open programs with applescript

applescript
sabajt picture sabajt · Apr 5, 2012 · Viewed 82.2k times · Source

2 part question:

I'm simply trying to run programs using applescript from the terminal, so I tried:

$ osascript tell application "iTunes" to activate

and get the error:

osascript: tell: No such file or directory

Giving the full path to the program did not work either. What am I missing? The second part of the question is what I eventually want to use applescript for. I would like to use it to open an application I built using py2app. Can applescript open any mac app or just certain ones that are already compatible.

Thanks

Answer

regulus6633 picture regulus6633 · Apr 5, 2012

Try this. Notice you use "-e" when you are writing the command. Without "-e" you would give a path to an applescript to run. Also notice the string command must be in quotes.

osascript -e "tell application \"iTunes\" to activate"

And if you have a multi-line applescript you use "-e" before each line like this...

osascript -e "tell application \"iTunes\"" -e "activate" -e "end tell"

If you want to open an application just use the unix "open" command...

open "/path/to/application"

If you wanted to open an application using applescript and the "activate" command doesn't work (it should work for almost everything though) then tell the Finder to open it. Remember that applescript uses colon delimited paths...

osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\" to open file \"path:to:application\""

Related questions

Sending commands and strings to Terminal.app with Applescript

I want to do something like this: tell application "Terminal" activate do script "ssh [email protected]" -- // write user's password -- // write some linux commands to remote server end tell For example to log in to the server, enter …

Read More
How do I make a Mac Terminal pop-up/alert? Applescript?

I want to be able to have my program display an alert, notice, whatever that displays my custom text. How is this done? Also, is it possible to make one with several buttons that sets a variable? Similar to batch's: …

Read More
Open an .html file with default browser using Bash on Mac

So, this is what I need : Let's say I have an index.html file. How do I tell the terminal to open it using the default browser? (Using AppleScript, BASH,...?)

Read More