AppleScript, quit an app by id, safely

Question

It's possible to run multiple instances or copies of the same app on a Mac. But AppleScript can't seem to identify them separately. Say my app is "FileMaker Pro" and I have multiple copies of it running. Having AppleScript tell "FileMaker Pro" to quit, I believe quits the first one that ran, which might not be the one I want it to quit.

I want to write a script that first will identify the frontmost application, then go off and do some other stuff (which might bring other apps to the front) then SAFELY quit the original frontmost application that it identified at the start.

Some googling I've done has found suggestions where I identify the the frontmost application by process id and then

do shell script "kill ..."

but from what I can tell "kill" doesn't ask to save changes, etc. (so it doesn't SAFELY quit").

I want this script to do exactly what the AppleScript quit command or manually choosing quit from the file menu would do, including ask to save changes or whatever else.

Is this possible? If so how?

Even if you try using the unix ID instead of the name, Applescript will always address the last opened instance of your application. The work around could be to change, inside your application, the names to make it FM1, FM2, ... but it will certainly create other issues, especially with standard applications like FileMaker. Then to quit the first instance of Filemaker, you must first quit properly all the other instances opened after this first one. To quit, use keystroke q using {command down} in a tell "system Events" bloc. — pbell

jackjr300 jackjr300 · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-13T15:51:55

For a copy of an application: it's possible by using the path of the application instead of the name.

tell application "System Events"
    tell (first application process whose frontmost is true)
        set x to its application file -- get the path of this application (the result is an alias of "System Events")
    end tell
    set thisAppPath to path of x -- get the path (a string)
end tell

--- ***  go off and do some other stuff ****
---


--- SAFELY quit the original frontmost application that it identified at the start.
tell application thisAppPath -- the path must be a string
    try -- *** use 0 to no limit    ***
        with timeout of 240 seconds -- a time limit is given to the user to save changes, etc.
            quit
        end timeout
    on error -- (timeout error): the user do nothing because the application is still open
        -- do something
    end try
end tell
--
-- script after the application quits
--

AppleScript, quit an app by id, safely

1 Answers