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Remember when iTunes used to have a Library container that you could select as the basis for a search of ALL your content? That was nice. Now if you want to search for a TV show in the library you need to click on the TV Shows node before initiating a search.
If there were a keyboard shortcut to select each container I’d use it, but I don’t see any such shortcuts. Thanks to the king of AppleScripts for iTunes I’ve pulled together some pieces that give me a solution.
If you really miss the all-inclusive Library container you can add it back into iTunes using an AppleScript application provided by Doug Adams called Change Hidden iTunes Preferences. From there you can script selection of that container or you can go a step further: I’m using TextExpander to kick off a script that facilitates iTunes searching. The script can select the Library container or go on to select a container like TV Shows, Movies, or Podcasts. The extra step is only required if you prefer to have search results limited by media type.
The commands to select the Library container were provided by Doug. When hooks for selecting other containers weren’t readily apparent (maybe they’re there and I didn’t see them) I moved on to another strategy: Selecting the Library and then scripting arrow key presses to move down the tree. So far that works ok. Last step: Place the cursor in the search box. Doug’s page on automating keystrokes helps there too.
The simple script, shown in the screenshot, can be kicked off with a keyboard shortcut. For me it means not using the mouse, and that’s worth the effort. Still, the script isn’t working 100% of the time. For example, if the Library node is already selected it fails. Needs a little work…
Murphy's Web Host
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Sometimes Murphy is just a little too lazy to go upstairs and reboot a Mac that needs rebooting. With an iPhone or iPod touch you don’t need to leave the sofa.
Today, Murphy was watching tv on the iPhone via EyeTV’s iPhone app. It started to lock up so a reboot seemed like a good idea. Murphy has Touch Term installed on the iPhone. And the Mac is set to accept SSH sessions. One tap to connect and one command to start the reboot was all it took. Here’s what you need:
- First, go to Sharing in your System Preferences. Turn on Remote Login. This allows your Mac to allow incoming SSH sessions.
- On your iPhone install Touch Term, or some other SSH client. Murphy remembers getting Touch Term for free, but now it starts at $3.99. You might want to comparison shop for similar products.
- Next, configure Touch Term to connect to your Mac, either by name or ip address.
- Once you’ve connected just type the command to reboot your Mac, and press Return. Here’s the command: sudo shutdown -r now
Murphy took the extra step of creating a shell script to run that command, so there’s less to type when it’s time to reboot. That’s all there is to it.
You might want a command to send your Mac to sleep instead of rebooting it. This command should accomplish that: osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to sleep'
Of course, you can always try something completely different. A long time ago Murphy wrote some posts about using the Mail app on a Mac to trigger events. Murphy has Applescripts on the Mac that do different things when emails come in with certain characteristics. Scripts that adjust iTunes, retrieve files, or put the Mac to sleep. The whole thing was based on a post here.
Some of these scripts had issues with different updates to OS X and changes to Mail. Your results may vary…
I haven’t looked into other ways to reboot my Mac from the iPhone, so if you’ve got a good way let me know.
As always, be careful when using the Terminal.
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I was so close to making a screencast tonight, but the stuff I was looking at isn’t quite worth the time. For me. Maybe for you?
I found these little apps on Apple’s Applescript site that let you drop some files onto a droplet. The files are stored in the droplet which when double-clicked displays the files in Quick Look. So you could send the droplet to another Leopard user and they could see a group of photos, Numbers docs, or whatever mix of files you drop in there. As long as Quick Look can display them you’re good.
The downside is that it’s not really using Quick Look - the script utilizes qlmanage which is a Terminal utility intended for Quick Look testing. Unfortunately the command line version of Quick Look doesn’t do everything full-on Quick Look does. For example, once I invoked the Index view I couldn’t get back to regular view. I couldn’t go full screen. And the space bar wouldn’t close the Quick Look window. The site provides ample warning that qlmanage isn’t everything that Quick Look is. It does play video though.
On the plus side, it’s conveivable you might want a different look for files you’re distributing. A single Quicktime movie sent this way might get a little more attention, it won’t look like the same old same old. Then again, if it gets sent on to a non-Leopard user that wouldn’t be good.
Looking at the package contents (right click the droplet and select Show Package Contents) you’ll see that the underlying Applescript invokes qlmanage with the -p option, which displays normal Quick Look previews. I was hopeful when I saw the man page in Terminal. The -t option displays thumbnails, but not in the manner you might expect. I expected the Quick Look Index view.
Altering the script to use -t resulted in thumbnails displayed one at a time in a Preview-looking window - revealing the next preview only when you close the previous one. It didn’t look like Quick Look at all.
If there were a way to make it open in Index view and have that view function like Quick Look - letting me get back to the default view - I’d be interested. But I’m not. What about you?
You can read more about the downloads here. The download includes another droplet for Quick Look that opens the files you drop on it immediately with pseudo Quick Look. It uses qlmanage as well.
There’s another download on the site that lets you click a Finder toolbar button to jump into a full-size Finder window in Cover Flow view - with one click. Is that anything?
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This post is intended for people with mobile phones that don’t have Internet access, but can receive emails in the form of text messages. You will also be interested in this post if you’ve had problems with Mail.app rules in Leopard.
Need to check for new messages in Mail.app from your stone-age mobile phone? No problem. Send yoursef an email with a preset subject like “MsgFetch” and your unread emails received that day will be forwarded to your phone. This way you don’t always forward to your phone, burning up all your text messages.
The script will append the sender name into the subject so it’s easy to glance at your phone and see who sent each message - since they’re all forwarded from your email address. The messages are marked as read in Mail.app so they won’t be resent if you issue another request later.
One more thing: This solution also gets around a problem with rules in Mail.app under Leopard. It seems that scripts called by a rule won’t generate a new mail message, which is something this script needs to do.
Instead of relying on the rules of Mail.app, the rule processing is baked into the Applescript. By setting the script to run on a periodic basis we can test for trigger emails in the inbox.
How do you get the script to run periodically? You can have iCal do it. Or you could use something like Lingon to configure launchd, which handles scheduled tasks in Leopard. This post has a screencast that covers Lingon.
You could also create a shell script that kicks off your Applescript, or a group of Applescripts for that matter. The shell script would look something like this:
osascript <path to script file>/ <script file>
or
osascript ~/Documents/scripts/mailforwarder.scpt
You can download the Applescript and read the in-line comments explaining how it works. But let’s take a quick look at two excerpts from the Applescript:
The first part of the script handles what a Mail.app rule would normally cover. Since rules aren’t working as expected the Applescript handles that duty by looking for an unread email with MsgFetch in the subject. If there is such a message the script calls a subroutine ( a chunk of script) called mail_forwarder.
The other part we’ll look at is located within the mail_forwarder subroutine. It finds the emails that arrived today. The next part, not shown here, checks to see if the message has been read.
The rest of the script has been covered in other Murphy Mac posts. It’s the part that creates and sends the mail message. Murphy’s posts on mailing files from Finder and retrieving files by email both create and send mail messages using Applescript. The Finder post has a screencast that goes with it.
Related posts:
Using Lingon
Creating a shell script
Other tricks with Mail: Pick a Playlist by Email - Retrieve a File by Email - Mail a File Dropped in a Finder Folder
Download Applescript
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If you’re using an iPhone or a touch or some other mobile device this could be a very convenient way to retrieve a file from home and view it on your device.
Here’s the scenario: You’re on the bus, you realize your French homework is sitting at home on your Mac. Send yourself a text message with the path to the file. By the time you get to school and log on to a computer your file has been emailed. Problem solved.
Configure Murphy’s script to run every so often using something like launchd. Then send yourself an email. Include the path to the file you want sent in the body, like this:
/Users/murphy/Documents/PenskeFile.doc.
Mail will create a new message, attach the file, and send it to the address in the script. You can configure the script to run when a certain word is in the email subject, like FileGrab. This is an ideal use for rules in Mail.app. But rules don’t seem to work in Mail as of 10.5.1. Murphy hasn’t tried 10.5.2 yet.
Update: If you leave the file name out the folder’s contents will be zipped and sent.
Instead of using rules, this script is written to run periodically. Maybe every ten minutes or so. If it sees an email with the keyword in the subject it checks for the file and sends it. If the file doesn’t exist the script sends an email that says so.
Security hole? Well, Murphy doesn’t think so. The file will only be mailed to the address you specify in the script, it’s not a reply. (you could alter the script to have it reply, but that doesn’t seem like a good idea.) You can use secure email to send the request and the file. That’s secure.
Getting back to the mobile devices: Your unhacked iPhone and touch don’t let you download files. So you can’t SSH back to the house and grab the file. You could set up your Mac as a web server, but I wouldn’t want to do that.
Using this script the file is emailed to you, so you can view it in Mobile Mail or Gmail depending on what kind of file it is. You can easily view the file later, when you’re offline. The catch? You need to know the path to the file you’re retrieving. Don’t know the path? Here’s some help.
Windows Users: Have a look here.
Note: Script requires use of Mail.app. To schedule this script to run on a schedule you might want to try something like lingon for editing your launchd configuration.
Other Murphy scripts for working with Mail:
Sleep Your Mac by Email
Select a Playlist by Email
Get a List of Your Files by Email
Retrieve Mail.app Messages by Text Message (this post shows how to match emails with Applescript using multiple criteria)
Download Script
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