How to Open a Website with Applescript

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Hi There all…

To make applescript open to any web page you would like insert the following code into the top of your applescript document:

 

 

to goToWebPage(theWebPage)
 tell application "Safari"
 activate
 set URL of document 1 to theWebPage
 end tell
 end goToWebPage

 

 

When you would like to go to a website use this anywhere in your code.

 

goToWebPage("http://thewebsite.com")

 

NOTE: This will not work if it is already inside of a Safari Tell Statement.

 

Will work:

 

tell application "Safari"
 --some code...
 end tell

goToWebPage("http://thewebsite.com")

tell application "Safari"
 --some code...
 end tell

 

Will Not Work:

 

tell application "Safari"
 goToWebPage("http://thewebsite.com")
 end tell

Samuel

5 Responses to “How to Open a Website with Applescript

  • Hi Samuel, Thanks a bunch for the code examples.

    Note that the code in many of your examples cannot be copy/pasted without causing runtime errors. I’m not sure the culprit, but my mac copies open and closed quotes from your web pages to the applescript editor, and the quotes cause a strange error that many newbies won’t easily recognize.

    I hope this helps,

    Michael

  • It says that “can’t continue to webpage”

    to goToWebPage(“http://www.google.com”)
    tell application “Safari”
    activate
    set URL of document 1 to theWebPage(“http://www.google.com”)
    end tell

    end goToWebPage

    goToWebPage(“http://www.google.com”)

    • Hey Raceer,
      I think you might have goToWebPage inside of a safari tell statement. You have to put it outside of the tell statement for it to work. So instead of
      Tell Application “Safari”
      goToWebPage(“http://www.google.com”)
      end tell

      it needs to be like this:

      goToWebPage(“http://www.google.com”)
      Tell Application “Safari”
      other code you want to do…
      end tell

  • A shorter and easier version is

    to goToWebPage(specifiedURL)
    do shell script “open ” & specifiedURL
    end goToWebPage

    goToWebPage(“http://google.com”)

    Opens in your default browser

Trackbacks & Pings

  • How to Get AppleScript to Wait for a Page to Load :

    […] previous tutorials we covered  how to make applescript open a web page, how to use AppleScript to fill out forms on a web page, and how to click buttons on web pages […]

    9 years ago

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