CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonmacosapplescript
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Reputation: 5922

Python: Activate window in OS X

I'm running OS X 10.11, and I have created a web scraper using Python and Selenium. The scraper uses Firefox as the browser to collect data.

The Firefox window must remain active at all critical steps, for the scraper to work.

When I leave the computer with Firefox as the active window, when I return I often find that the active window focus has changed to something else. Some process is stealing the window focus.

Is there a way that I can programatically tell the OS to activate the Firefox window? If so, I can tell the script to do that before every critical action in the script.

Preferably, this is something that I would like to achieve using Python. But launching a secondary AppleScript to do this specific task may also be a solution.

Note: Atm, I'm not looking at rewriting my script to use a headless browser – just to make it work by forcing active window.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2048

Answers (2)

dj bazzie wazzie
dj bazzie wazzie

Reputation: 3542

You can use AppleEvents in python importing the module Carbon. Here an example of an python script activating FireFox by its bundle identifier.

from Carbon import AppleEvents 
from Carbon import AE
target = AE.AECreateDesc(AppleEvents.typeApplicationBundleID, "org.mozilla.FireFox")
activateEvent  = AE.AECreateAppleEvent( 'misc', 'actv', target, AppleEvents.kAutoGenerateReturnID, AppleEvents.kAnyTransactionID)
activateEvent.AESend(AppleEvents.kAEWaitReply, AppleEvents.kAENormalPriority, AppleEvents.kAEDefaultTimeout)

Upvotes: 4

Michele Percich
Michele Percich

Reputation: 1902

tell application "Firefox" to activate

is the way to do it in AppleScript

Upvotes: 2

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