Applescript setting ip address

Question

I wanted to automate the process of changing my ip address using apple-script. So i wrote a script that will automatically do that, But i have problems in setting up the ip address.

set ipAddress to "192.168.110.48"
tell application "System Preferences"
 activate
 set current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.network"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
 tell process "System Preferences"
  click checkbox "Click the lock to make changes." of window "Network"
  tell application "System Events" to keystroke "p"
  tell application "System Events" to keystroke "a"
  tell application "System Events" to keystroke "s"
  tell application "System Events" to keystroke "s"
  tell application "System Events" to keystroke "w"
  tell application "System Events" to keystroke "o"
  tell application "System Events" to keystroke return
  click button 11 of window "Network"
  tell window "Network"
   tell sheet 1
    tell tab group 1
     click radio button "TCP/IP"


     set contents of text field 2 to ipAddress



    end tell
   end tell
  end tell



 end tell
end tell

Everything executes fine except for this statement

"set contents of text field 2 to ipAddress"

I am getting the following error:

error "System Events got an error: Can’t set contents of text field 2 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window \"Network\" of process \"System Preferences\" to \"192.168.110.48\"." number -10006 from contents of text field 2 of tab group 1 of sheet 1 of window "Network" of process "System Preferences" I checked the UI elements using UIBrowser so i am sure that i am using the correct elements. What is causing the problem? and Also can u tell a better way to write the same thing?

Unknown Unknown · Accepted Answer · 2010-11-13T21:07:23

An alternative solution for changing IPs would be to use the network locations feature of the Network pane and use predefined locations.

If you click on the Network pane in Systems Preferences at the top you will see a pull down menu titled Location. Click that and choose Edit Locations...

Then you can create a new location and configure an interface whether it be ethernet, airport, firewire, 3G card, etc. You can have multiple locations for the same interface. So, you could have an ethernet location with an IP of 192.168.2.2 and then you could have another set to 192.168.2.3 and so on...

Once you have all of the new locations created and labeled then you can use AppleScript to toggle between them.

To get your current network location in AppleScript use the following code:

set currentLocation to do shell script "networksetup -getcurrentlocation"

To select a new location use the following AppleScript code:

set newLocationName to "whatever location you want to choose"
do shell script "scselect " & newLocationName with administrator privileges

Using the above method you can create numerous predefined network locations and toggle between them easily with your AppleScript. In addition, you could create a random function that will randomly select from an AppleScript list which is populated with all of your locations.

Applescript setting ip address

3 Answers