Send keystrokes via BetterTouchTool

[ncharlez]

I am trying to write a 'bunch' that opens Safari and then sends it to the right hand side of the screen. I wrote a BetterTouchTool keyboard shortcut to send the screen to the right and this works when invoked from the keyboard. Unfortunately, I can't work out to invoke the shortcut from bunch. My bunch file successfully opens Safari but nothing I've tried so far will invoke the BTT command to move the window to the right.

I initially tried sending the keystrokes {cmd-opt-right}, but that didn't work. I eventually noticed the instructions for invoking actions via the btt: url scheme. When I try this, the URL doesn't move Safari to the right, instead it moves the BTT window to the right! I'm obviously missing something. I initially tried to use a keyboard shortcut specific to Safari, but the same thing happens if you set it up for all apps in BTT.

To get the URL I copied it from BTT and ended up with:
btt://execute_assigned_actions_for_trigger/?uuid=A7EC5955-F72E-485F-B7EB-0E6DB2FCC836

My Bunch looks like:

Open Safari and load Charles Stanley login URL

%Safari

• https://www.charles-stanley-direct.co.uk/
• (pause 1)
  btt://execute_assigned_actions_for_trigger/?uuid=A7EC5955-F72E-485F-B7EB-0E6DB2FCC836

But the BTT action doesn't affect the Safari window and actually moves the BTT window to the right.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[ttscoff]

When you use the URL scheme, BetterTouchTool is becoming the foreground app. Your BTT action probably acts on the foreground app, thus BTT gets affected. I imagine the results might be different if you didn't have the BTT configuration window open at the time. You have a couple of other things you can try, though: First, triggering a BTT action using AppleScript usually means it doesn't become the foreground app, so assuming your Bunch is set to `sequence: sequential`, you could add a line right after Safari that triggered the BTT action. I'd have to look up the exact syntax, but it's pretty easy and very similar to the url handler syntax. Second, sending the keyboard shortcut for the action directly to Safari probably doesn't trigger the global shortcut you assigned in BTT. You'd be better off sending it globally by not including it as a file line, but just a line on its own like: {@$~s} Or whatever your combination is. Like the AppleScript solution, if the action affects whatever is foreground at the time and your Bunch launches more than one app, it might end up affecting a different app if something else becomes foreground in the meantime. Moom allows you to target certain apps for window management, but I'm not sure BTT does. Maybe?

…

-Brett

On 7 Jul 2021, at 7:47, ncharlez wrote: I am trying to write a 'bunch' that opens Safari and then sends it to the right hand side of the screen. I wrote a BetterTouchTool keyboard shortcut to send the screen to the right and this works when invoked from the keyboard. Unfortunately, I can't work out to invoke the shortcut from bunch. My bunch file successfully opens Safari but nothing I've tried so far will invoke the BTT command to move the window to the right. I initially tried sending the keystrokes {cmd-opt-right}, but that didn't work. I eventually noticed the instructions for invoking actions via the btt: url scheme. When I try this, the URL doesn't move Safari to the right, instead it moves the BTT window to the right! I'm obviously missing something. I initially tried to use a keyboard shortcut specific to Safari, but the same thing happens if you set it up for all apps in BTT. To get the URL I copied it from BTT and ended up with: btt://execute_assigned_actions_for_trigger/?uuid=A7EC5955-F72E-485F-B7EB-0E6DB2FCC836 My Bunch looks like: # Open Safari and load Charles Stanley login URL %Safari - https://www.charles-stanley-direct.co.uk/ - (pause 1) btt://execute_assigned_actions_for_trigger/?uuid=A7EC5955-F72E-485F-B7EB-0E6DB2FCC836 But the BTT action doesn't affect the Safari window and actually moves the BTT window to the right. Any help would be greatly appreciated! -- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #104

[ncharlez]

Thanks for quick reply, it was very helpful.

Just so you know, I couldn't get the BTT commands to work by invoking them directly from the Bunch; it was as if they weren't sent. However, writing an AppleScript to invoke the BTT actions and calling the AppleScript from Bunch did work. A very roundabout way to get there, but I did get there in the end.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[ttscoff]

Can I see the commands you tried to send directly from Bunch? In theory that should work even better than calling an external AppleScript, so I'd like to test on my end. Thanks, Brett

…

On 7 Jul 2021, at 12:07, ncharlez wrote: Thanks for quick reply, it was very helpful. Just so you know, I couldn't get the BTT commands to work by invoking them directly from the Bunch; it was as if they weren't sent. However, writing an AppleScript to invoke the BTT actions and calling the AppleScript from Bunch did work. A very roundabout way to get there, but I did get there in the end. Thanks for the suggestions. -- You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #104 (reply in thread)

[ncharlez]

In BTT I have defined the following Keyboard Shortcuts:
Safari Only: Cmd-Opt-9 : Maximize Window Right
All Apps: Cmd-Opt-0 : Maximize Window Right

Both of these work as expected from the OS. That is, if Safari is the active windows Cmd-Opt-9 moves and resizes the Safari window to the right and nothing happens if Safari isn't the active window. The all apps shortcut works as expected and moves and resizes the active window to right half of the screen.

Here is the code I'm using to try and test this in Bunch:

Open Safari and load Charles Stanley login URL

%Safari

• https://www.charles-stanley-direct.co.uk/

(pause 1)

Test sending commands in Bunch

#{~@0}
{@~9}

Now it gets very interesting. The first option above {~@0} doesn't appear to do anything. The second option {@~9} actually opens a new Safari window prompting me to login to Pinboard! It's taken me ages to work out why that would happen. There is a Pinboard bookmark in my bookmarks that brings up the same page, but initially I couldn't find any key combination that invoked it. I eventually found this link (https://www.lifewire.com/keyboard-shortcuts-for-safari-bookmarks-and-tabs-toolbar-2259990) that explains how to set the Safari preferences so that Cmd-9 invokes the 9th bookmark (instead of switching to the ninth tab) which does happen to be the Pinboard bookmark. Interestingly, my Safari preferences are set so that pressing Cmd-# switches between tabs. If I turn that option off, pressing Cmd-9 does indeed open the Pinboard bookmark. I thought it might be something to do with the number of tabs currently open (which happened to be 8), so I opened another tab so there were actually 9 tabs open, but Bunch/BTT still opened the Pinboard bookmark.

So, somehow I don't seem to be getting the Opt part the Cmd-Opt combination from Bunch and even better it appears to be issuing a Cmd-9 command that somehow overrides my Safari preferences and opens the 9th bookmark instead of moving to the 9th tab.

I did wonder if the order of the keys in the command made a difference, but I tried both just to check and there was no difference.

Hope this helps and let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Thanks,
Scott

[ttscoff]

That first one wouldn't do anything, the # makes it a comment and it would be removed from processing. Not sure what to do about Safari capturing the keyboard shortcut, though.

[ttscoff]

(I suppose you could always use different key combinations...)

[ncharlez]

Yes, I realised the first one was commented out and had left in just so you could see what I was trying as an example of a global and app specific shortcut. I have tried other key combinations (but not many). The ones I sent you were my second attempt and I was trying to come up with a key combination that was easy to invoke and unlikely to conflict with anything else. If it had worked I would have come up with something easier to remember. 🙂

[ttscoff]

Keep in mind that you can also use btt urls or AppleScript to trigger actions by UUID instead of by sending key combos. And if you do it with AppleScript, it doesn't first bring BTT to the foreground and affect which window is acted upon.

…

-Brett

On 13 Jul 2021, at 10:43, ncharlez wrote: Yes, I realised the first one was commented out and had left in just so you could see what I was trying as an example of a global and app specific shortcut. I have tried other key combinations (but not many). The ones I sent you were my second attempt and I was trying to come up with a key combination that was easy to invoke and unlikely to conflict with anything else. If it had worked I would have come up with something easier to remember. 🙂 -- You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #104 (reply in thread)