AutoKey is a
free
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything
* Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism
* Emancipate, to procur ...
,
open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
scripting application for
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
.
AutoKey allows the user to define hotkeys and trigger phrases
which expand to predefined text, automating frequent or repetitive tasks such as correcting typographical errors or common spelling mistakes and inserting boiler plate sections of text.
Hotkeys, and trigger phrases may also be configured to run scripts which use the full power of Python 3 to perform actions which can generate window, keyboard, and mouse event
using the provided AutoKeyAPI
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...
.
Most applications will respond to these events as if the user were actually typing on the keyboard and using the mouse. This allows AutoKey scripts to cause these applications to perform almost any sequence of actions a user could manually make them do - at the press of a single hotkey.
Since AutoKey scripts are written in full Python, they can also interact with the whole system to perform tasks which would be difficult for a user to do manually such as reading and writing files, retrieving system status information, or performing calculations and making decisions.
It also provides simple dialog management tools so scripts can present information and interact with the user.
History
In 2008, Chris Dekter wrote the original version of AutoKey in Python 2 for the Linux operating system.
The last version of the original branch was released on and is deprecated. On
Guocireleased the first Python 3 version.
Phrase expansion was inspired by the commercial Windows software 'PhraseExpress'.
AutoKey is currently available in packaged form for users of Debian, Arch, Gentoo, and Fedora as well as for some of their derivative distributions such as Ubuntu, Mint, and Manjaro.
The software is licensed under GNU General Public License (GPLv3).
See also
*
AutoHotkey (for Windows only)
*
AutoIt (for Windows only)
*
Automator (for Macintosh only)
*
Bookmarklet
*
iMacros for Firefox
*
Xnee
GNU Xnee is a suite of programs that can record, replay and distribute user actions under the X11 environment. It can be used for testing and demonstrating X11 applications.
Within X11 each user input (mouse click or key press) is an X Window Syst ...
, a program that can be used to record and replay test.
SikuliX
References
{{Reflist
External links
Linux Journal Review
Python 3 AutoKey on GitHubAutoKey wiki on GitHubAutoKey current version in .deb packagingAutoKey Support Forum
Automation software
Free system software
Free software programmed in Python