Applescript and Radium

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Applescript and Radium

May 12, 2016 Leave a commentDigital home, OS X

The goal

To launch the OS X radio app Radium automatically, including the ability to select AirPlay speakers as necessary.

The problem

Selecting AirPlay speakers is a relatively new ability for iTunes. I wanted to replicate it in my favourite (and one of the only) OS X internet radio apps.

The Applescript

tell application "Radium" to activate
delay 1
tell application "Radium"
	# check station name now. Originally had it at end of script but for some reason that causes script to wait for a mouse click
	if the station name is "talkSPORT" then
		set stationIsTalkSport to true
	else
		set stationIsTalkSport to false
	end if
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Radium"
	# to dismiss the Radium 'screensaver', double keypress in case it is already dismissed
	set frontmost to true
	delay 1
	keystroke space
	delay 1
	keystroke space
	delay 1
	# click the top right button
	click UI element 2 of window 1
	delay 1
	# I have 4 checkboxes here, for 4 AirPlay speakers
	set theCheckboxList to value of checkbox of menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	set theCheckbox to item 1 of theCheckboxList
	if theCheckbox is 0 then
		click checkbox of menu item 1 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	end if
	set theCheckboxList to value of checkbox of menu item 2 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	set theCheckbox to item 1 of theCheckboxList
	if theCheckbox is 0 then
		click checkbox of menu item 2 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	end if
	set theCheckboxList to value of checkbox of menu item 3 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	set theCheckbox to item 1 of theCheckboxList
	if theCheckbox is 0 then
		click checkbox of menu item 3 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	end if
	set theCheckboxList to value of checkbox of menu item 4 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	set theCheckbox to item 1 of theCheckboxList
	if theCheckbox is 1 then
		click checkbox of menu item 4 of menu 1 of menu button 1 of window 1
	end if
	delay 1
	# escape key to dismiss the window for tidiness
	set frontmost to true
	key code 53
end tell
if stationIsTalkSport is false then
	# only open the link if station isn't currently playing
	tell application "System Events" to tell process "Safari"
		# open the Radium link, the activate/delay/activate seeems to be necessary
		activate
		open location "radium://tune-in/?h=&b=talksport&c=1&"
		delay 1
		activate
	end tell
end if
tell application "Radium" to play

Extras

This can be combined with this phenomenal hint to allow you to control Radium using the superb iOS Remote.app. This is especially awesome if you already use Remote.app to control your regular iTunes music, and your favourite radio stations aren’t on iTunes. In my case I did all this specifically to be able to AirPlay TalkSport using the Remote.app. It works incredibly well. The stay-open ‘listener’ app’s response is almost instantaneous when you start playing an item from the ‘Scripts’ playlist.

NB: Since iTunes 11.x the song comment field is limited to 256 characters. You can work around this by using a shorter-than-256-characters script to ‘open’ your main script. My opener script looks like this:

tell application "Finder"
activate
open file "Airplay x3 TalkSport.app" of folder "Automator" of folder "Applications" of startup disk
end tell

I can also use the script with iCal’s ‘open file’ command to schedule TalkSport to turn on at 1pm on Wednesdays and Fridays (1pm is when Hawksbee & Jacobs are on, and I work from home those two days).

Possibly related

Migrating Home Assistant from a Raspberry Pi 3B+ to VirtualBox on OS X
November 25, 2020

Siri unable to connect to HomeKit: “Hmm I don’t see anything connected”
March 13, 2018