Variables in HUD

Bugs or Unexpected Behavior
1

I am unable to show variable values from within a HUD using the {} syntax as indicated in the help text. I tried a few of the ones listed here but none of them seem to work.

I'm trying to create an hourly chime which also shows up as a large HUD so ideally would like to show the date/time in this HUD.

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2

True, that is currently a limitation of the CAG/Advanced Trigger variables. I think I can add a workaround for that. I'll have a look later!

Right now you could make it work by reading the variables via Java Script and then writing them to some "normal" variable before showing the HUD.

3

Thanks for the prompt response!

My goal is to have the current time be shown in a HUD and spoken with one of the default voices. If I were to do it very frequently (say every 5-10 min), which of the scripting actions might be the most performant — shell, AppleScript, or JS?

I am hoping I can just trigger the HUD and the say command directly from the script so the variable workaround won't be necessary.

4

The Real Java Script would be the most performant one. Here is an example:

async function speakTimeAndSaveToVariable() {
    // Get the current time in a common US format (hh:mm AM/PM)
    const now = new Date();
    const hours = now.getHours();
    const minutes = now.getMinutes();
    const ampm = hours >= 12 ? 'PM' : 'AM';
    const formattedHours = hours % 12 || 12; // Convert 24-hour format to 12-hour format
    const formattedMinutes = minutes < 10 ? '0' + minutes : minutes; // Add leading zero if needed
    const theCurrentTime = `${formattedHours}:${formattedMinutes} ${ampm}`;

    // Run the shell script to speak the time
    runShellScript({ script: `say ${theCurrentTime}` });

    // Set the string variable with the current time
    set_string_variable({ variableName: "currentTime", to: theCurrentTime });
}

However I recommend to use this in combination with the show hud action and a variable because it makes formatting easier. This example speaks the time and sets the variable "currentTime". This you can then use in a "show hud" action that follows:

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In case you need to call the HUD from JS as well you can do it like this:

 await trigger_action({json: JSON.stringify({
  BTTPredefinedActionType: 254,
  BTTHUDActionConfiguration: '{\"BTTActionHUDBlur\":true,\"BTTActionHUDBackground\":\"0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000\",\"BTTIconConfigImageHeight\":100,\"BTTActionHUDPosition\":0,\"BTTActionHUDDetail\":\"\",\"BTTActionHUDDuration\":0.89999997615814209,\"BTTActionHUDDisplayToUse\":0,\"BTTIconConfigImageWidth\":100,\"BTTActionHUDSlideDirection\":0,\"BTTActionHUDHideWhenOtherHUDAppears\":false,\"BTTActionHUDWidth\":220,\"BTTActionHUDAttributedTitle\":\"{\\\\rtf1\\\\ansi\\\\ansicpg1252\\\\cocoartf2820\\n\\\\cocoatextscaling0\\\\cocoaplatform0{\\\\fonttbl\\\\f0\\\\fnil\\\\fcharset0 Menlo-Regular;}\\n{\\\\colortbl;\\\\red255\\\\green255\\\\blue255;\\\\red138\\\\green41\\\\blue169;}\\n{\\\\*\\\\expandedcolortbl;;\\\\cssrgb\\\\c61569\\\\c26667\\\\c72157;}\\n\\\\pard\\\\tx560\\\\tx1120\\\\tx1680\\\\tx2240\\\\tx2800\\\\tx3360\\\\tx3920\\\\tx4480\\\\tx5040\\\\tx5600\\\\tx6160\\\\tx6720\\\\pardirnatural\\\\qc\\\\partightenfactor0\\n\\n\\\\f0\\\\fs48 \\\\cf2 \\\\{currentTime\\\\}}\",\"BTTActionHUDBorderWidth\":0,\"BTTActionHUDTitle\":\"\",\"BTTActionHUDHeight\":220}',
}), wait_for_reply: true});
5

The CAG variable issue is now fixed in v4.871 (uploading)

6

Thanks, that's exactly what I imagined. And it works well.

I ended up making one more change and got stuck somehow — to a point where BTT is now constantly crashing.

The CAG variable issue is now fixed in v4.871

I wasn't too sure if you meant the regular variables or the built-in ones too. So I added the {current_hour} to the HUD to test and my repeating time was set to every 5 seconds :rofl: It made BTT crash and it crashes within 5 seconds of a relaunch now. Does BTT have a safe mode?

7

Update: I was able to finally fix it thanks to the sync settings feature! I used another mac to disable it hoping there would be enough time within those 5 seconds for the change to sync through.

And it worked.

8

ah weird, I’ll check what’s wrong with that variable - probably number based variables are causing issues

safe mode can be enabled with this terminal command:

defaults write com.hegenberg.BetterTouchTool BTTSafeModeEnabled YES

1 Like