OS X: Move window from Python

Question

I’m trying to move around windows programatically from Python on OS X.

I found a snippet of AppleScript here on Stackoverflow which does this, but I’d like to do it in Python or another “real” scripting language.

This is my Python script, which does not work. I wrote the output of print commands below each of them.

#!/usr/bin/python

from Foundation import *
from ScriptingBridge import *

app = SBApplication.applicationWithBundleIdentifier_("com.apple.SystemEvents")

finderProc = app.processes().objectWithName_("Finder")

print finderProc
# <SystemEventsProcess @0x74b641f0: SystemEventsProcess "Finder" of application "System Events" (29683)>

finderWin = finderProc.windows()[0]

print finderWin
# <SystemEventsWindow @0x74b670e0: SystemEventsWindow 0 of SystemEventsProcess "Finder" of application "System Events" (29683)>

print finderWin.name()
# Macintosh HD

finderWin.setBounds_([[20,20],[100,100]])
# no visible result

finderWin.setPosition_([20,20])

The last command (setPosition_) crashes with the following exception.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/mw/Projekte/Python/winlist.py", line 17, in <module>
    finderWin.setPosition_([20,20])
AttributeError: 'SystemEventsWindow' object has no attribute 'setPosition_'

How can I make the setBounds command work?

Asked By: Mira Weller

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Source

Answer 1

You don’t have to do it via System Events (I doubt that will work). Instead, do it directly on the Finder app:

from ScriptingBridge import *

app = SBApplication.applicationWithBundleIdentifier_("com.apple.Finder")
finderWin = app.windows()[0]
finderWin.setBounds_([[100,100],[100,100]])
finderWin.setPosition_([20,20])

You don’t need the Foundation import either.

Answered By: maranas

Answer 2

If you want to interact with OS X’s Accessibility APIs from Python then try atomac. System Events is just an AppleScriptable wrapper around various system APIs, but PyObjC and other Python libraries already give you extensive access to the system APIs without having to deal with any AS/SB nonsense.

—

p.s You may need to enable the ‘assistive devices’ option in System Preferences’ Accessibility pane, otherwise most accessibility features won’t be available.

Answered By: foo

Answer 3

I’ve recently posted a question similar to what you’re trying to achieve but using python atomacos. However I’m facing some other issues:

Python pyatom: setting window size and position

You could have a look at atomacos’s implementation of setting variables through the accessibility API as they use the py-objc library’s.

FYI (atomacos is an updated version of atomac)

Answered By: harveyf2801

OS X: Move window from Python

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