I am trying to use Remote Buddy to control Photo Booth, but I need a way to switch between Still and Video modes, my solution to this was to use an Automator app to select one or other of the two radio buttons when a remote button is pressed.
I've created the .app, and it works fine when I double click it from the desktop, but I need a way to launch the .app from within Remote Buddy, and AppleScript seems to be my only option.
tl;dr
I need to be able to launch an Automator .app file using AppleScript, but can't figure out the correct syntax.
If I made an Automator app named Untitled I would start it by using this command tell application "Untitled" to activate
Once you create an application using one of the following methods, that application can be accessed in any other script via its name. It's defined globally, as is any other application on your mac. Just use the tell application "app Name"
Two ways of creating an application :
activate app ((system attribute "HOME") & "/Desktop/test.app/")
You could also use the automator shell command.
automator test.workflow
automator test.app
automator test.workflow -v # verbose
automator -i lol test.workflow
echo lol | automator -i - test.workflow
automator -i $'lol\nlol2' test.workflow # \n separates input strings
automator -d somevar=somevalue test.workflow
You would first name your automator app for example "photobooth.app" then you would go in applescript an type in
tell application "photobooth.app"
activate
end tell
I do it directly with Automator scripting. This does not access the app, but rather the workflow. It is advantageous, because you can edit the settings/contents of some of the individual workflow items.
I suppose my answer would be better suited for the question:
How can I launch an Automator Workflows using AppleScript?
I find that saving the Automator action first avoids problems. e.g.
set theWorkflowName to "Merge PDF Files"
set myWorkflow to make new workflow with properties {name:theWorkflowName, path:POSIX path of ((path to temporary items as string) & theWorkflowName & ".workflow" as string)}
set myWorkflow to open POSIX path of ((path to temporary items as string) & theWorkflowName & ".workflow" as string)
Merge PDF Files Droplet
on open the_Droppings
-- CONVERT INPUT LIST OF ALIASES TO POSIX PATHS
repeat with itemStep from 1 to count of the_Droppings
set item itemStep of the_Droppings to POSIX path of item itemStep of the_Droppings
end repeat
tell application "Automator"
activate
set myWorkflow to open POSIX file "/Users/USERNAME/Dropbox/Scripts/Automator/Workflows/merge PDF files.workflow"
set actionsList to name of Automator action of myWorkflow
set firstAction to item 1 of actionsList
tell myWorkflow
(*
get index of Automator action firstAction
get input types of Automator action firstAction
get path of Automator action firstAction
get path of Automator action firstAction
get value of setting of Automator action firstAction
*)
set value of setting of Automator action firstAction to the_Droppings -- MUST BE LIST OF POSIX PATHS
end tell
end tell
end open
Related
There are many posts that explain how to drag-and-drop things into an open Terminal window. But what I would like to do is to tell Terminal to drag-and-drop a previously selected directory onto another application like VSCode or Renamer. I have not found any documentation for that. Is it at all possible? And if so, would somebody please point me to a documentation?
UPDATE:
I'd like to clarify my question with what I intend to do:
Pre requisites:
a "work folder" contains folders and files that shall be renamed
the renaming is done by an application called "A better finder renamer" (which allows presets)
An "Automator" (MacOS app) action shall imitate these steps:
the "work folder" is right clicked
the folder is drag-and-dropped onto the ABFR, which initiates the currently active preset
other actions via bash (like 'mv .//.* ./') ...
It is the "drag-and-drop" part of the Automator action that presents a riddle for me.
The "drag-and-drop" operation is manual operation. In AppleScript, instead the command to open the file or folder is given to the destination application itself.
Second thing to keep in mind. Getting Terminal's current working directory is easy with its do script "pwd" command. But the result of the do script Terminal command returned to the script is always the window tab, not the result of the pwd shell command. One solution is to redirect (remember) the result of pwd in a temporary text file.
set tempFolder to (path to temporary items folder from user domain)
set temp to POSIX path of tempFolder & "workingDirectory.txt"
tell application "Terminal" to do script ("pwd > " & temp) in selected tab of window 1
set curDirPosixPath to paragraph 1 of (read file ((tempFolder as text) & "workingDirectory.txt"))
set curDirHFSPath to curDirPosixPath as POSIX file as Unicode text
tell application "Visual Studio Code" to open curDirHFSPath
.
NOTE: other possible solution (I don't like) is parsing the text contents of Terminal window after pwd command execution. You can get contents using property contents (of selected tab of front window).
Open Automator, choose create New Document.
Choose create new Quick Action (service).
Set workflow receives current folders in any application.
From library Add Run AppleScript action. Edit it contents:
on run {input, parameters}
set curDirHFSPath to (item 1 of input) as text
tell application "Visual Studio Code" to open curDirHFSPath
end run
Save this Quick Action as service. Now when right-clicking the folder, opens the context menu, where you can choose and run this service.
I'm trying to create a context menu shortcut to open a file/folder in VS Code from the original item or its alias
So far I was able to create an Automator Service, which:
receives selected: files or folders
in: any application run
shell script:
open -n -b "com.microsoft.VSCode" --args "$*"
How can I change it to accept also aliases?
Symbolic links should be OK, but Finder aliases usually don't work, since most shell utilities see them as small data files and don't know how to interpret them. One solution would be to add a Run AppleScript action to look for aliases in the input and use the original item instead, for example:
Service receives selected files or folders in any application
Run AppleScript:
on run {input, parameters}
set output to {} -- this will be a list of the output items
tell application "Finder" to repeat with anItem in the input
if anItem's kind is "Alias" then
set the end of output to POSIX path of (original item of anItem as alias)
else
set the end of output to POSIX path of anItem
end if
end repeat
return output
end run
Run Shell Script, etc
I want to open an org-mode file selected in the Finder, by double clicking on it. But since I use Emacs in daemon-mode, I want to use the emacsclient command for that.
Thus the primary idea was to wrap the command emacsclient -c posixPathToFile in an AppleScript App to open it.
tell application "Finder"
set fileAlias to the selection as alias
set fileName to name of fileAlias
set posixPath to POSIX path of fileAlias
end tell
-- tell application "Emacs" to activate
try
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/emacsclient -c " & quoted form of posixPath
end try
I know some set commands are not needed. Let's assume this script is saved as Xemacs.app and that I associate this app to always open .org file.
Using this App does not work by double-clicking on the file, but rather if I select the file in the Finder and then call the Xemacs.app independently. Why ? I'm not confident enough with AppleScript to figure out what happens.
So the workaround was to use the Automator service
on run {input, parameters}
set posixPath to POSIX path of input
tell application "iTerm" to do shell script "/usr/local/bin/emacsclient -c " & quoted form of posixPath
return input
end run
The service is saved as 'Open in Emacs'
Now selecting a file and right-clicking and callig Service > "Open in Emacs" works and opens the file.
What is wrong with the first approach ?
ok, I solved my issue. The problem comes from my misunderstanding of the difference between ScriptEditor and the Automator. If I use the Automator to create an App and use the former script instead of creating an App using the ScriptEditor, then it works as expected.
One can simplify the process by creating an App in Automator and running a shell script instead of wrapping the command in Ascript.
I am using an application automator file to recieve a file which gets set to the variable file, and then using Ask For Text to set a variable called name.
I need to use this in two places:
A shell script
In a growl notification
I've tried many combinations but I can't get the variables to work in either. What's the correct syntax?
Try adding this to your automator workflow:
on run {input, parameters}
-- Get name from automator
tell application "Finder" to set theName to name of file input
-- pass name into shell script and get variable back
set xxx to do shell script "echo " & theName
display dialog xxx
end run
You dont need to type any script. If you go to the Growl application, right click, show contents, Contents--->Library--> Automator
double click that file and a growl action will be added to Automator.
Enjoy ;)
I am using Applescript to automate some tasks in the OSX Finder. The script opens up a folder and selects the first image in that folder. I would like it to also bring up the "quick look" window (exactly as if the user had pressed the space bar).
I did find a way to fire up quick look from the command line using qlmanage, but that brings up a static quick look window, which is no longer tied to the finder selection.
Code so far:
property folderPath : "/Volumes/Media/Images"
on run {}
tell application "Finder"
activate
set imageFolder to folder (folderPath as POSIX file)
set imageFile to first item of imageFolder
select imageFile
-- show quick look?
end tell
end run
If you don't want to do it by scripting the Finder you can run the following shell command
qlmanage -p thefile
In an Applescript you might do this like
do shell script "qlmanage -p " & "thepath/thefile"
Depending upon what you are doing this might be much easier. Especially if you primarily just have a set of paths.
If you have an existing Applescript path you can send it like this
set p to POSIX path of mypath
do shell script "qlmanage -pr " & quoted form of p
Updated (with thanks to Kevin Ballard):
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "y" using command down
Note: this requires that "enable access for assistive devices" is selected in the "Universal Access" control panel.