(How) Can I extract a string from a window object in an application?

[anotherusername]

I'd like to store the name of a patient from an EMS in a variable.
The name is not in the window title, so that does not help. The %WindowName%1% always yields the same result.

The name is displayed in an "object" of the window.

Is there any way to extract this information and store it in a variable? With or without KM?
Screenshot:

[JMichaelTX]

@anotherusername

The name is not in the window title, so that does not help. The %WindowName%1% always yields the same result.

The name is displayed in an "object" of the window.

What is the app you are using?

You'll probably need AppleScript to get that text. If you can identify the UI element that contains the text of interest, you can get it using AppleScript.

The best way to determine the UI element is using a tool like UI Browser. If you don't own it, you can download a free trial version.

Also, you can try this great tool by @ccstone:

Front Window Analysis Tool Using AppleScript System Events (List UI Elements)

Hey Folks, Changes to this version (1.50): Faster. No more chevron-codes to worry about. Hierarchical view. In my opinion BBEdit (or its freeware sibling TextWrangler) is a better vehicle for viewing this output than TextEdit. One reason for this is the ability to turn on “Show Tab Stops”, which makes the view of the hierarchy clearer (some other programming editors also have this feature). -Chris Window Analysis Tool for System Events v1.50.kmmacros (7.6 KB) [image]

Once you have the full path of the element of interest, you can get its text property using a script like this:

(*
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Example of Getting Text (or Value) of UI Element
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note Path to the selected group Element:

  window "Keyboard Maestro Editor"
    scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of group 1
      first group whose selected is true

*)

tell application "System Events"
  tell application process "Keyboard Maestro"
    
    tell window "Keyboard Maestro Editor"
      
      set macroGroupArea to scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of group 1
      set macroListArea to scroll area 2 of splitter group 1 of group 1
      
      tell macroGroupArea -- Macro Group Scroll Area
        
        set groupSel to first group whose selected is true
        
        --- EXAMPLE of GETTING TEXT of UI ELEMENT ---
        --   This uses the "name" property, but it could also be "value", or "title", or "description".
        
        set groupName to name of groupSel
        
      end tell
      
      
    end tell
  end tell -- process "Keyboard Maestro"
  
end tell -- "System Events"

return groupName

If you can get the full path to the UI element of interest, and need help with the AppleScript, post back here and we'll try to help.