Download Script It! For macOS 10.6.6 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Write your own novel, stage play, TV show or Hollywood blockbuster with Script It! Which was created by a produced screenwriter to plan your story, organize your ideas and format your screenplay. AppleScript is a scripting language created by Apple Inc. That facilitates automated control over scriptable Mac applications. First introduced in System 7, it is currently included in all versions of macOS as part of a package of system automation tools. Stack Overflow for Teams is a private, secure spot for you and your coworkers to find and share information. Scripts are small files that contain a list of commands that tells your Mac what functions to perform and when. Fortunately, Apple is kind enough to provide you with several completed scripts with your installation of Yosemite. You can find a large cache of scripts in the scripts folder, found in the Library folder, under Scripts. Note the space after the 5 representing the user pressing Enter to submit the entered radius to complete the command (a new blank line could also have been used in the script file for the same result). At this point, you may be slightly confused by some of the prefixes & command parameters used in the above example, so here is a short explanation of the purpose of each item.
Fostering innovative and open methods and tools in the classroom and beyond.
Expanding the scope and impact of traditional and digital humanities for the contemporary world.
Thinking critically about the role and design of technology, data and the social sciences in our lives and learning.
Promoting openness, access, and diversity in technology, and education in service of an equitable society.
Promoting change in schools, museums, libraries, and other organizations.
Advocating for new forms of scholarly communications, including blogging, multimedia, open publishing, and academic journals and presses.
Mac Os Scripting
Basically, a Mac application has a .app extension, but it's not really a file — it's a package. You can view the application's contents by navigating to it in the Finder, right-clicking it and then choosing 'Show Package Contents'.
The internal folder structure may vary between apps, but you can be sure that every Mac app will have a Contents folder with a MacOS subfolder in it. Inside the MacOS directory, there's an extension-less file with the exact same name as the app itself. This file can be anything really, but in its simplest form it's a shell script. As it turns out, this folder/file structure is all it takes to create a functional app!
Enter appify
After this discovery, Thomas Aylott came up with a clever 'appify' script that allows you to easily create Mac apps from shell scripts. The code looks like this:
Installing and using appify is pretty straightforward if you're used to working with UNIX. (I'm not, so I had to figure this out.) Here's how to install it:
- Save the script to a directory in your
PATHand name itappify(no extension). I chose to put it in/usr/local/bin, which requires root privileges. - Fire up Terminal.app and enter
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/appifyto make appify executable without root privileges.
After that, you can create apps based on any shell script simply by launching Terminal.app and entering something like this:
Obviously, this would create a stand-alone application named Your App Name.app that executes the your-shell-script.sh script.
After that, you can very easily add a custom icon to the app if you want to.
Adding a custom app icon
- Create an
.icnsfile or a 512×512 PNG image with the icon you want, and copy it to the clipboard (⌘ + C). (Alternatively, copy it from an existing app as described in steps 2 and 3.) - Right-click the
.appfile of which you want to change the icon and select 'Get Info' (or select the file and press ⌘ + I). - Select the app icon in the top left corner by clicking it once. It will get a subtle blue outline if you did it right.
- Now hit ⌘ + V (paste) to overwrite the default icon with the new one.
Note that this will work for any file or folder, not just .app files.
Script File Extension Mac
Examples
Chrome/Chromium bootstrappers
I like to run Chrome/Chromium with some command-line switches or flags enabled. On Windows, you can create a shortcut and set the parameters you want in its properties; on a Mac, you'll need to launch it from the command line every time. Well, not anymore :)
The & at the end is not a typo; it is there to make sure Chromium is launched in a separate thread. Without the &, Chromium would exit as soon as you quit Terminal.app.
Launch a local web server from a directory
Say you're working on a project and you want to debug it from a web server. The following shell script will use Python to launch a local web server from a specific directory and open the index page in your default browser of choice. After appifying it, you won't even need to open the terminal for it anymore.
Script File Format
More?
Mac Run Shell Script
Needless to say, the possibilities are endless. Just to give another example, you could very easily create an app that minifies all JavaScript and CSS files in a specific folder. Got any nice ideas? Let me know by leaving a comment!
