Just so we are clear on terminology, Show and Activate are completely different things.
Activate brings an application to the front. I believe it will auto-show it, but I’m not certain.
Hide/Show hide or show the application (the applications windows mostly).
Showing a hidden application will not bring it to the front.
Exactly Peter. What Im after is to not bring the program frontmost, but making it visible. Thats why Show Application is the key function of what Im after… Are there any apple scripts that might help achieve the same thing or a work around until its fixed? By now I have tried the same thing on a few Sierra computers with the same problem. Non of them works.
Hey Erik,
If you're just trying to unhide a hidden app then AppleScript can help:
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Finder"
if its visible = false then
set its visible to true
end if
end tell
end tell
-Chris
Oh. I was so hoping this would do it. But bummer. No luck with the script. It is not behaving the same way Show application is. Mostly because i have two programs witch are called Arena. And Show Application can be specific about witch one to show… Also it does not make it highlighted so that the top menu is changed to that specific program.
Hey Erik,
See your first quote above. You said you did not want the app brought to the front, yet that is required if you want the app's menu to be available.
This is getting too confusing.
Please explain exactly the behavior you are trying to achieve step by step.
-Chris
Sure thing Chris! I want to be as precise as I can : )
Well. Im using two different VJ programs at the same time. As soon as VJ1 is front most (activate a specific application), its content will be the one shown all second displays. now to be able to still view the second VJ2 I need to "Show Application" witch does not bring it front most but makes the VJ2 visible like this:
Now that VJ2 is shown I use the click on image action, witch makes the VJ" window pop up in front of all other applications but still not be front most on "all screens". In this way I can bring VJ2 to the front without showing it on all the screens. It truly is a crazy work around. But when it worked it was great!
Does it make any sense?
Hey Erik,
Not very clear I'm afraid.
Two apps shown on HOW many screens?
VJ1 is showing on WHAT screen?
VJ2 is supposed to become visible on WHAT screen?
At this point I feel like Apple changed something very subtle in Sierra that has affected how your macro works, and I doubt it is reasonable to try to fix it in Keyboard Maestro.
Be that as it may – let's try once more for an AppleScript solution.
Select each of your VJ1 and VJ2 apps one at a time, and run the following script from the Script Editor.app:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Auth: Christopher Stone
# dCre: 2016/12/06 14:15
# dMod: 2016/12/06 14:20
# Appl: Finder
# Task: Get bundle identifier of selected application and place it on the Clipboard.
# Libs: None
# Osax: None
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @Finder, @ID, @Bundle-Identifier, @Selected, @Application, @Clipboard
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
tell application "Finder"
set finderSelectionList to selection as alias list
if length of finderSelectionList = 0 then error "No files were selected in the Finder!"
set theItem to item 1 of finderSelectionList
end tell
set itemInfo to info for theItem
if kind of itemInfo = "Application" then
set the clipboard to bundle identifier of itemInfo
else
error "Selected item is not an application!"
end if
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Report the result of each run.
You'll get a result that looks similar to this:
com.barebones.bbedit
But is appropriate to each VJ app.
Hopefully the bundle-identifier will let us discriminate between the two.
If the bundle-identifier doesn't work then we'll try the path to each specific app.
-Chris
Im about to test it all! But I will try to make a screencast of the whole thing so you will understand the whole process…
I have no computer at the moment with Yosemite. But will do my best to get one running as soon as possible : )