In this AutoHotkey Tutorial for Beginners I walk you through what you need to get started and help you write your first AutoHotkey script. Below are some convenient links to the tools you’ll want starting out with AutoHotkey.
AutoHotkey Tutorial for Beginners: What you’ll learn
Step #1: Which version of AutoHotkey to use @ 3:15 Step #2: Which editor to use with AutoHotkey @4:36 Step #3: Trigger Commands, Programs / Scripts / Websites by hitting key-combinations (Hotkeys)@11:07 Step #4: Type a few letters and have them replaced with the long strings of text (Hotstrings)@26:29 Step #5: Use a spell checker that will run on every Windows program @34:49 Step #6: Remap keys /key combinations @43:29 Step #7: Send a Mouse Click to specified coordinates @47:12 Step #8: Compile a script so you can give it to someone else to run on their computer @53:09 Step #9: Information & Resources where to go when you need help @54:52Continue reading
Here we continue with GeekDude working with Chrome and AutoHotkey extracting data from a webpage. This session we focus on getting lists and leverage JSON, Chrome.Jxon_Dump, JSON.stringify, Chrome.Jxon_Load and jQuery.
The great news is that GeekDude explained how we can see the Reddit site the way it was the below video!
AutoHotkey script for Automating Chrome to Set Text & Click a button
#Include ;Remember to put Chrome in your library folder
#SingleInstance,Force
;**************************************
page:=Chrome.GetPageByTitle("AutoHotkey Community","contains") ;This will connect to the second index of a specific tab
If !IsObject(page){
MsgBox % "That wasn' t object / the page wasn't found"
ExitApp
}
page.Evaluate("document.querySelector('#keywords').value ='Chrome.ahk'")
Variable =document.querySelector('#keywords').value ='Chrome.ahk'
page.Evaluate(Variable)
var:="duh"
page.Evaluate("document.querySelector('#keywords').value ='" var "'")
page.Evaluate("document.querySelector('#search > fieldset > button').value ='Chrome.ahk'")
Notes for Automating Chrome to Set Text & Click a button
00:36 Go to AutoHotkey.com/boards/
00:44 Connect to tab using Chrome.GetPageByTitle(“AutoHotkey Community”) ;the default matchtype is “starts with”
01:23 Look at page structure using right-click and Inspect. This opends Devtools with that element selected.
01:46 It has an ID of “keywords”, copy js path. Which will give you queryselector(“#keywords”)
02:26 Use the .value to set some text in that box.
04:01 Make sure inside the JavaScript you use the “=”, not “:=”
04:15 Some people don’t want to have to learn JavaScript. When using Chrome, you’re going to have to learn JavaScript.
04:56 When using Chrome.ahk, we’re injecting JavaScript. So best to learn
05:54 The button is right next to the input. You can go back to the page and right-click the button, then hit Inspect
06:13 Test the new js path. Instead of using .value, use .click
06:42 Test in Chrome developer tool
07:18 When running an Evaluate method, it waits for the previous Evaluate to finish (so no need to sleep between them).
07:44 If you run into a problem where you think it is happening too quickly, check the forum for some solutions
08:40 Sometimes what you want to input won’t always be a static string. If you’re trying to reference a variable, you need to use the expression syntax. In an expression, you’re not just assigning text, you’re doing math or making function calls.
page.Evaluate(“document.querySelector(‘#keywords’).value ='” var “‘”) “‘”)
10:48 This works because AutoHotkey splits everything up on a given line. First is a name of a function, then says this is inside the function, then this is text inside a function. Then builds from left to right as to the string that will be used.
12:15 AutoHotkey proceeds left to right when evaluating an expression
12:40 when you use := you’re in expression assignment mode.
13:25 With just single = you’re in plain-text mode. It reads it as text
15:00 When automating a site, you don’t know what kind of buffer’s they have to prevent scraping / botting.
15:49 When you start automating, you might start seeing Captcha’s everywhere
16:04 Sites get really good at looking like a normal site to a user, but looking like an impenetrable fortress to code
16:36 If your variable contains a single quote or other special charachters, JavaScript will interpret it as code instead of text.
Not mentioned in Video but GeekDude wrote me after
You can escape JavaScript code using Coco’s JSON library does actually do that escaping that we discussed when talking about putting data on the page. The syntax for invoking it looks like this:
This video covers how to Freeze panes in Excel, Toggle screen updating (which can drastically speed-up your script) and inject a file name int the MRU (Most Recently Used) list of files.
This video walks through how to use the below AutoHotkey functions. Be sure you check out how to get a handle to Excel which is covered in this video.
Freeze panes in Excel, Toggle screen updates & insert file into MRU
AutoHotkey code for Excel demonstrated in Video
Use the following for a webpage post:
Here we continue with GeekDude working with Chrome and AutoHotkey extracting data from a webpage. This session we focus on getting lists and leverage JSON, Chrome.Jxon_Dump, JSON.stringify, Chrome.Jxon_Load and jQuery.
automate setting text in a search field and then hitting the button to submit the search.
