accessibilityautomationautomatormacos
Every few minutes I need to click a button on Yosemite's menu bar and select an option. I'd like to automate this task by somehow recording this action and scheduling it to execute via cron / command line.
I've tried creating an Automator workflow using the "Watch Me Do" feature, but although it executes fine inside Automator, when I run automator myclicks.workflow in the Terminal, it gives me this cryptic error message:
The action encountered an error.
How can I get automator action to work?
This is not the optimal solution, but it's working for now. Here is the Automator window:
The first shell script compiles the .tex file using the sequence pdflatex - biber - pdflatex and contains the following code:
for f in "$@"
do
file_ext=${f##*.}
if [ "$file_ext" = "tex" ]
then
foldername=$(dirname "$f")
export foldername
filename=$(basename "$f")
filesimple=${filename%.tex*}
cd $foldername
/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-darwin/pdflatex "$filename"
/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-darwin/biber "$filesimple"
/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-darwin/pdflatex "$filename"
else
echo $f n\'est pas un fichier TeX
fi
done
The second shell script deletes all temp files and opens the .pdf file. It contains the following code:
for f in "$@"
do
file_ext=${f##*.}
if [ "$file_ext" = "tex" ]
then
foldername=$(dirname "$f")
filename=$(basename "$f")
filesimple=${filename%.tex*}
cd $foldername
rm $filesimple.aux
rm $filesimple.bbl
rm $filesimple.bcf
rm $filesimple.blg
rm $filesimple.log
rm $filesimple.run.xml
open $filesimple.pdf
else
echo $f n\'est pas un fichier TeX
fi
done
I'm still waiting for a better solution using the latexmk command!
I think there is a security setting in Mavericks (and possibly Mountain Lion) that causes Automator not to allow system control. See this question
Open your Console and watch the logs when you run the service. In my case, it crashes when I try to run a shell script.
I tried adding Automator to the Security and Privacy preferences, but it did not solve the issue.
As a work around, you may have to use applescript to create and app, tie that to a service, and add the app to the Privacy tab of your Security and Privacy preference pane.
Best Answer
So this might be an Accessibility issue. I was able to resolve it by going to System Preferences>Security & Privacy>Accessibility and then making sure Terminal had a check in the checkbox under Privacy.
This link does a great job of explaining it. Automator in Terminal
And by the way console can be very useful in getting meaningful error messages.
Hope this helped.