How do I embed an AppleScript in a Python script?

Question

I am trying to embed an AppleScript in a Python script. I don't want to have to save the AppleScript as a file and then load it in my Python script. Is there a way to enter the AppleScript as a string in Python and have Python execute the AppleScript? Thanks a bunch.

Here is my script: import subprocess import re import os

def get_window_title():
    cmd = """osascript<<END
    tell application "System Events"
        set frontApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
    end tell
    tell application frontApp
        if the (count of windows) is not 0 then
            set window_name to name of front window
        end if
    end tell
    return window_name
    END"""

    p = subprocess.Popen(cmd, shell=True)
    p.terminate()
    return p

def get_class_name(input_str):
    re_expression = re.compile(r"(\w+)\.java")
    full_match = re_expression.search(input_str)
    class_name = full_match.group(1)
    return class_name

print get_window_title()

Answer 1

Use subprocess :

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

scpt = '''
    on run {x, y}
        return x + y
    end run'''
args = ['2', '2']

p = Popen(['osascript', '-'] + args, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
stdout, stderr = p.communicate(scpt)
print (p.returncode, stdout, stderr)

Answer 2

Example 3 in this article suggests:

#!/usr/bin/env python
#sleepy-mac.py
#makes my mac very sleepy

import os
cmd = """osascript -e 'tell app "Finder" to sleep'"""
def stupidtrick():
     os.system(cmd)
stupidtrick()

These days, however, subsystem.Popen is usually preferred over os.system (the article is from three years ago, when nobody screamed on seeing an os.system call;-).

Answer 3

In python 3 it would be slightly different:

script = 'tell "some application" to do something'
p = Popen(['osascript', '-'], stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE, universal_newlines=True)
stdout, stderr = p.communicate(script)

Popen now expects a byte-like object, to pass a string, the universal_newlines=True parameter is needed.

Answer 4

Here's a simple python3 synchronous example, if you want your python code not to wait for Applescript to finish. In this example, both say commands are executed in parallel.

from subprocess import Popen

def exec_applescript(script):
    p = Popen(['osascript', '-e', script])

exec_applescript('say "I am singing la la la la" using "Alex" speaking rate 140 pitch 60')
exec_applescript('say "Still singing, hahaha" using "Alex" speaking rate 140 pitch 66')

Answer 5

See https://pypi.org/project/applescript/

import applescript
resp = applescript.tell.app("System Events",'''
set frontApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
return "Done"
''')
assert resp.code == 0, resp.err
print(resp.out)

etc. Most of suggestions, including "applescript" I quoted, are missing one important setting to osascript -- setting an -s option to "s", otherwise you will be having difficulty parsing the output.

Answer 6

Here's a generic function in python. Just pass your applescript code with/without args and get back the value as a string. Thanks to this answer.

from subprocess import Popen, PIPE

def run_this_scpt(scpt, args=[]):
    p = Popen(['osascript', '-'] + args, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
    stdout, stderr = p.communicate(scpt)
    return stdout

#Example of how to run it.
run_this_scpt("""tell application "System Events" to keystroke "m" using {command down}""")

#Example of how to run with args.
run_this_scpt('''
    on run {x, y}
        return x + y
    end run''', ['2', '2'])

Answer 7

Rather than embedding AppleScript, I would instead use appscript . I've never used the Python version, but it was very nice in Ruby. And make sure that, if you're installing it on Snow Leopard, you have the latest version of XCode. However, I've so far been unable to install it on Snow Leopard. But I've only had Snow Leopard for ~1 day, so your mileage may vary.

Answer 8

You can use os.system :

import os
os.system('''
    osascript -e 
     '[{YOUR SCRIPT}]'
     '[{GOES HERE}]'
    ''')

or, as suggested by Alex Martelli you can use a variable:

import os
script = '''
    [{YOUR SCRIPT}]
    [{GOES HERE}]
'''
os.system('osascript -e ' + script)

Answer 9

subprocess.run() is now preferred over subprocess.popen() . Here is a pretty simple way to run AppleScript code and get the results back.

import subprocess

def get_window_title():
    cmd = """
        tell application "System Events"
            set frontApp to name of first application process whose frontmost is true
        end tell
        tell application frontApp
            if the (count of windows) is not 0 then
                set window_name to name of front window
            end if
        end tell
        return window_name
    """
    result = subprocess.run(['osascript', '-e', cmd], capture_output=True)
    return result.stdout

print(get_window_title())