Hi,
I want to automatically hide log list on console app instead of manually clicking on the icon in the tool bar of console.
Is there a way to do it automatically? User can then show log list manually if he wants, but I want it to hide the log list by default.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Hello.
This works in Snow Leopard. Don’t try it on anything but a copy of your app that you should rename in Lion, and Mountain Lion: find the propertylist file info.plist and make sure there is a property there which turns on scriptability.
For your special needs, you don’t really need to script Console.app.
Just command click the tool bar of the console wndow. Click customize, and choose the one button with hide loglist.
Add it, from then onwards, you can just click that button to display or hide it.
It doesn’t get much simpler than that You will have to either click something, or click something that makes a new window, and turn off the loglist by uiscripting the menu-item that displays/hides the loglist,If that doesn’t help you, then you’ll have to look into the dictionary of Console.app and see if there is something there.
I have mashed together a script that turns the loglist on or off for you for the active window, for the case that you should want this in some workflow, which may be use ful.
It works with Snow Leopard and only uses UI scripting, so no hijacking is necessary. 
tell application "System Events"
set UI elements enabled to true
end tell
try
tell application "Console"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Console"
tell menu bar 1
tell menu bar item 5
tell menu 1
tell menu item 8
-- tell menu menu_item
click -- menu item 1
-- end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
return true
on error error_message
return error_message
end try
-- end do_submenu
Look for the application’s preferences file and look for LogOutlineViewVisible. To set this behaviour off you have to change the preferences of the application. Make sure console is not running, then run the code below (change the path to the log file you wish to open.
do shell script "defaults write com.apple.console LogOutlineViewVisible 0"
do shell script "open -a console /var/log/system.log"
Hello.
Many a time, I have wanted to filter the front log with some search string. A wrote a handler to do just that.
This will work in the understanding that I open the log by either open or finder, so the wanted log “pops up” in Console. Then I use the handler below to filter it. The other handler is the one from above: toggleConsoleFileList
Edit
DJ Bazzie Wazzie had a much better way of doing this, which I have implemented.
The handler returns 0 if no windows are open, −1 if the toolbar is collapsed, and 1 if it succeded.
to filterFrontLog by searchString
set n to 0
tell application "System Events"
set n to count windows of application process "Console"
if (n < 1) then return n
set UI elements enabled to true
end tell
set n to -1
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Console"
try
repeat with thisGroup in groups of tool bar 1 of front window
if "filter" is in name of every text field in thisGroup then
set value of text field "filter" of thisGroup to searchString
perform action "AXConfirm" of text field "filter" of thisGroup
set n to 1
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
on error
return -1
end try
end tell
end tell
return n
end filterFrontLog
to clickConsoleMenu for aNumber
tell application "System Events"
set UI elements enabled to true
end tell
try
tell application "Console"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Console"
tell menu bar 1
tell menu bar item 5
tell menu 1
tell menu item aNumber
-- tell menu menu_item
click -- menu item 1
-- end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
return true
on error error_message
return error_message
end try
end clickConsoleMenu
to toggleConsoleWinFileList()
clickConsoleMenu for 8
end toggleConsoleWinFileList
to toggleConsoleWinToolbar()
clickConsoleMenu for 9
-- end do_submenu
end toggleConsoleWinToolbar
to allMessagesWindow()
tell application "Console"
activate
tell application "System Events"
set UI elements enabled to true
tell application process "Console"
keystroke "n" using command down
end tell
end tell
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Console"
set selected of row 2 of outline 1 of scroll area 1 of splitter group 1 of front window to true
# allways opens a new window with file-list
my toggleConsoleWinFileList()
my toggleConsoleWinToolbar()
end tell
end tell
end allMessagesWindow
to assertFilterFrontLog by aSearchString
set n to 0
repeat while n ≥ 0
try
set n to filterFrontLog by aSearchString
on error
set n to -1
end try
if n = 0 then tell application "Console" to open "/var/log/system.log"
# no window was open
if n ≤ 0 then
if n < 0 then toggleConsoleWinToolbar()
# trouble was that the toolbar was collapsed.
delay 0.5
set n to filterFrontLog by aSearchString
# se we'll do it right this time
exit repeat
else
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end assertFilterFrontLog
assertFilterFrontLog by "dylib"
By default the ‘expression filter’ is not shown and because tool bars are dynamic I won’t use index number but call them by identifier. Also changing the value isn’t enough to trigger the ‘textDidChange’ notification because the focus isn’t set to it. Therefore I need to perform the confirm action afterwards to update the window.
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "Console"
repeat with thisGroup in groups of tool bar 1 of front window
if "filter" is in name of every text field in thisGroup then
set value of text field "filter" of thisGroup to "Mail"
perform action "AXConfirm" of text field "filter" of thisGroup
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
end tell
end tell
Hello.
I stand corrected, It went a little bit fast about this, your solution is much better!
I snagged it and implemented it in the handler above. Lets hope this field is always called filter!
Edit
I harnessed it a little further, as I at least got some run time errors from within Script Debugger, everything is now collected in the post above, the two high-level handlers for toggling the file list in the Console window, and one for searching. The two others are just sub routines, for the sake of factoring stuff out while I was at it.
Hello.
I added an “allMessagesWindow()” handler among the ones above as I felt that one to be missed the most, for my part at least, since I alwyas redirect output to a log, and seldom to stderr" (Console has good choices for opening different logs though, on its menu.
It opens a new window, selects all messages, and closes the sidebar, and the toolbar in a very few.
Hi Thanks. I modified your script from tell menu item 8 to tell menu item 16 for my mountain lion machine and then it worked as desired.
Though, I also figured DJ’s method and that works well too. I was preferably looking for a non-UI scripting method, so that if a user interacts while the script is running then it can break the process.
Also, I found another way of translating your UI scripting method through AppleScript Editor’s Replies field as below. I think, it may work on any OS even though the menu item number may change from OS to OS as long as the menu name doesn’t change.
try
tell application "Console"
activate
end tell
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Console"
click menu item "Hide Log List" of menu "View" of menu bar item "View" of menu bar 1 of application process "Console" of application "System Events"
end tell
end tell
end try
Hello.
It is hard to set focus to something when you are dealing with menus, but if you use ui scripting and set the focus to the front window, right before you start clicking the menu, then the user will have a hard time managing to intersperse before the click is done. I don’t know if using the mouse at the same time will interrupt anything. There are no loops here, delaying for a sheet or anything, so this time, I believe the UI scripting to be of the more robust kind.
Console.app is localized, which means that the menus appear with the local language, so your approach will work for english only.
I COULD have had used some more explanatory constants, instead of just menu number 8 and 9. I’ll do so for the future, and I am glad you pointed it out for me.
I am glad that it works for you.
Hello.
This snippet lets you prune obsolete log files, I have made a list of logfiles accessed earlier than the 31 last days for you to choose from. The idea is to clean up the sidebar of the Console.app a little
Enjoy
set theFiles to paragraphs of (do shell script "cd ~/Library/Logs; find . -name \\*.log -atime +31d -depth 1 |sed 's_^\\./__g'")
set filesToPrune to choose from list theFiles default items item 1 of theFiles with prompt "Choose logfiles to prune" with title "Prune Console Log files" with multiple selections allowed
if filesToPrune is false or filesToPrune is {} then
error number -128
end if
repeat with afilename in filesToPrune
set {tids, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, " "}
set tmpfn to text items of afilename
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "\\ "
set contents of afilename to (tmpfn as text)
end repeat
set {tids, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, " "}
set filesToRemove to filesToPrune as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tids
do shell script "cd ~/Library/Logs; for i in " & quoted form of filesToRemove & "; do rm $i ; done "