Shell Script Widget disappears until BTT restarted

BobStern · March 7, 2020, 8:03am

I have a Touch Bar shell script widget that I am not actually using to run a shell script. Instead, I use it:
• To display text received by BTT's web server (sent by a local app).
• As a button to trigger a Post Distributed Notification action.

BUG: After several minutes, the widget stops working until I choose "restart BTT" in the BTT menulet. When it stops working, its space on the touch bar becomes blank and the button trigger stops working.

Andreas_Hegenberg · March 7, 2020, 8:34am

my shell script seem to work fine here, could you post the full setup of yours? Which version of BTT are you running?

BobStern · March 7, 2020, 10:22am

Thanks, Andreas.

Version 3.346

I hope the following tells you enough about the configuration of the widget:

[
{
"BTTWidgetName" : "No Name",
"BTTTriggerType" : 642,
"BTTTriggerTypeDescription" : "Shell Script / Task Widget",
"BTTTriggerClass" : "BTTTriggerTypeTouchBar",
"BTTPredefinedActionType" : 136,
"BTTPredefinedActionName" : "Post Distributed Notification with Name",
"BTTPostDistributedNotificationName" : "bob.bttWidget.Pause",
"BTTShellScriptWidgetGestureConfig" : "/bin/bash:::-c:::-:::",
"BTTEnabled2" : 1,
"BTTAlternateModifierKeys" : -1,
"BTTRepeatDelay" : 0,
"BTTUUID" : "omitted for security",
"BTTNotesInsteadOfDescription" : 0,
"BTTEnabled" : 1,
"BTTModifierMode" : 3,
"BTTOrder" : 0,
"BTTDisplayOrder" : 0,
"BTTMergeIntoTouchBarGroups" : 0,
"BTTTriggerConfig" : {
"BTTTouchBarButtonCornerRadius" : 0,
"BTTTouchBarItemPadding" : 0,
"BTTTouchBarButtonColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
"BTTTouchBarItemPlacement" : 2,
"BTTTouchBarAppleScriptStringRunOnInit" : true,
"BTTTouchBarAlwaysShowButton" : false,
"BTTScriptType" : 0,
"BTTTouchBarScriptUpdateInterval" : 0,
"BTTTouchBarButtonWidth" : 295,
"BTTTouchBarItemIconHeight" : 22,
"BTTTouchBarButtonTextAlignment" : 2,
"BTTTouchBarButtonUseFixedWidth" : 1,
"BTTTouchBarAlternateBackgroundColor" : "75.323769, 75.323769, 75.323769, 255.000000",
"BTTTouchBarAppleScriptUsePath" : 0,
"BTTTBWidgetWidth" : 400,
"BTTTouchBarItemIconWidth" : 22,
"BTTTouchBarShellScriptString" : "",
"BTTTouchBarButtonFontSize" : 19,
"BTTTouchBarIconTextOffset" : 5,
"BTTTouchBarButtonName" : "No Name",
"BTTTouchBarOnlyShowIcon" : false,
"BTTTouchBarFreeSpaceAfterButton" : 2,
"BTTTouchBarAppleScriptString" : "",
"BTTHUDText" : "Pause",
"BTTShowHUD" : 1
}
}
]

Andreas_Hegenberg · March 7, 2020, 11:09am

Wait, how is this displaying text received by the webserver?

I think the problem is that the script is empty, therefore implicitly returns an empty string, which tells BTT to hide the script. The "Always run when becoming visible" can cause the empty script to run, therefore hide the widget.

BobStern · March 7, 2020, 12:02pm

Curiously, it does work for a while!

I'm attempting to implement the update_touch_bar_widget command you describe on these 2 pages:

github.com

folivoraAI/BetterTouchTool/blob/master/BetterTouchToolDocs/docs/1104_webserver.md

# Integrated Webserver

BetterTouchTool has a basic integrated Webserver. It is **disabled** by default and can be activated in the advanced preferences.

![webserver](media/new/webserver.jpg)

The integrated webserver can be used for a few very interesting usecases:

* To easily trigger BetterTouchTool actions from websites (e.g. when building a custom "Dashboard" thingy)
* Controlling your computer from tablet's or smartphone's via custom dashboards. This allows you to use BetterTouchTool actions from devices that don't support BTT Remote (Android, Windows Phone etc.)


# Basic settings
The webserver settings are all located in the advanced preferences. There are not many settings.

* You can choose a port (on first start it will automatically assign some random port if you don't enter any) 
* You can set a shared secret (which you should if you make it available in your network). This shared secret must then be included in all urls to the server (e.g. https://127.0.0.1:12345/?shared_secret=v3rY_$ecre7)
* You can choose on which interface the server should listen. The default is 127.0.0.1 (which means only applications on your computer can access it). If you want to make it available in your network, you need to enter your computers local IP (can be found in System Preferences => Network.)
* You can enable HTTPS. This will use the BetterTouchToolRemote_New certificate in your keychain. You need to make this a trusted certificate, otherwise your browsers will complain (on macOS you can do it by going to your keychain, right-clicking it => get info => trust => always trust)

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github.com

folivoraAI/BetterTouchTool/blob/master/BetterTouchToolDocs/docs/1103_custom_url_scheme.md

# Scripting BetterTouchTool using the custom URL Scheme

This is a very recent feature which is only available in **versions greater than 2.430**. 

BetterTouchTool allows to be control via a custom url scheme (btt://).
On this page I'm briefly describing the various functions you can trigger via this URL scheme.

The available scripting interfaces are:
* trigger_named
* trigger_named_async_without_response
* update_touch_bar_widget
* trigger_action
* execute_assigned_actions_for_trigger
* refresh_widget
* update_trigger
* add_new_trigger 
* delete_trigger
* set_persistent_string_variable
* set_string_variable
* set_persistent_number_variable

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Instead of the shell script widget, is there a different touch bar widget that has no associated script but which can display the text received in a update_touch_bar_widget command?

Although I suspect it is irrelevant, the Swift code I use to send the update_touch_bar_widget http command is:

let bttURL = URL(string: "https://127.0.0.1:portnumber/update_touch_bar_widget/?uuid=someCharacters&text=\(someText)")

let request = URLRequest(url: bttURL)
NSURLConnection.sendAsynchronousRequest(request, queue: bttOperationQueue, completionHandler: {,,_ in })

Andreas_Hegenberg · March 7, 2020, 12:22pm

You can use a normal Touch Bar button and update it using the "update_trigger" function. E.g. to change the text it would look like this:

tell application "BetterTouchTool"

update_trigger "2F34005D-4537-464D-94E9-A7F42DA39DF1" json "{\"BTTTouchBarButtonName\" : \"New Name\"}"

end tell

or via the webserver:

"http://127.0.0.1:12345/update_trigger/?uuid=0E2F7963-E64C-403A-8591-C3725D4D9ADC&json={\"BTTTouchBarButtonName\" : \"New Name2\"}"

If you are using swift anyways you could also write a custom BTT Touch Bar plugin (but depends on your use case) https://github.com/folivoraAI/BetterTouchToolPlugins

BobStern · March 7, 2020, 1:39pm

Updating a normal touch bar button using the webserver method worked perfectly.

Thanks, Andreas. Your customer support is exceptional!