Open URL in new Safari tab with AppleScript - macos

Question

Is it possible to use AppleScript to open a link in a new tab in Safari?

Answer 1

This will work:
tell application "Safari"
tell window 1
set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:"http://www.stackoverflow.com"})
end tell
end tell

Answer 2

I think this also does what you asked for, but it is much shorter and is less browser-specific:
do shell script "open http://www.webpagehere.com"
This will open the specified URL in your default browser. And if you explicitly want to open it in Safari, use this:
do shell script "open -a Safari 'http://www.webpagehere.com'"

Answer 3

This should usually create a new tab and focus it (or focus an existing tab if the URL is already open):
tell application "Safari"
open location "http://stackoverflow.com"
activate
end tell
It opens a new window if "Open pages in tabs instead of windows" is set to never though.
tell application "System Events" to open location doesn't work with some URLs that contain non-ASCII characters:
set u to "http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/漢字"
tell application "System Events" to open location u
--tell application "Safari" to open location u
--do shell script "open " & quoted form of u
This opens a new tab even when new pages are set to open in windows:
tell application "Safari"
activate
reopen
tell (window 1 where (its document is not missing value))
if name of its document is not "Untitled" then set current tab to (make new tab)
set index to 1
end tell
set URL of document 1 to "http://stackoverflow.com"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Safari"
perform action "AXRaise" of window 1
end tell
set index to 1 doesn't raise the window, but it makes the window appear as window 1 to System Events, which can AXRaise it.

Answer 4

I've been using the following script to open hundreds of docs into tabs in a single window.
tell application "Safari"
tell window 1
make new tab with properties {URL:"http://foo.com/bar"}
make new tab with properties {URL:"http://foo.com/baz"}
end tell
end tell
But that no longer works in Safari 5.1 on Lion. It would open the new tab, but it wouldn't load the URL provided in the properties glob. I modified it to the following, which now works:
tell application "Safari"
tell window 1
set URL of (make new tab) to "http://foo.com/bar"
set make new tab to "http://foo.com/baz"
end tell
end tell

Answer 5

Code:
tell application "System Events"
tell application "Safari" to activate
tell process "Safari"
click menu item "New Tab" of menu "File" of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell
tell application "Safari"
set URL of document 1 to "http://www.stackoverflow.com/"
end tell
One problem is that this only works if the system's language is set to English.

Answer 6

It's been a while since a new answer's been posted here. I think this is the optimal way to do this. It will open Safari if it's not open, create a new window if there are no windows open, and add the tab to the current (or newly created) window.
tell application "Safari"
activate
try
tell window 1 to set current tab to make new tab with properties {URL:theURL}
on error
open location theURL
end try
end tell

Answer 7

I can't comment :-/ so I will answer to say that Tim's answer (above) works as of OS X 10.8.5. This one-line version of his script also works:
tell window 1 of application "Safari" to set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:"http://www.stackoverflow.com"})
Arrgh -- the one line is overflowing. Here it is without the code tags:
tell window 1 of application "Safari" to set current tab to (make new tab with properties {URL:"http://www.stackoverflow.com"})

Answer 8

I ended up using automator to do this which was much easier and it works.

Answer 9

You can try following approach:
//make Safari window active and topmost
tell application "Safari" to activate
//start communication with Safari
tell application "Safari"
tell window 1
//create new tab and open specified URL
tab with properties {URL:"https://url.com"})
//make tab active
set visible to true
end tell
end tell
Also u can combine usage of Apple script within FastScript (free for 10 shortcut)
To add your script - just save script in /Library/Scripts. After you will be able to set some shortcut for new script.
If you want to open new Window than new tab u can play within next:
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Safari"
click menu item "New window" of menu "File" of menu bar 1
end tell
end tell
Note: you need to allow AppleScript to use specialCapabilities in security settings in this case.

Answer 10

Not the shortest solution but also works, and not only in English ...
tell application "Safari"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
set frontmost of process "Safari" to true
keystroke "t" using {command down}
end tell
set myURL to "anyurl.html"
delay 2
tell application "Safari" to set the URL of the front document to myURL

Answer 11

Worked for me in Safari v.11
tell application "Safari"
tell window 1
make new tab with properties {URL:"https://twitter.com"}
end tell
end tell

Answer 12

I found a way to open a new tab in the background with Safari.
tell application "Safari"
set the URL of (make new tab in window 1) to "your.url.net"
end tell
During the time I wrote this answer I made this
tell application "Safari"
try
display dialog "Website URL" default answer "" buttons {"OK", "Annuler"} default button 1
set theURL to text returned of result
set netProto to "https://"
if theURL contains netProto then
set the URL of (make new tab in window 1) to theURL
else
set the URL of (make new tab in window 1) to netProto & theURL
end if
end try
end tell
New version
tell application "Safari"
repeat
try
display dialog "Website URL" default answer "" buttons {"OK", "Annuler"} default button 1
set theURL to text returned of result
if theURL is "" then exit repeat
set netProto to "https://"
if theURL contains netProto then
set the URL of (make new tab in window 1) to theURL
else
set the URL of (make new tab in window 1) to netProto & theURL
end if
display dialog "Do you want to open a new tab?" buttons {"Yes", "No"} default button "Yes"
if button returned of result is "No" then exit repeat
end try
end repeat
end tell
Any suggestions will be appreciate
Best regards