MacOS – create a script in script editor that will press a key and then press enter every 60 seconds

applescriptmacmacosmojavescript

I want to create a script in script editor that will press a key and then press enter every 60 seconds. However, I don't know how to make a script that presses a key. Does anybody know how to make a script that does this? I tried to keystroke "enter" but what is did was type out the word enter. Also, sometimes the code will crash and an error message will pop up saying that script editor cannot do keystrokes.

The aim for this script is to create an xp farming discord bot to farm xp on a server by sending messages.

Best Answer

How to send enter key using Applescript

In order to send the enter key in applescript you can use:

tell application "System Events"
  key code 36
end tell

Alternatively:

tell application "System Events"
  key code 76
end tell

The Difference between the two:

As shown here key code 36 is used to send the key Return.

key code 76 on the other hand is used to send Enter.

(@user3439894 Pointed out that key code 36 is typically used.)

Fixing Applescript not being able to send keystrokes

Go to System Preferences --> Security & Privacy --> Accessibility. From there delete the application and add it again.

Article

More Info

Sending Keystrokes: How to send special keys Applescript, How do I automate a key press in AppleScript? and List of Apple Key Codes

Fixing applescript not being able to send keystrokes: Application is not allowed to send keystrokes

Related Solutions

Automatically press a key every 60 seconds

You can do this in AppleScript, iff you've enabled access for assistive devices:

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "," using command down

This will (obviously) invoke cmd-,.

If, for some reason, you can't enable access for assistive devices, then it's pretty easy to do this in code (by creating a CGEventRef and then posting it to the system, essentially). If you'd like help with that, then head over to stackoverflow.com, where that question has been asked a few times.

As for getting this to happen every 60 seconds, you could turn it into a launch agent and let launchd do it for you:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.stackexchange.apple.12692</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>-e</string>
        <string>tell application "System Events" to keystroke "," using command down</string>
    </array>
    <key>ServiceDescription</key>
    <string>Auto Keypress</string>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Second</key>
        <integer>0</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Toss that in ~/Library/LaunchAgents and you should be good to go (once you load the plist and/or log out and log back in).

MacOS – LaunchBar script that returns the path of a folder “dropped” on it

The open() handler gets passed an alias (which is a kind of a pointer to a file or folder). You can then simply convert the alias to text, but it will show you the path with colons as separators (e.g. "Macintosh HD:Users:Username:Documents:Folder:").

Use POSIX path of to convert it to a UNIX-style path with "/" separators, and if you want to paste it into Terminal, especially if the path has spaces in it, you should use quoted form of to properly enclose it in quotes.

The following script works with both folders and files for me, when an item is passed to it via LaunchBar:

on open (thisItem)
    display dialog (thisItem as text) -- alias
    display dialog quoted form of POSIX path of thisItem -- POSIX path
end open