Get URL of tab on different window

Questions & Suggestions
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#1

I’m trying to make a simple JXA script — triggered by KM — to grab the URL of the frontmost safari tab so it can be used to create a Markdown link in iA Writer.

This works:

safari = Application('Safari')
safari.windows[0].currentTab.url()

But it fails if the Safari window is on another virtual desktop or is fullscreen. I typically work with Safari and iA Writer fullscreen on adjacent desktops. There’s probably an obvious solution I’m missing (new to JXA) but I’ve been scratching my head about it for while.

Macro to get current url from Safari started failing
#2

Weird, your script works here, even with Safari fullscreen and on another Space. (Safari 10.0.3, macOS 10.12.3)

You can try the AppleScript version, to see if it makes any difference:

tell application "Safari"
  tell window 1
    set theURL to URL of first tab whose visible is true
  end tell
end tell
#3

It is odd. The AppleScript version outputs this error:

/var/folders/dm/7tn97pfn2tn05dvcsdhb6cl40000gn/T/Keyboard-Maestro-Script-E759A975-9686-40AD-8D1B-04D58E2F1DD4:60:98: execution error: Safari got an error: Can’t get tab 1 of window 1 whose visible = true. (-1728)

And the JXA version outputs this error:

/var/folders/dm/7tn97pfn2tn05dvcsdhb6cl40000gn/T/Keyboard-Maestro-Script-CAC4FBD6-C751-4BC7-8C31-95F15419CFC7:31:65: execution error: Error on line 2: Error: Can’t get object. (-1728)

When Safari is on the same desktop, I get exactly what I expect: the URL. The same thing happens if I run it the commands in the interactive osacript REPL. It works when the terminal is on the same desktop as Safari, and stops working when I move the terminal to a different desktop.

I’m using Safari Version 10.0.3 on Sierra 10.12.3 (MacBook Pro 13-inch with Touchbar)

#4

After a lot of fiddling, I discovered that this works as intended:

Application('Safari').documents[0].url()
1 Like
#5

You are right. This is simpler and seems to work perfectly, also as AppleScript. Apparently no need to go for window → tab.

Thanks for posting.

#6

UPDATED: 2019-02-04 19:07 GMT-6

The need for this script has largely been removed with KM 8+, which introducted all of the Front Browser Actions and Tokens. So to get the URL of the frontmost tab in the frontmost window of the Front Browser (if it is Safari or Chrome), then use this token: FrontBrowserURL token

Original Post

Unfortunately, Chrome uses a slightly different syntax, so the same statement, with a different app name, won't work for Chrome.

this is the best I could do to handle either Safari or Chrome.
Maybe you guys can do better.

  • One JXA Action to handle it all
    OR
  • A KM Switch Action

MACRO:   Get URL of FrontMost Window/Tab of Browser

~~~ VER: 1.0    2017-02-15 ~~~

DOWNLOAD:

Get URL of FrontMost Window-Tab of Browser.kmmacros (4.0 KB)

JXA Script

var seApp         = Application("System Events");
var oProcess       = seApp.processes.whose({frontmost: true})[0];
var appName       = oProcess.displayedName();

switch (appName) {
  
  case "Safari":
    var frontMostURL = Application("Safari").documents[0].url();
    break;
    
  case "Google Chrome":
    var frontMostURL = Application("Google Chrome").windows[0].activeTab().url()
    break;
}

frontMostURL
1 Like
#7

Who is using Chrome voluntarily on macOS? :relieved: …except for site testing…

#8

I much prefer Chrome over Safari.
I’ve tried, and re-tried, Safari many times, but I just don’t like, particularly the UI.

And, one of my fav apps, often used, is Evernote, whose web clipper works much better on Chrome.

Actually, it just occurred to me, I use very few Apple apps, prefering instead:

  • Chrome
  • Outlook over Mail, Contacts, Calendar
  • Word over Pages
  • Excel over Numbers
  • KM over Automator
  • Evernote over Notes
  • BBEdit and Tex-Plus over TextEdit
  • need I go on . . . :wink:
1 Like
#9

Well then. That’s a good argument :wink:

Since you are mentioning it, during my personal Windows episode (2007–2008) I discovered a a very nifty thing, called “AutoHotkey”. Funny thing is, – I knew KM/Automator before – but AutoHotKey really got me into Automation on the Mac. Let’s say, it showed me what can be done.

1 Like