Using "Pause Until" Command – but KBM Not Seeing Front Window Title

Questions & Suggestions
#1

Hello-

I'm making a script to load and save presets with Native Instruments Kontakt and my DAW.

All works great except some instruments take a little longer to load and so the repetition in the script can fail if the instrument hasn't loaded yet before it cycles back to the top. So I'm experimenting with the pause command... and trying to get it to see the loading window that appears when loading instruments in Kontakt - it says "Progress" at the top so was thinking using the Pause until title of front window does not contain Progress should do it... but KBM doesn't seem to see this window or the title of it and just moves along as per usual. Manually adding extra seconds to my script works as well, and I've got an input variable for that, but would be great if KBM could just intelligently see when this window closes.

Is there a reason KBM doesn't see this little window? Are progress windows in some plugins or apps not the same as other windows?

Thanks for any insight-

Screen Shot 2022-01-16 at 11.45.27 AM

#2

Howdy, welcome to the forum! As you might have already figured out, this is a great community full of people who love to help.

If possible, post the macro itself so we can take a look at it and see what might be going wrong. As one of the moderators likes to say, "If we're not testing we're guessing, and guessing often wastes people's valuable time". :laughing: If you need help on how to post the macro, just let us know and we can walk you through it.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read this tutorial, I highly recommend it. It will help you get the most help for your question.

Tip: How Do I Get The Best Answer in the Shortest Time?

All that being said, it's possible (I would say likely) that the window is not a normal application window, but rather a type of Dialog box (or modal system windows to use the proper terminology, thanks @ccstone for mentioning that because I was spacing the word haha). It is likely identifiable using AppleScript. Hard to say though for me personally since I'm not familiar with that app.

Also, take a look at this macro that will give you properties for all the windows in an application. If you run that macro while your app in question is at the front, and post the results here, we can likely steer you in the right direction for your needed pause action.

-Chris

#3

Hey @studioj,

Progress windows tend to be little modal system windows that Keyboard Maestro does not see.

You'll have to resort to AppleScript UI-Scripting with System Events to see the window.

-Chris

#4

Thanks all, much appreciated. I think this is the case, as it also does not see any images in this little window if I try that method. So KBM is basically blind to this progress/dialog window. I'll dig a little deeper and reach out again if I hit a road block. Thanks a ton!

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#5

AppleScript will almost certainly be able to see the window:

tell application "Finder" -- Replace “Finder” with name of your app
   return name of front window
end tell

If it can then there are more options.

#6

I use “pause until” there is a menu called “save” is enabled.

When logic loads instrument or bouncing you can’t save so I used this neat trick for logic to pause until it is loaded or bounced.

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