How can I get the current browser URL with an AutoHotKey script? - browser

Question

I'm looking for a way in AutoHotkey to put the currently visited url in a variable.
The goal of this AHK is to trace what I've been doing during the day to log my hours better. I have another system which I use to clock my work, but sometimes I forget to use it when I get side-tracked.
loop
{
; Get current Window ID & Name
WinGet, active_id, ID, A
WinGet, process_name, ProcessName, A
; Only do anything if any other windows was activated
if(active_id = PrevActiveId)
{
; Do nothing
}
else
{
; Format the time-stamp.
current=%A_DD%/%A_MM%/%A_YYYY%, %A_Hour%:%A_Min%
; Write this data to the log.txt file.
fileappend, %current% - %process_name%`n, log.txt
; Get the URL if process_name = "chrome.exe"
if(process_name = "chrome.exe")
{
; Put URL in log file
; fileappend, %current% - %current_url%`n, log.txt
}
}
PrevActiveId = %active_id%
Sleep, 100
}

Answer 1

All browsers that I've used support Alt+D to focus and select the url. Here are my AHK scripts that duplicates the current tab in Google Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer by pressing Ctrl+Shift+D..
#IfWinActive ahk_class MozillaUIWindowClass ; Mozilla Firefox 3.x
^+d::GenericDuplicateTab() ; (Control+Shift+D)
#IfWinActive
#IfWinActive ahk_class MozillaWindowClass ; Firefox 4, 5, 6, 7, 8+ (?)
^+d::GenericDuplicateTab() ; (Control+Shift+D)
#IfWinActive
#IfWinActive ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1 ; Chromium and Chrome 19+
^+d::GenericDuplicateTab() ; (Control+Shift+D)
#IfWinActive
#IfWinActive ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1 ; Chrome 18 and less
^+d::GenericDuplicateTab() ; (Control+Shift+D)
#IfWinActive
#IfWinActive ahk_class IEFrame
^+d::InternetExplorerDuplicateTab() ; (Control+Shift+D)
#IfWinActive
GenericDuplicateTab()
{
; Wait for both Control and Shift to be released.
KeyWait Control
KeyWait Shift
BackupClipbrd := Clipboard
Sleep 50
Send !d ; Select the url textbox
Sleep 150
Send ^x ; Copy the url
ClipWait 0.1
If ERRORLEVEL
{
Clipboard := BackupClipbrd
Return
}
Send ^t ; Open a new tab
Sleep 50
Send ^v ; Paste the url into the new tab's url textbox
Sleep 50
Send {Enter}
Clipboard := BackupClipbrd
}
InternetExplorerDuplicateTab()
{
; Wait for both Control and Shift to be released.
KeyWait Control
KeyWait Shift
Send ^k ; Call IE's shortcut to duplicate tab (Control+K)
Sleep 100
Send ^{TAB} ; Switch to that tab
}

Answer 2

For Chrome, get the text of the control Chrome_OmniboxView1, which is the omnibox (as for the current version of Chrome, 21.0.1180.83).
This code puts the content of the omnibox into the variable omniboxContents:
ControlGetText omniboxContents, Chrome_OmniboxView1, Chrome
Note that omniboxContents doesn't necessarily contain a correct URL, because "http://" is left out if the URL starts with "http://". So instead of "http://www.google.com" you will get "www.google.com", which strictly speaking isn't a correct URL. This is simply because Chrome shows the address that way in the Omnibox. You will have add extra code to get a correct URL from the contents of the omnibox.

Answer 3

Or you can use F6.
Most of the browsers get to address bar and select entire URL for you when press F6.
Then its just matter of copy-paste.
For newer Firefox versions, its Ctrl+L though.
For this, you can check window title.

Answer 4

A clean way to do this:
GroupAdd, WebBrowsers, ahk_class MozillaWindowClass
GroupAdd, WebBrowsers, ahk_class IEFrame
GroupAdd, WebBrowsers, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_0
GroupAdd, WebBrowsers, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_1
GroupAdd, WebBrowsers, ahk_class OperaWindowClass
GroupAdd, WebBrowsers, ahk_class {1C03B488-D53B-4a81-97F8-754559640193}
; etc.
#IfWinActive, ahk_group WebBrowsers
{
^+d::
; [Instructions...]
return
}#If

Answer 5

It is also possible to do it without relying on the clipboard, by directly inspecting the actual components which make up the browser window. More info: http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/111114-get-the-url-of-the-current-active-browser-tab/. This method much more effective, but relies on using OS APIs.

Answer 6

You can use the Alt+D shortcut to activate address bar and then copy the url using Ctrl+C shortcut
F1::
{
Send, !d
Sleep 50
Send, ^c
Sleep 50
Return
}