I'm using applescript to automate some browser activity. I have it tied to the speech recognition, so that I can make some custom voice commands.
One such command is "I wanna go home", which when heard, pulls up the relevant bus schedule on my browser. Given that the public transit system uses PHP and GET, the URL gets pretty long. Therefore, the keystroke myURL in the applescript takes a while to execute (something like 1-2 seconds). While I can live with losing 1-2 seconds, I'd really rather not.
With that in mind, is it possible to send these keystrokes faster? I believe I read somewhere that using key code is faster than using keystroke, but for the life of me, I can't figure out where I read that.
EDIT: My browser of choice is Google Chrome, which I couldn't find URL hooks for. This is why I had to resort to using keystrokes. Therefore, I'd prefer answers that work with Chrome over Safari
Another way to solve this is to put the text in the clipboard, then paste it. You can save the clipboard contents first and put it back afterward, so you don't lose what's already there. This method works in other situations when you want to enter a lot of text, not just for browser URLs like the other answers.
set clipboard_contents to (the clipboard)
set the clipboard to "Some long string that would take a while with the keystroke method"
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using command down
delay 0.2 -- needed because otherwise the next command can run before the paste occurs
set the clipboard to clipboard_contents
I'm pretty sure you can script your browser to open the URL directly, instead of typing in the keystrokes (faking input events in AppleScript should be considered a last resort).
You can do this with the open location standard addition:
open location "http://google.com"
Open location is defined in Standard Additions and should not be enclosed in a tell statement.
open location "http://google.com"
If you want to target a specific browser you can use:
tell application "Safari"
if not (exists document 1) then reopen
set URL of document 1 to "http://google.com"
end tell
To target Chrome:
tell application "Google Chrome"
if not (exists window 1) then reopen
set URL of active tab of window 1 to "https://www.google.com/"
end tell
Related
I got his script:
set vURL to URL of current tab of window 1
end tell
tell application "Google Chrome"
if windows ≠ {} then
make new tab at the end of window 1 with properties {URL:vURL}
else
make new window
set URL of (active tab of window 1) to vURL
end if
activate
end tell
I'd really like to be able to just quickly open the tab I'm using in Safari in Firefox beause...
I'm told have to add more text here so, Skip this paragraph. ... a site I use a lot has some great features in Firefox but it can be slow to load so I like to switch backwards and forwards between the two.
Why won't it work if I change "Google Chrome" to "Firefox":
tell application "Safari"
set vURL to URL of current tab of window 1
end tell
tell application "Firefox"
if windows ≠ {} then
make new tab at the end of window 1 with properties {URL:vURL}
else
make new window
set URL of (active tab of window 1) to vURL
end if
activate
end tell
Thanks
You can't mix and match scripting terms - the scripting terminology (if any) for a given application is entirely up to the developer and is unique to that application. There also isn't a standard or common practice for term names, so any similarity between scripting terms of different applications would be purely coincidental and wouldn't necessarily provide the same functionality.
Looking at the scripting dictionaries for Google Chrome vs Safari and Firefox:
Firefox doesn't really have a scripting dictionary, only a default suite is available. Specifically, a window does not have either
tab, active tab, or URL elements (URL here would also be
assumed to be from StandardAdditions)
Safari windows do not have an active tab property.
You will need to target each application with its own tell statement, using the terminology specific to that application. Also note that trying to do something like using a variable to hold the application name will not work, since the scripting terminology for each application is looked up when the script is compiled.
(Edit from comments)
To open the URL of the current Safari tab with Firefox (version 69.0.1 in Mojave), you can do something like:
tell application "Safari" to set theURL to (get URL of current tab of front window)
tell application "Firefox"
activate
open location theURL
end tell
I have a collection of Ableton Live files (extension ".als") that I need to cycle through while playing a show. I'd like to dedicate a keyboard shortcut to launch each one, and had intended to use AppleScript for this.
The issue is that each file gets changed as I go through the process of playing the associated song, so that when I press the keyboard shortcut to launch the .als associated with the next song in my set, Ableton opens the "Save changes before closing?" dialog box (at which point what I want to do is select "Don't Save").
Simply pressing command + D at this point will do the trick, but I'd really like to automate this keypress. I can't seem to figure out how to get applescript to do this. I'm an applescript noob, and clicking the "Open Dictionary" option in AS seems to show that Ableton is not officially a scriptable app.
Any thoughts on this? Here's an example of an AppleScript I've been trying. This starts the process of opening the next .als in my set list, but won't click the "Don't Save" button.
tell application "Finder"
activate
open document file "Song 1.als" of folder "Desktop" of folder "User" of folder "Users" of startup disk
end tell
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "d" using command down
end tell
Interesting!
Finally came across tips that made it work:
Add both the Script Editor and Ableton Live to the Accessibility API:
System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy...
Ignore application responses to continue the script during dialog.
LiveLoader.scpt:
-- open file
ignoring application responses -- don't wait for user input
tell application "Ableton Live 9 Suite" to open "Users:username:Desktop:LiveSet Project:LiveSet.als"
end ignoring
-- use delay if needed
-- delay 0.5
-- skip saving file
tell application "System Events"
set frontmost of process "Live" to true
key code 123 -- left
key code 123 -- left
keystroke return -- enter
end tell
Note:
Consider possible security impact.
Perhaps simply disable apps in Privacy List after use. (Could be scripted ;)
Can now also send mouse clicks, for more creativeness. :)
I know this is old. but in the interest of helping others who might find themselves here... heres what i have done.
use a program call Qlab. the free version will be fine.
make an applescript Cue. go to the 'trigger' tab. select midi trigger. hit the midi key you would like to assign the command too. this cue will now launch when it receives this midi note - even when running in the background.
go to the 'script' tab. copy and paste the script below.
you can make the relevant adjustments for each song. Basically each key will close all current ableton files without saving - as requested. and then launch a specific live set. which ever one you have assigned. in this case, the song 'Less Than Nothing'
the code...
tell application "System Events"
set frontmost of process "Live" to true
keystroke "q" using command down
tell application "System Events" to keystroke (ASCII character 28) --left arrow
tell application "System Events" to keystroke (ASCII character 28) --left arrow
keystroke return
end tell
delay 2.0
do shell script "open '/Users/CamMac/Desktop/Less Than Nothing 2 .als' "
I'm trying to configure my Mac so that I can use my voice to control page turning (e.g. while exercising).
Based on a combination of http://alvinalexander.com/apple/mac-voice-speech-recognition-software-commands-custom and Typing with Applescript I created a file called Next Page.scpt in the directory of speakable items with the contents:
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Kindle" to keystroke " "
The software is recognizing my "Next Page" voice prompt, as it echo's back that command name, but I'm not getting the effect of typing a space. Nothing is apparently happening and I have no idea how to debug. Prior to issuing this command, I've switched to Kindle itself.
As an aside, the rest of the files in the speakable events directory are XML files and not simple applescript files. I have not tried figuring out and adopting the XML format.
You could try
tell application "Kindle"
activate
tell application "System Events" to keystroke " "
end tell
or sometimes keystroke can be effectively replaced with key code, in your case SPACE would be: key code 49
List of other key codes here
You can use the Speakable Items capability to define the keyboard commands, as follows (extracted from http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14380):
This same document also discusses how to create commands for other functions, including running scripts.
This works for me, using down arrow:
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Kindle" to key code 125
(key code 124, which is right arrow, should also work; back (back a page) could be up arrow (key code 126) or left arrow (123)
I've been playing around with various UNIX commands and came across this one to display a dialog:
osascript -e 'tell app "System Events" to display dialog "Hello World"'
I'd like to change the position of the dialog. For most commands, I can just use man command to figure out how to do something for that command. However, man osascript doesn't tell me how I can change the position of the dialog box. How can I modify the command to put the dialog in a different place?
First, to get help with applescript just open the AppleScript Editor application and look under the help menu. The applescript language guide is in there and other tools. Also under the file menu is "Open Dictionary" which will show you the specific commands for applications.
To see the information about display dialog, open the dictionary of StandardAdditions and use the search field to find the command.
To answer your question, no, you cannot specify the location of a "display dialog" window. There are no parameters in that command for positioning the window, as you'll see in the dictionary. In addition, no other commands will help you either because you can't issue other commands while the dialog window is open because the code pauses while the window is open waiting for a response from the dialog window (like when you press the OK button).
If you need to set the position of a window to display information to a user then you'll need to use some other dialog tool other than "display dialog". You could create your own window in cocoa or google for some alternatives like cocoaDialog, SKProgressBar, and Notification Center.
There is a round-about way to go about this, which may be useful in some scenarios. Try the following:
on displayMessage(msg)
tell application "Finder"
activate
set c to (count windows)
ignoring application responses
display dialog msg with icon note
end ignoring
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Finder"
repeat until ((count windows) > c)
delay 0.2
end repeat
set position of window 1 to {0, 22}
end tell
end tell
end displayMessage
displayMessage("I'm over here!")
Credit for this little script goes to a post here.
In implimenting this myself, I found it was limited to whether or not the application that is being called (Finder, in the example) supports the count window command (or whether it has API support at all).
I realise I've dragged up a question from 2013. I am posting this answer here in case it is of use to the OP or, more likely, someone else with a similar question.
I'm using a Mac, OSX 10.6 and I have a function in a desktop application that I want to automate. Manually I press Command+R wait for the application to read some data form a physical device for 1 minute, then press command+R again to take another reading (at this point it asks me if I want to save the data, so I press tab, tab and then space bar to select to save the data. I do this 3 times in total, so I want to automate the 3 times, so I can walk away from the computer and it will read 3 times automatically.
Is automator the best way to do this?
I've tried to do this already in automator by using the 'watch me do' function. This starts with the 'bring window Untitled to the front', and then the second command is press command+R. I then found a little piece of apple script to wait 1 minute and I plug the first action into that for the wait function.
However, when I click run or step, instead of going and opening up the correct window ("Untitled"), the cursor moves to the Media button in automator, and clicks that instead! But the application is definitely listed as the correct one.
Any help appreciated, but maybe automator is the wrong way to go?
Apple Script is the best way to go for things that don't require any "special processing" that would need to be done by a chain of different applications.
1) uging the AppleScript Utility
make sure that you have GUI scripting enabled in the "AppleScript Utility"
2) using the Script Editor choose File>Open Library and see if your application has any scriptable functions ... these may be a better way to go.
3) Create a new script and put in something like this ...
tell application "Firefox"
activate
delay 1 -- give it time to react
repeat 3 times
-- this gives us the keyboard
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "r" using {command down}
end tell
delay 6
end repeat
end tell
I used Firefox to test it .... should work for you ....
Once you've got the script you can use the save as to make it into an app or save it as a script in your ~/Library/Scripts folder or paste it into an automator workflow and schedule it with iCal.
I don't think automator is the way to go. You could use applescript, but you should take a look at sikuli. You will need to write the Sikuli script yourself, but what you describe shouldn't be difficult