CODEWITHSUNDEEP
firefoxapplescript
ekl
ekl

Reputation: 1051

Does Firefox offer AppleScript support to get URL of windows?

I am trying to write an AppleScript that, among other things, gets the URL of every open webpage in Firefox.

In Safari (and Chrome), this is done very simply:

tell application "Safari" to return URL of every tab in every window

However, it seems to me that Firefox offers no real AppleScript support, such as for getting the URL of any tab or window. When I google the terms "Firefox" and "AppleScript" together, I mostly get Firefox bug requests asking for AppleScript support to be restored, last updated in 2010 or 2011 (like this and this).

Am I right in thinking, then, that Firefox no longer offers any proper AppleScript support? I realize that there are some semi-workarounds, such as simulating key-commands in AppleScript, but those aren't really practical for my purposes.

Upvotes: 5

Views: 4630

Answers (4)

neu242
neu242

Reputation: 16575

This works in Firefox. It's not all that pretty, though :)

tell application "Firefox"
    activate
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "1" using command down
    set firstTitle to name of front window
    
    set tabList to {}
    set myTitle to "__f_o_o_b_a_r__" -- some random initial name
    set counter to 0 -- make sure that loop ends
    
    repeat until (counter > 100 or myTitle is equal to firstTitle)
        tell application "System Events" to key code 121 using control down
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "l" using command down
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using command down
        delay 0.1
        set myTitle to (name of front window)
        copy (the clipboard) to the end of the |tabList|
        set counter to counter + 1
    end repeat
end tell

tabList

I use a similar approach when searching for tabs using a global shortcut.

Upvotes: 0

graham bing
graham bing

Reputation: 69

The Firefox team has been working on this, apparently since 2002

In the meantime, you can use UI programming to get the URL of the frontmost tab

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Firefox"
    get value of text field 1 of combo box 1 of toolbar 2 of group 1 of front window
end tell

Works with version 68.0.2 but will probably be broken in some future update to Firefox.

Upvotes: 1

Michael Tsai
Michael Tsai

Reputation: 2030

Firefox 3.5 and earlier supported this, even though the command was not visible in the dictionary:

tell application "Firefox"
    get «class curl» of window 1
end tell

Firefox 3.6 removed this feature, and as of now (Firefox 22.0) it has not been restored.

Upvotes: 2

John Sauer
John Sauer

Reputation: 4421

To see all of the AppleScript commands that Firefox responds to, launch AppleScript Editor, select the menu File > Open Dictionary..., and choose the Firefox application.

You'll find what you're expecting: Firefox doesn't offer any useful AppleScript commands.

Upvotes: 8

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