AppleScript -> Activate window of a non-scriptable application

2
votes

I have opened 2 "Finder" window A & B, A is in the front while B underneath, the following snippet brings B to the front the topmost:

tell application "Finder"
    activate
    activate window 2
end tell

But for applications that do not support scripting, the code just mentioned won't help.

Any ideas for activating a window of non-scripting application.

2
applescript

2 Answers

7
votes

You can usually turn to system events in these cases. System events knows about the windows of running processes and you can usually manipulate those windows. Something like this will show you some of the things you can do. Just play around with the code and see if you can do what you want.

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Whatever"
        properties of windows
    end tell
end tell

EDIT: One of the properties of a window is its "title". So you might be able to use that. This approach uses the fact that many applications have a "Window" menu and under that menu many times the name of the windows are listed and you can switch windows by clicking the approprite menu item. So something like this might work... my example uses TextEdit.

tell application "TextEdit" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "TextEdit"
        set windowTitle to title of window 2
        click menu item windowTitle of menu 1 of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1
    end tell
end tell
1
votes

What is your definition of non-scriptable? Just about everything is scriptable to some degree, but for the sake of an example lets use, does not contain an AppleScript dictionary, e.g. AppName.sdef within its application bundle.

For example, the macOS included Stickies application does not contain the Stickies.sdef file, and when trying to add it to the Library in Script Editor is says, "Unable to add the item because it is not scriptable."

In a case such as this, then System Events is needed to talk to the application process, e.g.:

Example AppleScript code:

if running of application "Stickies" then
    tell application "System Events"
        tell application process "Stickies"
            set frontmost to true
            if exists window 2 then ¬
                perform action "AXRaise" of window 2
        end tell
    end tell
end if

Notes:

I've included error handling in the example AppleScript code, which can be removed if you prefer.