$TAB_NAME\\\a'; $COMMAND\" in front window" \
-e "end tell" > /dev/null
}
new_tab "PostgreSQL" "postgres -D /usr/local/var/postgres"
Running this script from the Terminal will open a new tab with PostgreSQL server inside. So at the end of the execution I'll have 2 tabs: the first one which was used to run the script, and the second one containing the server.
How can I close the first one?
This is my try:
osascript -e "tell application \"Terminal\" to close tab 1 of window 1"
But I get this error message:
execution error: Terminal got an error: tab 1 of window 1 doesn’t
understand the “close” message. (-1708)
You can try something like this:
tell application "Terminal"
activate
tell window 1
set selected tab to tab 1
my closeTabOne()
end tell
end tell
on closeTabOne()
activate application "Terminal"
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Terminal"
keystroke "w" using {command down}
end tell
end tell
end closeTabOne
One way to do it is like this:
osascript \
-e "tell application \"Terminal\"" \
-e "do script \"exit\" in tab 1 of front window" \
-e "end tell" > /dev/null
But Terminal must be configured to close the window when the shell exits.
Anyone has a solution which does not need to do this?
This will close the active tab only:
tell application "Terminal" to close (get window 1)
To determine the tab’s window, you can parse the error message you get when trying to access the still non-existing window property of the tab. The error message usually contains the window's id with which you can reference the window.
As your question is 5 years old, I’ll finish my answer with example code that can be run in the Script Editor instead of a bash script which makes it hard to read.
tell application "Terminal"
-- Perform command
set theTab to do script "echo 'Hello World'"
try
-- Try to get the tab's window (this should fail)
set theWindow to window of theTab
on error eMsg number eNum
if eNum = -1728 then
(*
The error message should look like this:
Terminal got an error: Can’t get window of tab 1 of window id 6270.
*)
-- Specify the expected text that comes before the window id
set windowIdPrefix to "window id "
-- Find the position of the window id
set windowIdPosition to (offset of windowIdPrefix in eMsg) + (length of windowIdPrefix)
-- Get the window id (omitting the period and everything else after)
set windowId to (first word of (text windowIdPosition thru -1 of eMsg)) as integer
-- Store the window object in a variable
set theWindow to window id windowId
else
-- Some other error occurred; raise it
error eMsg number eNum
end if
end try
close theWindow
end tell
I think the key is to get the id of front window.
tell application "Terminal"
do script "pwd"
set myID to id of front window
close window id myID
end tell
Using Applescript, is it possible to open a new Terminal and enter the command into the terminal but do not run it?
tell application "Terminal"
do script "echo Hello"
end tell
This code will type the line echo Hello into the Terminal and run it. Can we avoid the execution?
Good case for System Events app and emulating keystrokes:
tell application "Terminal" to activate -- only needed if Terminal may not be running
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Terminal"
set frontmost to true
keystroke "echo Hello"
end tell
end tell