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UI Browser
The ultimate assistant for GUI Scripting and Accessibility
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UI Browser is the ultimate assistant for Apple's AppleScript GUI Scripting and Accessibility technologies. It helps you to explore, manipulate, and monitor the User Interface elements of most Mac OS X applications running on your computer.
Choose an application in UI Browser's Target menu to browse its UI elements, or use the built-in Screen Reader or press a hot key to read any application's UI elements on the screen under the mouse. Then use UI Browser to perform actions on the selected UI element, get and set its attributes, send keystrokes to the target application, and observe notifications when any of the target's UI elements change. Use UI Browser to test the target while you write GUI Scripting scripts or while you add accessibility features to applications you are developing, and you can be confident they will work as expected.
UI Browser is an indispensable tool for scripters who use Apple's AppleScript GUI Scripting technology. With GUI Scripting, you can automate an application by scripting its user interface even if it does not support AppleScript. GUI Scripting opens up whole new worlds for script writers, much as PreFab Player did for the classic Mac OS. But there's a catch: it's very difficult to figure out how to specify the UI elements you want to control with your scripts. UI Browser solves this problem. UI Browser understands the arrangement of an application's UI elements, and it knows their names and AppleScript index numbers. It helps you navigate the user interface hierarchy of a target application and enables you to generate useful AppleScript statements with a single click.
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UI Browser takes full advantage of the many GUI Scripting and Accessibility features built into Mac OS X. You can write and distribute scripts that will run "out of the box" on all Macintosh computers back to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther!
UI Browser 2.1.1 is a Universal Binary with minor improvements.
UI Browser may be purchased for $55.00 US.
NOW AVAILABLE: UI Browser 2.1.1, released September 2010.
WORKS WITH MAC OS X 10.7 LION
Read all about UI Browser on our website:
- Features
- Screenshots—and VIDEOS NEW!
- Comparison of UI Browser to Apple's free UIElementInspector (sometimes known as Accessibility Inspector)
- Press - Minor improvements in version 2.1.1 on September 15, 2010
- Support - including general GUI Scripting tips
And in these articles:
- PreFab UI Browser 2.0 Better Than Ever, an article by Matt Neuburg in TidBITS #861, January 8, 2007
- AppleScript Essentials - User Interface Scripting, an article by Ben Waldie in MacTech, June 2005 (great background on GUI Scripting; mentions UI Browser)
- Scripting the Unscriptable, an article by Matt Neuburg in TidBITS #670, March 10, 2003 (great background on GUI Scripting and the Accessibility API; mentions UI Browser)
- UI Browser preview & MacOS X GUI Scripting, a pre-release review at MacScripter.net (the current release of UI Browser includes many features that were not in the version they reviewed)
And in these books covering AppleScript:
- Hamish Sanderson and Hanaan Rosenthal, Learn AppleScript: The Comprehensive Guide to Scripting and Automation on Mac OS X, Third Edition (APress 2010)
- Mark Conway Munro, AppleScript Developer Reference (Wiley Publishing 2010)
- Sal Soghoian and Bill Cheeseman, Apple Training Series: AppleScript 1-2-3 (Peachpit Press, 2009)
- Matt Neuburg, AppleScript: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition (O'Reilly & Associates 2006)
- Adam Goldstein, AppleScript: The Missing Manual (O'Reilly & Associates 2005)
- Rael Dornfest and James Duncan Davidson, Mac OS X Panther Hacks (O'Reilly & Associates 2004)
- Tom Trinko, AppleScript for Dummies (2nd ed., Wiley-VCH 2004)
- Jesse Feiler, Sams Teach Yourself AppleScript in 24 Hours (Sams Publishing 2003)
UI Browser is also covered during the Applescript Pro Sessions by Scripting Events, LLC.
Developers: License the PFiddlesoft Frameworks. UI Browser installs the PFAssistive and PFEventTaps Frameworks as shared frameworks in Library/Frameworks. The PFiddlesoft Frameworks are Universal Binaries and support 32-bit and 64-bit architectures using reference counted memory management. Licenses are free for personal use and for distribution or use with any product you distribute without charge. A flat one-time license fee of $250 US is required for distribution or use of each framework with a product for which you request or require payment. Source code is available for a separate fee. Different terms apply to large or established commercial software developers. For more information, and to download the PFiddlesoft Frameworks and their documentation and licenses, go to the PFiddlesoft Frameworks page.
This page was first published by PFiddlesoft on May 25, 2010. Last updated July 23, 2011.
Copyright © 2003-2011 Bill Cheeseman. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.
PFiddlesoft, PFiddle Software, pfiddle, pfiddles, the PFiddlesoft logo, Applidude, Waccy Accy, and Pointer Noodge are trademarks of PreForm Assistive Technologies, LLC.
Downloads
Download UI Browser 2.1.1, released September 2010 with minor improvements. It runs as a fully functional free trial version for 30 days after you first use it unless you already have a valid registration key.
This version of UI Browser runs on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or newer. See the Requirements section below for details.
Obtain a registration key from eSellerate to unlock the trial version. Either choose UI Browser > Registration > Obtain Key Online in the trial version of UI Browser while connected to the Internet, or go to our Online Store. UI Browser is $55.00 US.
eSellerate is a software commerce provider specializing in the sale and delivery of digital goods. Purchasing online through the eSellerate system is fast, easy, and secure.
Updates for current customers: This version runs as a free update if you purchased UI Browser on or after January 1, 2006. There is a $10 update fee if you purchased UI Browser before January 1, 2006 and have not since updated.
A free update from version 1.x requires you to obtain a new registration key. UI Browser will work for 30 days as a fully featured trial version until you obtain your new key as described above. NOTE: This does not apply if you already purchased a key for version 2.x.
Users of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: UI Browser 2.1.1 does not run under versions of Mac OS X older than Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. If you need to run UI Browser under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, download UI Browser 2.0.5, released July 2007.
Users of Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar and 10.3 Panther: If you need to run UI Browser under a pre-Tiger version of Mac OS X, download UI Browser 1.4.1, released May 2005. Note that GUI Scripting no longer works in Jaguar unless you still have the beta version of the System Events application for Jaguar.
Requirements
UI Browser 2.1.1 requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or newer. At this writing, version 2.1.1 has been tested successfully through Mac OS X 10.7.0 Lion. It recognizes all of the new Accessibility constants Apple added in Lion, but they will appear with their technical names until we release an upgrade to give them plain English names.
Older versions of UI Browser run on older versions of Mac OS X. UI Browser 2.0.5 runs under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and UI Browser 1.4.1 runs under Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, but with some limitations.
Apple's GUI Scripting technology was officially introduced in Panther as a standard feature of Mac OS X. Scripts written using the GUI Scripting technology run on all computers equipped with Panther or newer, but some GUI Scripting features require newer versions of Mac OS X. (Apple successfully concluded the GUI Scripting public beta test on Jaguar, and the beta version of the underlying GUI Scripting software for Jaguar is no longer available.)
For a whole new way to run AppleScript scripts, get UI Actions for "universal attachability."
To explore what your applications can do with Quartz Event Taps, get the free developer utility Event Taps Testbench.
To write your own assistive applications, license the PFiddlesoft Frameworks.