Nice. I was using the javascript solution before, but I like this one better.

I also added the following in the conditional:
or (name of static text 1 of group 1 of window 1 as text) begins with "Waiting"

[ Reply to This | # ]

Thanks! I didn't realize that sometimes the page says "waiting"

Also, I should have mentioned that the "repeat" loop can be nested within the "tell safari" statement. It would probably use less resources to have it that way, although it probably doesn't matter that much.

[ Reply to This | # ]

I believe I've noticed that, on some pages that have dynamic content, Safari and other browsers never really "finish" loading the page. Those might cause a problem for this type of script.

I've done a lot of work scripting web browsers since 2000 (including scripting IE back in OS 9 when IE was the only browser that you could use AppleScript to send Do Javascript commands . . . blech!). Later on, I graduated to URL Access Scripting Addition. In Mac OS X, URL Access Scripting had features that were completely broken (could not POST forms, for example, even though the commands were there). Switched to cURL, which was so much better.

All that said, if you're trying to script something where you want the user to see what you're doing and perhaps also interact with, scripting a web browser is all you can do. I suppose you could add something that, if it is still checking the status message after a cut-off time, checks the source for "</HTML>" or "</html>" to see if the page's content is all there (in theory). Perhaps even check for that first. It seems to get an error if you ask for source of a not-yet-loaded page - maybe that's something to try.

---
http://www.danshockley.com

[ Reply to This | # ]

I need this same script for Firefox. Can anybody help?

[ Reply to This | # ]

curses! Safari 4 breaks this technique; it no longer sets the title differently as it loads.

I've scanned the dictionary from here to Sunday, and I can't find a reliable completion parameter... anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

[ Reply to This | # ]

I adjusted the original poster's technique by simply checking for a closing html tag... not exactly bullet proof, but for now this will keep my various browser-based scripts working.

I encourage others out there to come up with a more reliable method than my little hack here.

thanks folks.

-----------

SafariLoad("http://www.macintouch.com/";)

on SafariLoad(theURL)

-- this routine attempts to load a Safari page to completion, and returns the final title
local theVersion, thedocument, thewindow, theSource, thetab, theTitle

-- check to see if we should open a new URL or just wait for the existing window to load
tell application "Safari"
set theVersion to version
set theVersion to (character 1 of theVersion) as number

if theURL ≠ "" then
set thedocument to (make new document) as reference
set URL of thedocument to theURL
end if

--check to see if page has finished loading
repeat
-- let the script breathe for a second
delay 1.0

-- Safari version 3 and version 4 have different techniques for determining load completion
if theVersion = 3 then
if (name of thedocument as text) ¬
begins with "Contacting" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Loading" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Waiting" then
else
exit repeat
end if
end if

-- Safari version 4 no longer updates the page title based on progress
-- this cheap and dirty technique below *requires* that the target URL contains a closing HTML tag
-- this is highly unreliable for accessing pages that you do not control
-- however, this completion check is technically accurate from an HTML standpoint, even if not from that of HTTP
if theVersion = 4 then
set thewindow to front window
set thetab to current tab of thewindow
set theSource to source of thetab
-- if the page has not started loading, safari will error out when accessing the page source
-- allow for that error and simply retry
try
if (theSource contains "</html>") then
exit repeat
end if
end try
end if

end repeat

end tell

copy (name of document 1) to theTitle
return theTitle

end SafariLoad


[ Reply to This | # ]

I adjusted the original poster's technique by simply checking for a closing html tag... not exactly bullet proof, but for now this will keep my various browser-based scripts working.

I encourage others out there to come up with a more reliable method than my little hack here.

thanks folks.

-----------

SafariLoad("http://www.macintouch.com/";)

on SafariLoad(theURL)

-- this routine attempts to load a Safari page to completion, and returns the final title
local theVersion, thedocument, thewindow, theSource, thetab, theTitle

-- check to see if we should open a new URL or just wait for the existing window to load
tell application "Safari"
set theVersion to version
set theVersion to (character 1 of theVersion) as number

if theURL ≠ "" then
set thedocument to (make new document) as reference
set URL of thedocument to theURL
end if

--check to see if page has finished loading
repeat
-- let the script breathe for a second
delay 1.0

-- Safari version 3 and version 4 have different techniques for determining load completion
if theVersion = 3 then
if (name of thedocument as text) ¬
begins with "Contacting" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Loading" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Waiting" then
else
exit repeat
end if
end if

-- Safari version 4 no longer updates the page title based on progress
-- this cheap and dirty technique below *requires* that the target URL contains a closing HTML tag
-- this is highly unreliable for accessing pages that you do not control
-- however, this completion check is technically accurate from an HTML standpoint, even if not from that of HTTP
if theVersion = 4 then
set thewindow to front window
set thetab to current tab of thewindow
set theSource to source of thetab
-- if the page has not started loading, safari will error out when accessing the page source
-- allow for that error and simply retry
try
if (theSource contains "</html>") then
exit repeat
end if
end try
end if

end repeat

end tell

copy (name of document 1) to theTitle
return theTitle

end SafariLoad


[ Reply to This | # ]

I adjusted the original poster's technique by simply checking for a closing html tag... not exactly bullet proof, but for now this will keep my various browser-based scripts working.

I encourage others out there to come up with a more reliable method than my little hack here.

thanks folks.

-----------

SafariLoad("http://www.macintouch.com/";)

on SafariLoad(theURL)

-- this routine attempts to load a Safari page to completion, and returns the final title
local theVersion, thedocument, thewindow, theSource, thetab, theTitle

-- check to see if we should open a new URL or just wait for the existing window to load
tell application "Safari"
set theVersion to version
set theVersion to (character 1 of theVersion) as number

if theURL ≠ "" then
set thedocument to (make new document) as reference
set URL of thedocument to theURL
end if

--check to see if page has finished loading
repeat
-- let the script breathe for a second
delay 1.0

-- Safari version 3 and version 4 have different techniques for determining load completion
if theVersion = 3 then
if (name of thedocument as text) ¬
begins with "Contacting" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Loading" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Waiting" then
else
exit repeat
end if
end if

-- Safari version 4 no longer updates the page title based on progress
-- this cheap and dirty technique below *requires* that the target URL contains a closing HTML tag
-- this is highly unreliable for accessing pages that you do not control
-- however, this completion check is technically accurate from an HTML standpoint, even if not from that of HTTP
if theVersion = 4 then
set thewindow to front window
set thetab to current tab of thewindow
set theSource to source of thetab
-- if the page has not started loading, safari will error out when accessing the page source
-- allow for that error and simply retry
try
if (theSource contains "</html>") then
exit repeat
end if
end try
end if

end repeat

end tell

copy (name of document 1) to theTitle
return theTitle

end SafariLoad


[ Reply to This | # ]

Hey this looks exactly what I need but in trying to implement it I get an error because of these weird characters:

if theURL ≠"" then

What in the world should they be?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Oh apparently those characters should be 'is' and there's also a ; which shouldn't be there.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Ah but this still doesn't work;

SafariLoad("http://www.macintouch.com/")

on SafariLoad(theURL)

-- this routine attempts to load a Safari page to completion, and returns the final title
local theVersion, thedocument, thewindow, theSource, thetab, theTitle

-- check to see if we should open a new URL or just wait for the existing window to load
tell application "Safari"
set theVersion to version
set theVersion to (character 1 of theVersion) as number

if theURL is "" then
set thedocument to (make new document) as reference
set URL of thedocument to theURL
end if

--check to see if page has finished loading
repeat
-- let the script breathe for a second
delay 1.0

-- Safari version 3 and version 4 have different techniques for determining load completion
if theVersion = 3 then
if (name of thedocument as text) ¬
begins with "Contacting" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Loading" or (name of thedocument as text) begins with "Waiting" then
else
exit repeat
end if
end if

-- Safari version 4 no longer updates the page title based on progress
-- this cheap and dirty technique below *requires* that the target URL contains a closing HTML tag
-- this is highly unreliable for accessing pages that you do not control
-- however, this completion check is technically accurate from an HTML standpoint, even if not from that of HTTP
if theVersion = 4 then
set thewindow to front window
set thetab to current tab of thewindow
set theSource to source of thetab
-- if the page has not started loading, safari will error out when accessing the page source
-- allow for that error and simply retry
try
if (theSource contains "</html>") then
exit repeat
end if
end try
end if

end repeat

end tell

copy (name of document 1) to theTitle
return theTitle

end SafariLoad

(Sorry about comment overload today!)

[ Reply to This | # ]