AppleScript execution depending on system event

Some time ago I had to create a script to execute on startup, do its job and reboot the computer if needed, but how do you prevent going in to rebooting loop? Luckily after a bit of wondering around I managed to find a solution – the system_profiler command! It gives the opportunity to track the hardware state and if there is any change it can be used to trigger a script execution.

I do not know about your experience with Macs and multiple displays, but according to mine it can get messy, especially if you have more then two displays or /god forbid! ;-)/ Apple plus other display manufacturers.

In my case the problem was not having all the displays on after initial boot, the main Philips display comes on, but both Apple Thunderbolt displays did not. After a reboot though everything comes back to normal. The task was to make a script checking the state of the screens and automatically reboot if there is a problem.

So this is the script I have made to solve the problem, you can tweak it the way you want and need /may be if you use it or post it somewhere mentioning me would be nice :-)/:

delay 15

set display to (do shell script “system_profiler SPDisplaysDataType | grep Thunderbolt; echo $?”)

if display = “1” then

    do shell script “open /Path/To/Your/Scripts/Reboot.app”

else

    display notification “No Need to Reboot!”

    delay 5

    quit

end if

Reboot.app is just a script to reboot the computer, you can make your own, use my previous posts or use any other means to achieve the goal.

And finally – if you insist on having your application windows exactly on the screen you want and at the location you want them to be, there is one very good application called Stay, it is not free, but does the job nicely.

Enjoy!

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