How to Run Shell Script upon Application Launch

automatorcommand linerubyscripttextmate

Not sure if this belongs here or on SuperUser, but it's Mac specific, so I'll go with here.

I wrote a Ruby script that edits TextMate's global properties file and changes the theme based on the time of day (light theme during the day, dark theme at night), and then launches TextMate.

I then made an Automator app that runs that script. I called it TextMate, pasted in the flower icon, and put it in my dock instead of the actual TextMate app.

The script works, but the big obvious thing I overlooked is that the real TextMate is no longer in my dock, so whenever I click my Automator version, it runs, exits, and then TextMate appends itself to the running applications section of my dock, so I have two flower icons down there when the app is running. Another problem is that if I opened the app in any other way (like opening a file from Finder), the script won't run.

So, is there any way to attach my script to the actual app, or tell the system to do something any time TextMate opens, or tell TextMate to do something any time it opens?

Best Answer

The third-party UI-scripting application Keyboard Maestro (KBM) can perform this function. (Along with many others.)

I've been using KBM for 5 or 6 years, it's very stable and reliable.

See screenshot of sample KBM script:

enter image description here

Related Solutions

AppleScript app started prompting to run or quit. How to disable this

When you create a script in AppleScript Editor and then save it as an Application, there is an option to show a Startup Screen, as shown in the image below:

enter image description here

When that option is enabled, when you launch the script in the Finder, it will first show that initial dialog before continuing.

As long as the AppleScript script-application in question wasn't saved with the Run Only option (see the image above), you should be able to open the script in AppleScript Editor by dragging the script-application's icon onto AppleScript Editor's icon. (When a script is saved as Run Only, AppleScript Editor won't allow you to open it to see the source code). So, if you are able to open it OK, then you could Save a copy of it and make sure the Startup Screen option is disabled.

As for why this suddenly started happening when yesterday it didn't, I'm not sure. What version of OS X are you using?

Create a automator application able to launch and quit from dock

Your app does start the process and then quits itself straight away leaving the process running.

You could try and check in the Automator action to see if the process is running. if it is quit it, if it is not launch it.

 isRunning=`ps aux | grep -i "Textedit.app"| grep -v grep`

    if [ $isRunning -eq "" ]; then 
        echo "is Not Running" 

/abspath/to/my-command
    else
        echo "is Running"  

# terminate code  here
    fi;

So when you click the App in the Dock. to will either start the process or stop it.

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