“Watch Me Do” workflow succeeds in Automator but not as app

Question

I have a 1 action automator workflow. This workflow is recorded to produce a "Watch Me Do" action. The action is to click on the "VPN" menu bar item, then select a particular VPN from the menu. This workflow runs fine in automator. When I run it as a standalone app the mouse moves correctly (clicking on the menu, selecting the correct VPN), but I don't actually connect to the VPN. I'm clueless about what's going wrong, so any help at all would be good!

In the console, the only thing I see is:

Oct 19 20:19:18 vonnegut Application Stub[7148]: Can't open input server /Library/InputManagers/MultiClutchInputManager.bundle
Oct 19 20:19:24 vonnegut Automator Launcher[7153]: Can't open input server /Library/InputManagers/MultiClutchInputManager.bundle

I'm running on a MacBookPro5,1 with an apple keyboard and a standard 2-button + wheel mouse attached.

I'm not really sure how to tell whether a connection is attempted. Nothing changes in ppp.log which makes me think nothing gets that far. If I try to connect manually, that's fine.

Answer 1

I've previously discovered when attempting to Applescript an application through UI scripting, that the Applescript command of the mouse didn't quite behave the same as the real mouse. For instance, I would be able to command the change of a dropdown box, but the app wouldn't register the change until a "real" selection by mouse occurred.

It must have been a bug in the design of the app, but it was defunct and I had to find a solution. I ended up using "Extra Suites" by Kanzu, which was able to simulate the equivalent of a "real" mouse click.

Automator uses the same Apple Events as Applescript, and perhaps is falling to the same problem. What VPN client are you using? You might be able to solve the problem by using some Applescript (if the client supports it), or switching to another VPN client.