Can a script run a program after certain amount of idle time?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

I’d like to run an application automatically after the computer has been idle for say, 5 minutes. Don’t know much about writing scripts.

Thanks

Model: iMac
AppleScript: 1.9.3
Browser: Safari 312.6
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.4.1)

#2

Hi,

try this, save the script as stay open application


property triggerTime : 5 * minutes
property appToLaunch : "myApp.app"

on idle
	set idleTime to (do shell script "ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | perl -ane 'if (/Idle/) {$idle=(pop @F)/1000000000; print $idle,\"\";last}'") as integer
	if idleTime > triggerTime then
		launch application appToLaunch
	end if
	return 10
end idle
#3

Thanks. I tried substituting my Applescript “quitter” for “myApp.app” and hit ‘Run’

Nothing happened. No errors, Nothing.

Any ideas?

#4

Won’t the act of running the script itself result in an idle time of 0 every time?

#5

Correction. “Can’t make .23427860 a integer” comes up. A different number each time

#6

It doesn’t seem to from this test…

delay 5
set idleTime to (do shell script "ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | perl -ane 'if (/Idle/) {$idle=(pop @F)/1000000000; print $idle,\"\";last}'") as integer
display dialog idleTime
#7

show us your script

#8

I get the same error message with this scriptlet - Can’t make ####### into a integer. It does say ‘a integer’ btw.

#9

Here is the script:

property triggerTime : 1 * minutes
property appToLaunch : “quitter”

on idle
set idleTime to (do shell script “ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | perl -ane ‘if (/Idle/) {$idle=(pop @F)/1000000000; print $idle,"";last}’”) as integer
if idleTime > triggerTime then
launch application appToLaunch
end if
return 10
end idle

#10

It works if I use the TextEdit application, so the problem is with your application “quitter”. Show us quitter’s code.

property triggerTime : 1 * minutes
property appToLaunch : "TextEdit"

on idle
	set idleTime to (do shell script "ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | perl -ane 'if (/Idle/) {$idle=(pop @F)/1000000000; print $idle,\"\";last}'") as integer
	if idleTime > triggerTime then
		launch application appToLaunch
	end if
	return 10
end idle
#11

“Quitter” works perfectly as is:

set goodProcs to {“Finder”} – Names of apps you want left
–theProcs is each running program
–myProc is each program-compare to list of programs to keep running
tell application “System Events” to set theProcs to name of every process whose visible is true
repeat with myProc in theProcs
if myProc is not in goodProcs then tell application myProc to quit saving no
end repeat

#12

quiter looks OK. I didn’t try it though because I don’t want to quit all my apps… but anyway here’s the question… does my above script work for you i.e. with TextEdit? It should work because it works for me.

#13

If “Quitter” is just a compiled script, not an app, then use this

property triggerTime : 5 * minutes
property scriptToRun : "path:to:myscript.scpt"

on idle
	set idleTime to (do shell script "ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | perl -ane 'if (/Idle/) {$idle=(pop @F)/1000000000; print $idle,\"\";last}'") as integer
	if idleTime > triggerTime then
		run script scriptToRun
	end if
	return 10
end idle
#14

Thanks for trying. Same error message over and over after the interval.