I’ve treated myself to an iMac Retina and I discovered that I had to install all software new (since the Migration Assistant also migrated an error that prevented to run CafeTran). Now I’m up and running, that is … there is one tiny issue with my Keyboard Maestro. I have it perfectly running on my MacBook Pro, same OS X, same Java (8).
On my iMac, however, I noticed that CafeTran isn’t visible in the App switcher macro, nor in the Running or Recent groups in the menu bar icon.
I guess that this contributes to the fact that I cannot get focus back to CafeTran after execution of a macro? (I’ve now set the CafeTran macro group to be executed in All apps).
How should I proceed in order to let Keyboard Maestro know about CafeTran’s existence again?
BTW, Peter, is that you saying ‘Thank you’ after entering the password in Keyboard Maestro? Very nice idea!
Unfortunately CafeTran is a Java application, and Apple are reducing support for Java with each new version of the OS. Previous versions of OX supported Java applications at a deep level, making them appear entirely like native apps. But the support for Java applications is being reduced and pushed out into the Finder and the Dock, so that they no longer appear as normal applications.
And more unfortunately, I don’t have Java installed on my Mac and am not willing to install it on my development machine which means any attempt to support Java applications at any deeper level in Keyboard Maestro is going to be challenging, even if it is possible in principle (which it may not be).
I wish I had a better answer for you, but I’m not willing to fight Apple on their diminishing support for Java applications. Hopefully those folks with Java applications who want to ship them on OS X will find alternative delivery mechanisms.
Thanks Peter, I really appreciate your answer. Even if it’s really bad news for me ;). I’ve come to rely heavily on those macros.
I’ve kindly asked Igor, the developer, to investigate whether CafeTran’s clipboard can be made more ‘OS X style’, since the issues I experience only have to do with the need to switch away from CafeTran to e.g. Finder, and back (and the latter isn’t possible anymore, now since the Java 8 version is no longer detectable).
When I use variables and typing to insert text, all works fine. No switching to Finder to set the clipboard needed. This gives me hope that I can fix my macros
Your suggested solution doesn’t work. My solution with the typed variable works just fine. I’ve already adapted 80 % of my macros :).
The problem with the restriction of CafeTran (that cannot be detected by Keyboard Maestro in its Java 8 incarnation) I have solved by allowing the macro folder to be executed everywhere, except for some apps (so this is the other way around of restricting/allowing).
What is left to do are to macros that search for a given string in a Word DOCX open in MS Word or in a PDF file in Skim. This will require some app switching. Will have a look at this in the weekend.
