Applescript - Bring a specific chromium tab to front or open it in a given profile

chromium_focus_tab_or_open_in_profile.scpt

###################################################
#                                                                                                                  
# Version: 2024-08
#                                                                                                                  
# This script will search all open Browser Windows for a specified Tab (by Title).  
# At some point, this worked for Google Chrome and Brave Browser.                  
# Other chromium based browsers should work, but have not been tested.
#																       
# If no tab with the given title is found, it will open the specified URL in the		
# specified Profile.	 If multiple tabs with the specified title exist, the first one 	
# found will be opened.	
# 
# Chromium's applescript APIs does not offer support for changing the browser profile, so we need to emulate clicks on the relevant elements.
# Due to this, the application that is going to run the script (a hotkey application (BetterTouchTool, KeyboardMaestro), or e.g   	
# Terminal) will have to be granted Accessibility Access (System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility)
# 																	
# 																	
# Params:															
#		browser: the name of the app ("Google Chrome", "Brave Browser", ...)	
#		profileName: the exact name of the profile to be matched			
#		targetTabTitle:  exact or partial tab title, as specified in the <title> tag		
#		targetUrl:	   the url to open, including http(s)://					
# 																	
# osascript ~/path/to/scriptname.scpt "Brave Browser" "My Profile Name" "Exact or partial <title> of the tab" "https://URLToOpenIfTabtIsNotFound.tld"
###################################################

property DEBUG : false #whether to log to /tmp/${scriptname}.log and use default args if none provided
property NOTIFICATIONS : true #whether to show notifications
property TARGET_BROWSER : "Brave Browser" #default, required here for TELL's to work. will be overwritten with provided argument. 

on run argv
	if (count of argv) = 4 then
		set TARGET_BROWSER to item 1 of argv
		set profileName to item 2 of argv
		set targetTabTitle to item 3 of argv
		set targetUrl to item 4 of argv
	else
		if DEBUG is true then
			set TARGET_BROWSER to "Brave Browser"
			set profileName to "Privat"
			set targetTabTitle to "Example Domain - https://example.org/"
			set targetUrl to "https://example.org/"
		else
			errExit("Use 4 arguments: <browser>, <profileName>, <targetTabTitle>, <targetUrl>")
		end if
		
	end if
	
	mylog("New run. Target Browser: " & TARGET_BROWSER)
	
	
	if browser_try_focus_tab(targetTabTitle) is false then # targetTabTitle is not yet open, lets open targetUrl it in the specified profile
		#chromium browsers dont support changing profile via applescript api, hence the accessibility requirement of the script to do this
		tell application "System Events" to tell process TARGET_BROWSER
			set frontmost to true
		end tell
		try
			set names to {"People", "Profiles"} #2021 - Brave (still) uses People, Chrome renamed it to Profiles, lets try both
			set click_profile_selection_success to false
			repeat with targetMenubarItemName in names
				if click_profile_selection_success = false then
					try
						#chromium doesnt support changing profile via applescript api, hence the accessibility requirement
						tell application "System Events" to tell process TARGET_BROWSER
							click menu item profileName of menu 1 of menu bar item targetMenubarItemName of menu bar 1
						end tell
						click_profile_selection_success = true
						exit repeat
					on error
						mylog(TARGET_BROWSER & " has no menu named: " & targetMenubarItemName)
					end try
				end if
			end repeat
			if click_profile_selection_success = false then
				mylog("cannot open profile selection: " & targetMenubarItemName & "(probably your browser uses a different name)")
			end if
		on error errStr
			errExit("error opening profile: " & profileName & " err:" & errStr)
		end try
		
		wait_for_browser_window()
		
		#check again
		if browser_try_focus_tab(targetTabTitle) is false then
			showNotif given msg:"Opening new tab"
			tell application TARGET_BROWSER
				open location targetUrl
			end tell
		else
			showNotif given msg:"Existing tab found in profile " & profileName
		end if
	else
		showNotif given msg:"Existing tab found in current window"
	end if
end run

on browser_try_focus_tab(targetTabTitle)
	using terms from application "Brave Browser" # Unfortunately, the "base" application name needs to be hardcoded here.
		tell application TARGET_BROWSER
			activate
			repeat with currentWindow in windows # currentWindow is of class "cwin" useful attributes: "title", "index", "document" (probably could do funny stuff with this one to match page content?)
				my mylog("checking tabs of window" & (index of currentWindow))
				
				set tabIndex to 0
				repeat with currentTab in (every tab of currentWindow)
					set tabIndex to tabIndex + 1
					if title of currentTab contains targetTabTitle then
						my mylog("found relevant tab")
						set (active tab index of currentWindow) to tabIndex #have to set that tab to be the active tab _first_
						#https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10366003/applescript-google-chrome-activate-a-certain-window/34375804#34375804
						set index of currentWindow to 1
						delay 0.01
						do shell script "open -a " & (quoted form of TARGET_BROWSER) #focusing the browser now will show our tab
						return true
					end if
				end repeat
			end repeat
		end tell
	end using terms from
	return false
end browser_try_focus_tab

on showNotif given title:nTitle : "", subtitle:nSubtitle : "", msg:nMsg : "", sound:nSound : "Frog"
	if NOTIFICATIONS is true then
		set myFilePath to POSIX path of (path to me)
		set myFileName to do shell script "basename " & quoted form of myFilePath
		if nTitle is "" then
			set nTitle to myFileName
		end if
		display notification nMsg with title nTitle subtitle nSubtitle sound name nSound
	end if
end showNotif

on mylog(myObj)
	if DEBUG is true then
		set myFilePath to POSIX path of (path to me)
		set myFileName to do shell script "basename " & quoted form of myFilePath
		do shell script "echo " & myFilePath & " `date '+%F %T'`: " & quoted form of (myObj as string) & " >> /tmp/" & myFileName & ".log"
	end if
end mylog

on errExit(message)
	showNotif given title:"Error", msg:message
	if DEBUG is true then
		my mylog("Error: " & message)
	end if
	error message #exit
end errExit

#instead of fixed delay, busy wait until profile window is open.
#based on https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/343624/applescript-wait-for-safari-page-to-fully-load/343633
on wait_for_browser_window()
	using terms from application "Brave Browser" # Unfortunately, the "base" application name needs to be hardcoded here.
		tell application TARGET_BROWSER
			delay 1
			repeat until (loading of front window's tab 2 is false)
				delay 0.2
			end repeat
			loading of front window's tab 2
		end tell
	end using terms from
end wait_for_browser_window

If you have more than one of the specified window already open then the script will work but will also throw an error.
You can overcome this by placing the repeat section within a "try / end try" statement to catch the error.
If the title of your tab changes with context (e.g. date or email address) such as with google calendar or google mail then you can change
if title of currentTab is myTitle then
to
if title of currentTab contains myTitle then

and the variable myTitle can be just a section of the name like "Calendar" or your email address.

If you aren't passing a variable to the script then change these to something like (in the case of Gmail):

	set myProfile to "profile name as displayed in the menu bar"
	set myTitle to "[email protected]"
	set myUrl to "https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox"

I also found that I needed to change the command to open the profiles to:

click menu item myProfile of menu 1 of menu bar item "Profiles" of menu bar 1

The "People" menu bar item is now "Profiles"

The "People" menu bar item is now "Profiles"

I also found that I needed to change the command to open the profiles to:

@tomwolber / @oliv-j Indeed. I've been using this script with Brave for a while, which still calls that menu "People".
I just updated the script to a new version that works on (probably) any chromium browser, targeting both the "Profiles" and "People" menu.

if title of currentTab contains myTitle then

@oliv-j Great idea! Added it to the new version. (Might cause conflicts if your targetTabTitle isnt unique though)

I'm currently not actively using this script, so if you find something to not be working, do let me know!

If you're not using Brave, you'll probably have to replace all instances of "Brave Browser" in the script with your flavour of chromium (e.g. "Google Chrome",..)