I hope this isn't too obvious, but I'd like to press one of the toolbar buttons within an application by means of AppleScript.
Background: The button doesn't have any menu item or keyboard shortcut. Thus, I can't activate it by any of those methods; I need to find an AppleScript way of actually 'pressing' the button.
I am going to expand a little on what #hced said.
I agree that click button 3 of tool bar 1 of window 1 works in many cases. However from OS to OS thic can be a moving target. My example is iTunes. In iTunes 10.5.8 the airplay button is 17 where in 10.7.5 it is 25. However, in both instances it is called "AirPlay"!
So I suggest using the developer kit, and getting this code from Apple:
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#samplecode/UIElementInspector/Introduction/Intro.html
Run the application and whatever you mouse over will get you all the info you need to make this work in your AppleScripts:
click (every button whose description is "AirPlay") of window "iTunes" of application process "iTunes"
In this case there should only be one button with this description, but you can use the tool to discover whether this is the case. If so, limit the scope!
Hope this helps!!
Bo
Ah, figured out that one myself, too. Seems I'm on a self-commenting spree here.
This example worked for me, referencing a specific toolbar button by means of its description attribute:
tell application "System Events"
tell process "OmniFocus"
click (every button whose description is "Contexts") of tool bar 1 of window 1
end tell
end tell
I'll leave it up for any commenters with an opinion about referencing every button whose descripton is "Contexts" (as per my example), to express those down below. But I presume there can't be multiple buttons with the same description, right?
Ok, that was simpler than I thought, once I found out how. (Googling it didn't leave much help at all, but an application called Prefab UI Browser did the trick finding out how this is done).
Example:
tell application "System Events"
tell process "OmniFocus"
click button 3 of tool bar 1 of window 1
end tell
end tell
I've got a follow-up question, though:
How do you reference a toolbar button by name/description? I know for a fact that the button has a description attribute with the value: "Contexts". But again, how do I reference it in the click statement?
Related
I have see how to click on menu items but this application does not have those. I was wondering how to click on the button Connect
I tried click at {818, 320} but it did not work
Here is the scrip, i was able to open the app with this
tell application "System Events"
tell UI element "Hotspot Shield"
tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
click
delay 2
get the actions of button "Connect"
end tell
end tell
end tell
FWIW One would not normally use tell UI element "Hotspot Shield" rather use tell application process "Hotspot Shield", however, looking at this through Accessibility Inspector, I do not see a way to click the "Connect" button. Even using a Watch Me Do action in Automator, while it will record the process, it won't play it back successfully.
That said, here is a workaround solution that works for me on macOS Mojave using AppleScript and the third-party command line utility Cliclick.
Looking at the cropped screen shot in your OP and using the approximate center of the Connect button to be at 320 for the y axis and using AppleScript to get the position of the menu bar item for use as the approximate x axis, the following example AppleScript code should work for you too.
tell application "System Events" to ¬
tell application process "Hotspot Shield" to ¬
tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
set xPos to first item of (get its position)
click
end tell
delay 0.5
do shell script "/Applications/cliclick c:" & xPos & ",320"
Note that the value of the delay command may need to be adjusted to ensure the Connect button is visible before the click event takes place using cliclick.
Adjust the path to cliclick as needed. I placed it in /Applications just for testing purposes.
The usual caveats, regarding System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy, apply.
I am not affiliated with the developer of Cliclick, just a satisfied user of the product.
Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.
I am trying to automate the blocking of pop-up windows in Safari.
I have tried the following defaults write operation
defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKit2JavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically -boolean false
But this fails to do it. I have also tried setting it as true but even that didn't help. I am currently trying to find a way to do it using AppleScript.
This is what I have written so far -
CMD_ACTIVATE='tell application "Safari" to activate'
CMD_NEWTAB='tell application "System Events" to keystroke "," using {command down}'
osascript -e "$CMD_ACTIVATE" -e "$CMD_NEWTAB"
This opens up the preferences but then I draw a blank. Anyone with any suggestions on how to proceed? Also I don't really need a solution to this only in AppleScript any other way to do it would also be helpful.
Note: I have been using Mac OS only for a week now, and am not that well versed in the nuances of this OS, so please be a bit descriptive when answering.
Thanks.
Blocking pop-up window is done via Safari / preferences / tab Security where you need to set the correct checkbox.
This preference seems to be stored in your library / preferences file com.safari.plist which contains the flag com.apple.Safari.ContentPageGroupIdentifier.WebKit2JavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically with value Yes when pop-up are blocked.
However, it may not be the only place to be changed and in any cases, it is not officially documented, so that place can be changed by Apple any time. This is not recommended to use it.
Going back to Applescript, because Safari is quite poor in terms of applescript handling events, you are forced to go via GUI scripting. That’s what you’ve started, but keep in mind that if Apple changes the layout of Safari preference window, your script must be reviewed.
When going through GUI scripting (which, again, should only be when no other solution found) you must understand structure of GUI objects. Window contains button, check box, tool bar... in a hierarchy model. For instance the preference window in Safari contains bellow the tool bar, an object "group 1" with itself contains many objects depending of the tool bar current selection. Once you understand that concept, the script below, which does what you're looking for, will be easy to understand with many comments:
tell application "Safari" to activate
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "," using {command down}
delay 0.2 -- leave sometime to open window
tell window 1 of process "Safari"
click button 6 of toolbar 1 -- Security button is number 6
delay 0.2
-- check if check box not yet set and set it.
if (value of checkbox 5 of group 1 of group 1) = 0 then click checkbox 5 of group 1 of group 1
end tell
delay 0.2
click button 1 of window 1 of process "Safari" -- click on red / close button
end tell
I am running on Safari 10.0.3. If your version is different, the preference window may be different. Then the script must be adjusted: the Security tab button may not longer be the number 6 in your version,...
There is currently no keyboard shortcut to play videos in the new Mac Photos application.https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6996731?start=0&tstart=0
Rather than be frustrated in manually clicking the "play" button hundreds of times, I would like to run an Applescript to play/pause with a keyboard shortcut. I tried with no success:
tell application "photos"
"play" video
end tell
Any help advice on this would be appreciated.
Thanks
Just to update Paul's response, in Photos 2.0 (3150.4.120), you need to hit TAB twice, then spacebar will start playback. Similarly you need to hit TAB twice once you are done playing it, and then (and only then) spacebar will take you back to the grid view of your thumbnails.
If you do not mind a slightly time-consuming workaround, you can enslave Automator to create a Service that will subsequently respond to a keyboard shortcut. You can find the instructions here.
Since your goal is to use the keyboard, there's a better option for you. After selecting a video with cursor keys or mouse, press space to maximize the video, and then press TAB. Then space will start the video playing, left and right arrows will move frame-by-frame. Hitting TAB again will allow the space bar to return the video to its normal size.
Apparently this changes the focus to the pane with the movie so that space can start it, or perhaps it changes focus to the movie controls? IMHO, whatever it does, it's not very intuitive and badly needs to documented and preferably fixed.
More info at:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6996731?start=0&
2020 / Photos 6.0:
You can now toggle playback with Option + Space
or do it manually via "Image" -> "Start Playback".
Autoplay Script
repeat while application "Photos" is running
delay 1
try
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Photos"
click menu item "Start Playback" of menu "Image" of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell
end try
end repeat
Save it as autoplay.scpt and run it with osascript autoplay.scpt.
The script exits when you close the Photos application.
Is it possible to change the active Finder tab over applescript? I would like to create scripts to change the tabs with cmd-[0-9].
For Safari there is the possibility to set current tab to tab2 but that seems to be not the case with Finder.
Yes.
Actions supported by each app is defined in applescript Dictionary. Just because something work in one built-in app doesn't mean it will carry over to another.
Solution 1 is to call System Event and invoke keystroke for Previous Tab or Next Tab.
Solution 2: since you want to refer to tabs by its postion, use UI scripting. This way the scripting can switch to any tab that fits a certain criteria.
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Finder" to tell window 1 to tell radio button 1 to click
I have an mac application that once opened (in awakeFromNib) shows the user an NSAlert with two buttons, one with "Option1", the other with "Option2". I would like to automate the following flow:
Open the application from the Applications folder.
Choose "Option2" by clicking the button in the NSAlert
So far I've managed to do only the first part:
tell application "Finder"
activate
make new Finder window to startup disk
open application file "My Application.app" of folder "Applications" of startup disk
close Finder window 1
end tell
Can anybody help me with the code? I understand that I can use the System Events commands to catch this click event, but can't manage to find any help online for clicking a button in an NSAlert, and not in a regular Window.
You might try this...
tell application "My Application" to activate
delay 5
tell application "System Events"
tell process "My Application"
click button "option 2" of window 1
end
end
How many windows do you have open? It's probably getting confused.
If you need to the program UI Browser can generally find the proper terms for GUI Scripting. I'm not sure it's worth buying just for this but you can run the program in demo mode for a month and use it to find the proper terms.
http://pfiddlesoft.com/uibrowser/