I’m having issues with “select second frontmost application”, if that even exists. I’m using Launchbar, which takes the focus when I launch an AS, which foils my world.
Is there a way I can get the second frontmost application? I’m using this, which doesn’t work, since it points to Launchbar:
set frontmostAppPath to (path to frontmost application) as text
So, I’m thinking since Launchbar is frontmost, I need to choose the app I was in, which would now be second in line. That’s an assumption.
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Launchbar" to set its visible to false
set frontmostAppPath to (path to frontmost application) as text
end tell
KniazidisR. I don’t have launchbar installed but thought I might simulate the situation by creating and saving a script to the desktop as an app named “Test”. With Safari active, I double-clicked on the app icon, which returned “Macintosh HD:Users:Robert:Desktop:Test.app:”.
set frontmostAppPath to (path to frontmost application) as text
delay 1
display dialog frontmostAppPath --> Macintosh HD:Users:Robert:Desktop:Test.app:
I then modified the script as follows and, with Safari active, double-clicked on the icon, which returned “Macintosh HD:System:Library:CoreServices:Finder.app:”. I tried that with other apps active and always got Finder. My point is that setting the visible property of the frontmost app to false may not make the previously active app frontmost. Perhaps there is a flaw in my thinking?
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Test" to set its visible to false
delay 1
set frontmostAppPath to (path to frontmost application) as text
delay 1
display dialog frontmostAppPath --> Macintosh HD:System:Library:CoreServices:Finder.app:
BTW, to directly respond to the OP’s question, it’s a simple matter to get the frontmost application and a list of running (visible) applications, but I’ve never come across a way to get “second frontmost application”.
When you open your saved script application with double clicking, the Finder.app opens your application, and as result Finder.app becomes the 2nd frontmost application. So, my script returns correct result following your actions.
You should open the app some other way, avoiding double-clicking.
Or, if you want open your app with double-clicking, then you should set visible of Finder.app as well:
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Test" to set its visible to false
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Finder" to set its visible to false
tell application "System Events" to set aName to name of (1st process whose frontmost is true)
set frontmostAppPath to (path to frontmost application) as text
tell application aName to display dialog frontmostAppPath
NOTE: when launching the app from the Dock, no need to set visible of Finder.app to false.
KniazidisR. I tested both of your above suggestions by double-clicking on the desktop icon and by running the app by way of the dock. Both work great. Thanks
64:88: execution error: System Events got an error: Can’t set process "Launchbar" to false. (-10006)
As for a list of running applications, that would be great, only if they were sorted by last time of focus, from which I could get the second entry in that array. This is what I’ve found, and tried:
tell application "System Events" to set visibleAppsToKill to name of every application process where visible is true
The apps I’m using are all visible, as I’m interacting with them. I tried moving in an order from Finder to Console, then Chrome and run that script in the Script Editor. The choice of apps has no bearing on the sort order:
The list reflects the order in which the processes were initially launched, not the order in which you opened the process windows. Therefore, I recommend that you forget about this “order”.
Better, explain to me what is this Launchbar application that I don’t see in your list of processes. Otherwise, I do not understand how it is activated (that is, takes focus).
Maybe, the name of process of application Launchbar is LanScan or Signal?
I’m not sure yet, but as I understand it, this is a wrapper application for other applications to use.
I think you want the last app that Launchbar.app visited. Try extracting its name from the /Library/Application Support/Launchbar/Recent Documents.plist file of the user domain.
In this file, your application records which applications it has used last time, in the order in which they were used.
I’m still not sure I understood your question well.
No, it’s just a launcher. ⌘-Space and you get to call certain items, files, applications, search websites, etc. They have their own actions where you can embed Ruby, Bash and AppleScript scripts. I use Ruby with embedded AppleScripts.
So I have copied some text that I want to format using some replacements, so that I can post some text that’s safe for StackOverflow. Essentially I copy text into the Clipboard. Then I use Launchbar to select a script that takes the Clipboard contents and pastes the converted text over what’s currently selected text in whatever app I am in. Doing so, puts the focus on Launchbar, which loses its focus. It can’t paste into Launchbar.
Launchbar doesn’t visit applications. It’s agnostic. It can make apps launch or become active.
I seems to me, the Launchbar.app application is very useful but I need time to learn it.
At this moment I created script application Test.app on my desktop. Then I launched it with Launchbar. The script app worked and returned its path to me.
Here is my Test.app application’s content:
tell application "LaunchBar" to hide
tell application "System Events" to set frontmostAppName to name of 1st process whose frontmost is true
set frontmostAppPath to (path to frontmost application) as text
tell application frontmostAppName to display dialog frontmostAppPath
The same does following script saved as application:
tell application "LaunchBar" to hide
set frontAppPath to (path to frontmost application) as text
display dialog (get name of application frontAppPath) & ".app"
Your choice of application, like you said, is from a list that is sorted by relative launch time. Hence still not a way of finding that focus onto the relevant app.
I’m launching from Actions. On your system look for Action Editor. Create an action with an applescript in it. This way, it’s a way to get a continuation from either the selection in the “frontmost app”, or what’s in the Clipboard. I also want to obfuscate this so that it is applicable while in any application. The text manipulations that I’m caught up on (upcase, downcase, convert one character to another), should work anywhere. Browser, text editor, Messages, etc.
If you need some quick guidance for that Action, let me know.
I suspect you want me, who is new to using the Launchbar app, to jump straight into the hard stuff. And even if I learn in a week how to create an action, it will not be the one that you are testing.
Better post 3 screenshots of the 3 tabs of the New Action window (which I have already opened), as well as the script (as simple as possible). So that we test the same thing, not different things. Otherwise, the topic will quickly reach 100 posts without solving the problem.
Also:
Pay special attention to the app’s hide command (because for some reason, Launcbar.app doesn’t lose focus in any other way (for example, it has property visible=false persistently, maybe it is bug). It should be the key to solving your problem.
Most likely, you do not get the application you need from my last scripts, because it is not 2nd, but 3rd in the window queue (or even 4th). Therefore, I recommend you: hide also the processes found by my script and then get the front process again. Repeat this until the desired application is found.
mys=<<-TEXT
tell application “System Events” to keystroke “c” using command down
TEXT
osascript(mys)
Clipboard.copy(Clipboard.paste.downcase)
mys=<<-TEXT
tell application “System Events” to keystroke “v” using command down
TEXT
osascript(mys)
END[/format]
In your terminal, run this first:
[format]gem install clipboard[/format]
In Resources, nothing matters.
Then select some text with capitals anywhere, and it should turn it all lowercase, regardless where you are. You can monitor this in the Console, searching for Launchbar.
The only way that I’m aware of to obtain a list of running applications sorted by most recently active is by way of the shell command lsappinfo. It returns such a list when run on the command line like so :[format]lsappinfo visibleProcessList[/format] You’ll need to do some text manipulation to extract the names, which you need to bear in mind are process names rather than application names (although this works out well if it’s intended to be used with System Events).
Wow, very useful post! Thank you!
As I checked, Indeed this command lists applications in window activating order.
on getSecondFrontProcessName()
set theInfo to do shell script "lsappinfo visibleProcessList"
set ATID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to quote
set secondFrontProcess to text item 4 of theInfo
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "_"
set secondFrontProcess to text items of secondFrontProcess
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to space
set secondFrontProcess to secondFrontProcess as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ATID
return secondFrontProcess
end getSecondFrontProcessName
set secondFrontAppProcessName to getSecondFrontProcessName()
