Customizing the Arc Web Browser Using Workspaces and AppleScript #

I like to tweak my work setup based on the task I'm focused on, so that I have the tools and info I need at my fingertips, while reducing distraction (and potentially freeing up memory to open demanding apps). To do this, I rely on Workspaces, a nifty launcher that opens the apps and Web sites I need for different kinds of works — and closes the things that will distract me (or just take up memory, cough, Docker). I got Workspaces with my Setapp subscription, so you may prefer another tool, but I recommend it if you're looking for something.

I've also recently gotten really into the Arc Web browser, and in particular how its Spaces help me organize my work.^[1] But, I also like the amazing battery life Safari gives me,^[2] plus some of its other clever features that make a difference in home tasks.^[3]

I use Arc for work/projects and Safari for home. I wanted to use Workspaces to automatically switch my default browser and, if I was using Arc, switch to the Space I wanted.

Switching Default Browsers #

My first idea was to try to defaults set something, but it turns out that's not how MacOS stores your Web browser. There is a API to set it, but I'm no ace with Swift^[4] so I didn't want to deal with that.

Turns out you can just brew install defaultbrowser and get a nifty command-line utility that will tell you the browsers you have; and help you switch.

However, MacOS — for good and desirable security reasons! — will pop a dialog asking you if you really want to switch your browser. That's unnecessary, since this is a user-initiated change. So, I reached for AppleScript to auto-press ok in the dialog for me. But I don't write AppleScript all that often,^[5] so of course I had to google button pushing.

That's when I discovered a blog post on how to do exactly this thing. He even ended up with the same toolchain!

The main things I needed that Felix Paradis didn't already give me were:

1. Be able to pass arguments to set both the browser and Space
2. Have Arc set the Space

So I added all that to his code and ended up with this. Let's break it down:

on run argv
	local browser, profile, theBrowser
	set theArgs to argv

	try
		set theBrowser to item 1 of argv
	on error
		display dialog "You must pass a browser"
	end try

	try
		set profile to item 2 of argv
	on error
		set profile to ""
	end try

on run is basically main() for AppleScript. argv passes in arguments.

Oh, but AppleScript throws a fit if you test for an argument that's not there. So, here I wrap the argument-handling in a try...catch to not blow up.

if (theBrowser = "Arc")
	set browser to "browser"
else if (theBrowser = "Safari")
	set browser to "safari"
end if

A lot of Chrome-based browsers report themselves as browser. I haven't checked to see what would happen if I also had Brave around, since that is one of the other browser offenders. Probably something bad, but that's a problem for future me.

AppleScript doesn't really have a Dictionary^[6] or Object or Struct or something like that where you can pass in a string and get back some other value, so we have a bunch of if/else statements. There will be more later, and I'm not sorry.

The bit after this is directly copied from Felix Paradis, and he explains it pretty well, so let's skip on to...

delay 1
try
	if (theBrowser is "Arc")
		if (profile is not "")
			tell application "Arc"
				tell last window
					tell space profile to focus
				end tell
			end tell
		end if
	end if
end try

delay 1 just means "wait for the browser to be launched, please." I tell the last window because, if no window is focused, there's no first window, and Arc will open a new window; I assume here that the user's last window is likely to be the one the user has most recently used, so it's probably the most relevant to them.

I do have to say I really appreciate that Arc's API supports named Spaces without me having to look up some other identifier for the Space. Makes it easy to switch to the space "Writing Code"! Technically this also works if the user passes in the number of the Space, but I'd personally rather use a name than a number.

That's all this is. It's just AppleScript, and, if you're on a Mac, learning a little AppleScript will get you just as far as learning a little bash does if you're a developer in general. It's good for glue.