How to get Information of a Selected UI Element?-CodePudding

How can I get identify the UI element in AppleScript?

In AppleScript it is possible to make a click on to an UI element like this:

click item 1 of text field 1 of sheet 1 of window 1 of application process "Umsatz" of application "System Events"

But is it also possible to read the active element? Screenshot shows an active UI element

CodePudding user response：

Here's a handler that will return a record of all the properties, attributes, and actions belonging to a specific UI element:

on info about UIElement
        set my text item delimiters to linefeed & linefeed
        tell application id "com.apple.SystemEvents" to script Object
                property parent : UIElement
                property AXAttributes : a reference to my (the ¬
                        attributes whose name ≠ "AXURL")
                property AXValues : value of AXAttributes
                property AXRecord : a reference to the ¬
                        contents of {«class usrf»:my AXList}
                property AXList : name of AXAttributes
        end script
        
        tell (a reference to the Object's AXList) to set the ¬
                contents to paragraphs of (it as text) & ""
        
        tell the Object to repeat with i from 1 to length of its AXValues
                set item (i * 2) of its AXList to ¬
                        item i of its AXValues
        end repeat
        
        tell application id "com.apple.SystemEvents" to return ¬
                {UI element:the Object's contents} & the properties ¬
                of the Object & (the Object's AXRecord as any) & ¬
                {_AXActions:every action's name of the Object}
end info

To use it, you pass it the reference of a particular UI element, such as that which is returned by the click or click at commands. In your case, this could be:

tell application id "com.apple.systemevents" to tell process "Umsatz" 
        return info about window 1's sheet 1's text field 1's ui element 1

It will only work on single elements, so passing it a collection of elements will throw an error. Upon success, you'll get a result like this one returned detailing information about my window in Script Editor when running the following command:

tell application id "com.apple.systemevents" to tell process ¬
        "Script Editor" to return my info about window 1

Result:
        {UI element:window "Untitled 161.scpt" of application 
        process "Script Editor" of application "System Events", 
        minimum value:missing value, orientation:missing value, 
        position:{1000, 25}, class:window, accessibility 
        description:missing value, role description:"standard 
        window", focused:false, title:"Untitled 161.scpt", 
        size:{623, 1095}, help:missing value, entire contents:{}, 
        enabled:missing value, maximum value:missing value, 
        role:"AXWindow", value:missing value, 
        subrole:"AXStandardWindow", selected:missing value, 
        name:"Untitled 161.scpt", description:"standard window", 
        AXFocused:false, AXFullScreen:false, AXTitle:"Untitled 
        161.scpt", AXChildrenInNavigationOrder:{application "System 
        Events", application "System Events", application "System 
        Events", application "System Events", application "System 
        Events", application "System Events", application "System 
        Events", application "System Events", application "System 
        Events", application "System Events", application "System 
        Events"}, AXFrame:{1000, 25, 1623, 1120}, AXPosition:{1000, 
        25}, AXGrowArea:missing value, AXMinimizeButton:button 3 of 
        window "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script 
        Editor" of application "System Events", 
        AXDocument:"file:///Users/CK/Library/Mobile Documents/com~
        apple~ScriptEditor2/Documents/Untitled 161.scpt", 
        AXSections:{{SectionUniqueID:"AXToolbar", 
        SectionDescription:"Toolbar"}, 
        {SectionUniqueID:"AXContent", 
        SectionDescription:"Content"}, 
        {SectionUniqueID:"AXTopLevelNavigator", 
        SectionDescription:"Top Level Navigator"}}, 
        AXCloseButton:button 1 of window "Untitled 161.scpt" of 
        application process "Script Editor" of application "System 
        Events", AXMain:true, AXActivationPoint:{1010, 39}, 
        AXFullScreenButton:button 2 of window "Untitled 161.scpt" 
        of application process "Script Editor" of application 
        "System Events", AXProxy:missing value, 
        AXDefaultButton:missing value, AXMinimized:false, 
        AXChildren:{group 1 of window "Untitled 161.scpt" of 
        application process "Script Editor" of application "System 
        Events", busy indicator 1 of window "Untitled 161.scpt" of 
        application process "Script Editor" of application "System 
        Events", static text "Running…" of window "Untitled 
        161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" of 
        application "System Events", radio group 1 of window 
        "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" 
        of application "System Events", splitter group 1 of window 
        "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" 
        of application "System Events", toolbar 1 of window 
        "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" 
        of application "System Events", tab group "tab bar" of 
        window "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script 
        Editor" of application "System Events", button 1 of window 
        "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" 
        of application "System Events", button 2 of window 
        "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" 
        of application "System Events", button 3 of window 
        "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" 
        of application "System Events", static text "Untitled 
        161.scpt" of window "Untitled 161.scpt" of application 
        process "Script Editor" of application "System Events"}, 
        AXRole:"AXWindow", AXParent:application process "Script 
        Editor" of application "System Events", 
        AXTitleUIElement:static text "Untitled 161.scpt" of window 
        "Untitled 161.scpt" of application process "Script Editor" 
        of application "System Events", AXCancelButton:missing 
        value, AXModal:false, AXSubrole:"AXStandardWindow", 
        AXZoomButton:button 2 of window "Untitled 161.scpt" of 
        application process "Script Editor" of application "System 
        Events", AXRoleDescription:"standard window", AXSize:{623, 
        1095}, AXToolbarButton:missing value, 
        AXIdentifier:"_NS:794", _AXActions:{"AXRaise"}}

CodePudding user response：

Focused UI Elements of front window may be more than 1. That is, it may be list of focused UI Elements. The element you need will in most cases be the element deepest in the structure.

I tested script in the Safari with Login window of our Stack Overflow site. To test like me, open Login form, tape in the some text field of this form (to make it focused), run script.

on getDeeppestFocusedUIelement(processName)
    tell application "System Events" to tell process processName
        set frontmost to true
        repeat until window 1 exists
            delay 0.1
        end repeat
        repeat with UIElement in reverse of (get entire contents of window 1)
            try
                if focused of UIElement then return (contents of UIElement)
            end try
        end repeat
    end tell
    return {}
end getDeeppestFocusedUIelement

set focusedUIElement to getDeeppestFocusedUIelement("Safari")