Why doesn't Automator AppleScript End?

Question

OK, I realize the solution to this is probably something very simple, but I've wasted a lot of time trying to figure it out. As you'll likely be able to tell, I'm new to AppleScript.

I have an AppleScript being run by Automator. It clicks a button in Chrome. I have an action I need to repeat nearly 1000 times, so I'm trying to automate it. Here's what I have:

tell application "Google Chrome"
    activate
    set theTab to tab 1 of window 1
    execute theTab javascript "document.querySelectorAll('[title=Archive]')[0].click()"
end tell

This works as I want: It activates Chrome and clicks a button on the active tab. Clicking the button brings up an alert box for which the default is an OK button. Next I need to click that button, so I have a second AppleScript:

tell application "Google Chrome" to activate
delay 2
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke return
end tell

Let me be clear: I know ultimately I should have a single script, but I created two to diagnose the problem I'm having.

It appears the first script just never ends, so it never gets to the second script. If I run the first script, stop it, and then run the second, I get exactly what I want. But unless I stop the first script, it just churns and never moves on. While it's executing the javascript, it seems that it just stops there.

Like I said, this is probably incredibly simple... and I feel incredibly stupid for not seeing the solution. What am I missing?

Answer 1

It's not as easy as you might think, because alert box with the "OK" button is modal . This means: the script will wait for the "OK" button to be pressed, only then will it continue further.

I can't test, because I don't use Google Chrome, and I don't know webpage you test with. Try my suggestion yourself (it uses idea of throwing artefact interruption ):

tell application "Google Chrome"
    activate
    set theTab to tab 1 of window 1
    try
        with timeout of 1 second
         set theResult to (execute theTab javascript "document.querySelectorAll('[title=Archive]')[0].click()")
       end timeout
        theResult
    on error
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke return
    end try
end tell

Here is fully tested by me closing modal alert box programatically :

try
    with timeout of 1 second
        set theResult to display alert "TEST"
    end timeout
    theResult
on error
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke return
end try