Is there any way that I can add automator itself to the list of services I can automate? For example right now I can go and add a launch application action to the workflow and within that action launch automator. Effectively this creates a level of control over automator but only by routing it through the utilities action item. I know that you can add new application action libraries to automator to control any app that releases a library for it. So is there one for automator? Where is it if there is?
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1 Answer
Automator itself does not ship with self referencing Automator actions.
GUI Scripting
Alternative approaches include using GUI Scripting to automate interactions with the Automator application. See Accessibility Preferences and GUI Scripting for an example of how to set this up on recent versions of Mac OS X.
automator Command Line Tool
OS X includes an automator command line tool. You can use this tool to incorporate your Automator workflows into other scripts. Through this tool you can pass in variables and thus manipulate the workflow's behaviour.
Beyond Automator
You may find GUI Scripting and the corresponding What Me Do action fragile or unpredictable. If so, consider tools such as Sikuli to help automate your Mac.
answered Dec 13, 2014 at 14:41
