Hello there,
I would like to use an if/else macro to check if I currently have an active text cursor in a text field (so, if I would start typing something, I would enter something into that textfield). Is this somehow possible (Applescript maybe?).
Thank you!
trych
Assuming you don’t mind losing any contents already therein how about…
as a rough outline.
If you wanted to keep the existing contents a smallish modification would probably work.
What app?
If it is a web page, you can probably get or set the active field using JavaScript, something like:
document.activeElement
If you need help with a web page, please post an example URL.
This would be specifically for Adobe Lightroom, but I was in the same situation that I wanted this before with other apps (I don’t quite remember which ones), so I wanted to ask in general. So, this is not really on a web page, but rather in apps.
That is gonna destroy a lot of stuff, if the cursor is not in a text field, is it not? I think in most apps that would cut something existing, which might be dangerous, if it can not be properly pasted again.
Often fields/elements in Mac apps have focused property, that is "true" when the field has focus. I don't have lightroom, so I can't test it.
Do you have either UI Browser or Script Debugger?
Both of these are great tools for exploring the UI.
Here is a great macro/script by @ccstone that will list all of the UI elements of the frontmost window. Just activate the Lightroom window of interest, and trigger this macro.
##Macro Library @Win List UI Elements of Front Window @ccstone @Tool
####DOWNLOAD:
<a class="attachment" href="/uploads/default/original/2X/3/360cc0c76ff044a3ef94c5a9c9d1ce6ff2acf2a9.kmmacros">@Win List UI Elements of Front Window @ccstone @Tool.kmmacros</a> (10 KB)
**Note: This Macro was uploaded in a DISABLED state. You must enable before it can be triggered.**
---
###ReleaseNotes
Authored by Christopher Stone Author.@ccstone <scriptmeister@thestoneforge.com>
2016/06/11 06:02 : Created
2016/06/13 15:01 : Modified
**PURPOSE:**
Report the System Events UI Information of the Front Window of the Front app in either TextEdit OR the customized default app for text files on your system.
MOD by @JMichaelTX: Change Output to KM Window ##
---
<img src="/uploads/default/original/2X/2/23fcbafda085c2c49d0c0dd0a2980faf237791ce.png" width="458" height="530">
###Example Output
From an Outlook 2011 EMail Compose window
<img src="/uploads/default/original/2X/9/9b289695f5a8c08abd7ae0d8b77d5afcd6c11de2.png" width="678" height="739">@trych, here's a script for Outllook that maybe you can use as a model for Lightroom:
tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Microsoft Outlook"
set frontmost to true
tell (first window whose subrole is "AXStandardWindow")
set subjElem to (first text field of splitter group 1 whose description is "Subject:")
set subjProp to properties of subjElem
set subjFocused to focused of subjElem
end tell
end tell
end tell
return subjFocused
It works. If I have clicked in the Subject field, it returns "true", otherwise, "false"
In Script Debugger I can see these properties, which includes the focused property.
@JMichaelTX, thanks a lot for your answers.
Yes, I am able to get the reference to the text field via UI Browser and it does indeed have a focused property, the problem however is that the reference constantly changes depending on what sort of panels you have opened in Lightroom. So one time, the path would be something like this:
application "Lightroom"
window (window 3)
scroll area (scroll area 1)
text field (text field 1)
and another time the reference to the very same text field could be
application "Lightroom"
window (window 8)
scroll area (scroll area 1)
text field (text field 34)
So I don’t really know how to reliably target that specific text field. Is there maybe any absolute reference (like an id) for a text field?
Thanks,
trych
Edit: Ok, UI Browser shows me that the text field has a property named identifier with a value of "keywordsEdit". Is there any way to use this information to target the window? I.e. can I somehow look up the window by this value?
Possibily, but I'm such a UI novice that I can't offer any specific help, except for:
Here is an example script for Outlook, where I am searching for the "subject" field in a compose window. It's kinda slow, but it works:
tell application "Microsoft Outlook" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Microsoft Outlook"
set frontmost to true
set winList to windows whose subrole is "AXStandardWindow"
repeat with oWin in winList
tell oWin
--set index to 1
--set focused to true
perform action "AXRaise"
try
set subjElem to (first text field of splitter group 1 whose description is "Subject:")
if (subjElem ≠ {}) then exit repeat
end try
end tell
end repeat
set subjProp to properties of subjElem
set subjFocused to focused of subjElem
end tell
end tell
return subjFocused
@JMichaelTX Thanks for your script, this helped me to get it to work. I am just not sure yet, if this really runs fast enough for my purposes, as this has to loop over quite a few windows and text fields. I will probably need this for several macros in the future, so I will give this a try and test it. Here is the final Applescript that I came up with:
activate application "Adobe Lightroom"
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Lightroom"
set winList to windows whose role is "AXWindow"
repeat with oWin in winList
tell oWin
try
if (first button whose title is "Sync Metadata") ≠ {} then
set metadataWindow to oWin
exit repeat
end if
end try
end tell
end repeat
tell scroll area 1 of metadataWindow
repeat with tf in text fields
try
if value of attribute "AXIdentifier" of tf is "keywordsEdit" then
if focused of tf is true then
return "TRUE"
else
return "FALSE"
end if
end if
end try
end repeat
end tell
end tell
end tell
Thanks,
trych
P.S.: In a cases like this, where I managed to solve my problem with the help of others, which answer is the preferred one to check as the one that answered my question? The one by JMichaelTX that helped me find the final solution for myself? Or the one by myself, where I post my final script?
Great! I'd glad you got something that works.
One way to optimize your script is to determine a way to uniquely ID the window of interest.
Once you have found the window in your script, you might output its properties:
properties of oWin
Maybe the window will have a name or ID that you can use.
I don't care about the credit, I just want future readers to easily find the answer.
So, just check your own post where you have posted the solution.
Yes, that's what I tried at first, but the window does not have an ID or name. The only way to reliably identify it, was by checking, if it has the "Sync Metadata" button, which seems a bit clumsy, yes.
Perfect, will do that.
trych