Starting Izzy "in focus"

matttennie

Hi Izzillionaires,

I've got an installation running at a museum that starts my Izzy document upon start up. It goes to full screen when it starts but even though it's in full screen, the Finder menu bar is still at the top of the page as though Finder is the primary application in focus. Is there a straight forward way to make sure Izzy starts full screen and in focus?

Alternatively, I was thinking that I will write a quick Max patch that opens on start up instead of Isadora, waits 30 seconds, then runs a shell command to open the Izzy patch so Izzy is the last thing that happened.

I would love to do everything in Isadora, but as I poked around I didn't see anything that can run shell commands. I'm not smart enough to make this myself but a Shell Actor would be pretty rad IMHO :)

Michel

@matttennie

how about putting an applescript into the start options:

set appName to "IsadoraCore.app"
set startIt to true
if startIt then
	tell application appName to activate
end if

matttennie

It doesn't have trouble starting Isadora, it just doesn't want to let it start _after_ the Finder window which leaves the menu bar on top of the installation running in full screen. So the applescript works as you suggested but I'm getting error -1700 (?) that doesn't want to open the .izz document.

matttennie

I'm getting:

error "IsadoraCore got an error: Can’t make some data into the expected type." number -1700 to item

I'm starting to suspect this is an Isadora error. I've double-checked the path and tried out the apple script in a few different ways and paths, but it still hates me.

Michel

@matttennie

I did understand your problem, and this script does not open your Izzy document but Isadora itself, so you actually keep your Izzy document in the start options of the system. Even when Isadora is open already this script will put it to front, but possibly does this to quick after the Isadora document gets launched to let the script execute later try this:

set appName to "IsadoraCore.app"
set startIt to true
delay 20
if startIt then
	tell application appName to activate
end if

matttennie

Ok, now I understand. By activating the application that's already open, it puts it in front of everything else. Excellent - thank you!

matttennie

This worked well yesterday after a couple of test restarts, but today the installation started with the patch window over the full screen. Any ideas?

Thanks

Michel

@matttennie

Do you have an external monitor/projector or are you working only with the main screen?
What version of Isadora are you using?

Best
Michel

matttennie

It's all on one screen. I'm using 1.3.1f06

Michel

Does this happen every time now or only sometimes?
I can't recreate it.

matttennie

Consistent only to Murphy's Law, apparently. It didn't happen when I was there, but now that I'm a thousand miles away it happens every day when the machine starts up.

I'm starting to think about adding a shell command (to the AppleScript) to simulate the key combination of going full screen, then turning "start in fullscreen" off in Izzy prefs. I don't know how to do that, but I'm gonna start googling. Even simulating a mouse press at a screen location would do it, but I don't know if that's even a thing.

Thanks for your help, btw. I know it's not a very satisfying problem!

matttennie

I think it's working now. Here's how the AppleScript ended up looking (with Izzy prefs set to not enter full screen upon start up):

set appName to "IsadoraCore.app"
set startIt to true
delay 20
if startIt then
     tell application appName to activate
end if
delay 30
     tell application "System Events" to keystroke "f" using {command down&shift down}
delay 2
     tell application "System Events" to keystroke "f" using {command down&shift down}

Michel

A small correction with command down & shift down, instead of & put a comma

set appName to "IsadoraCore.app"
set startIt to true
delay 20
if startIt then
	tell application appName to activate
end if
delay 30
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "f" using {command down, shift down}
delay 2
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "f" using {command down, shift down}

mark

Dear @kdobe,

For what it's worth, I want to add that I just tested this with other applications, and this problem is not limited to Isadora. It seems in 10.9 (and I'm assuming 10.10) that after the startup items are opened, the Finder has the focus -- i.e., it's is the frontmost app. (I tried this with QT Player, AppleScript Editor, Safari, etc.)

Since you're not the only who's going to need this fix, I created a knowledge base article with the whole procedure spelled out.

http://troikatronix.com/support/kb/stage-front-login-item/

Note: I'm not sure why you were using two command F's... one command G would do, no? Anyway... that's how my AppleScript works.

Best Wishes,

Mark