Steps, Script and AutoHotkey

What an action does can be written three ways. Written as, on the What it does card of the Actions page, chooses which one runs.

What it does

Written as

1StepsScriptAutoHotkey

Each mode keeps its own content. Only the selected one runs.

Mode	What it is	Choose it when
Steps	A list of steps you pick and fill in, one row each. No code to type.	You want to build the action without writing code. Most actions fit: send keys, type text, move or close windows, wait, ask a question.
Script	Input.Observer's own script language, typed in a code editor.	You need arithmetic, building text from pieces, loops that count with a variable, or anything Steps can't express.
AutoHotkey	An AutoHotkey v2 script, run by AutoHotkey itself.	You already have AutoHotkey code, or need something only AutoHotkey does.

Steps and Script run inside Input.Observer and call the same builtins: Steps is a visual way to write what a script would. See Steps and the Script language reference.

Each mode keeps its own content

An action holds a Steps body, a Script body and an AutoHotkey body side by side. Switching Written as ① changes which one runs. It never deletes the others, so you can switch back.

If the mode you select is empty while another mode has content, a notice under the switch says that running the action does nothing, and offers a button to use the mode that has content.

Switching from Steps to Script

When you switch from Steps to Script while the action has steps and its Script body is empty, Input.Observer offers to translate the steps: Convert steps to a script? Choose Convert to put the translation in the Script editor.

• The steps stay as they are. Switching back to Steps shows them unchanged.
• Nothing converts back. A script can't be turned into steps.
• Steps that use Repeat while…, Repeat until…, Exit the loop or Stop the steps are not offered for translation, because Script has no matching statements. You can still switch; the Script body just starts empty.
• AutoHotkey is never converted to or from.
• When the steps are a recording from the Recorder page, the dialog also says that the script ignores Replay speed and Replay mouse path detail: its waits run at recorded speed and every recorded mouse move replays (Recorder settings).

From Steps to Script shows what each kind of step becomes.

AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey is a separate program that Input.Observer starts when an AutoHotkey action runs. It is not included; you install AutoHotkey v2 yourself and tell Input.Observer where it is.

1. Install AutoHotkey v2.
2. On the General page, turn on Enable AutoHotkey and set AutoHotkey executable to its program file, such as AutoHotkey64.exe.
3. AutoHotkey now appears under Written as. Apply your changes so the engine uses the new setting.

The rules:

• AutoHotkey is offered under Written as only while Enable AutoHotkey is on, or when the action already runs as AutoHotkey. An AutoHotkey action with AutoHotkey turned off does nothing, and the page says so.
• Use a normal AutoHotkey build. The builds with _UIA in their name, such as AutoHotkey64_UIA.exe, can't run scripts from Input.Observer.
• When AutoHotkey is turned on but its program can't be found at startup or when the configuration is reloaded, Input.Observer asks you to Browse for the AutoHotkey executable or Leave as-is.
• Each run starts a new AutoHotkey process with your script. It can't call Input.Observer's builtins, and it runs until it ends by itself; the stop-all-actions hotkey ends it.
• Before your script, Input.Observer sets variables that describe the trigger, such as IO_ActionName, IO_TriggerKind and the gesture's or hotkey's window (AutoHotkey variables). The editor's Variables available here list shows the ones the action's triggers provide; click one to insert it.
• What the script writes to its standard output appears in the diagnostic console, starting with AHK: (The diagnostic console).

A Steps or Script action can also run a piece of AutoHotkey code with the AutoHotkeyExecuteScript builtin. The same setting and executable apply.

AutoHotkey variables

Every AutoHotkey run starts with a few lines Input.Observer adds ahead of your script, setting IO_ variables from what triggered the action. This applies to an action written as AutoHotkey and to code run with AutoHotkeyExecuteScript, which gets the variables of the action that called it.

Every run sets these three:

Variable	Holds
IO_ActionName	The action's name. For a global event, Global_Event_ followed by the event's name in the configuration file, such as Global_Event_release or Global_Event_foreground_changed. Empty when nothing triggered the run, such as a script run from the console.
IO_AppGroupName	The name of the app group the action was found in, such as Global. Empty for a global event.
IO_TriggerKind	What triggered the run: Gesture, Hotkey, TextExpansion, MouseButton (a mouse-button or Draw button released global event), Wheel (a wheel global event), or None.

The rest depend on the trigger, and only that trigger's are set:

Trigger	Variable	Holds
Gesture	IO_GestureWindow	The window the gesture started over
	IO_GestureButton	The draw button: left, right, middle, x1 or x2
	IO_GestureStartX, IO_GestureStartY	Where the stroke started
	IO_GestureEndX, IO_GestureEndY	Where it ended
	IO_GestureBoundsLeft, IO_GestureBoundsTop, IO_GestureBoundsRight, IO_GestureBoundsBottom	The rectangle around the whole stroke
	IO_GesturePoints	Every point of the stroke in drawing order, as an array of [x, y] arrays
Hotkey	IO_HotkeyWindow	The window in front when the hotkey was pressed
	IO_HotkeyVkCode	The final key's Windows virtual-key code, such as 75 for K
	IO_HotkeyModifiers	The modifier keys of the combination, added together: Ctrl 1, Shift 2, Alt 4, Win 8 (Ctrl+Alt is 5)
Text expansion	IO_TextExpansionWindow	The window you typed in
	IO_TextExpansionPattern	The abbreviation you typed
Mouse-button event	IO_MouseWindow	The window under the pointer
	IO_MouseButton	The button: left, right, middle, x1 or x2
	IO_MouseX, IO_MouseY	Where the pointer was
Wheel event	IO_WheelWindow	The window under the pointer
	IO_WheelDelta	How far the wheel turned, as Windows reports it: 120 for one notch of an ordinary wheel (smooth-scrolling wheels and touchpads send smaller steps), positive away from you (or to the right), negative toward you (or to the left)
	IO_WheelHorizontal	true for a sideways wheel turn, false for an ordinary one
	IO_WheelX, IO_WheelY	Where the pointer was

• Windows are window handles, numbers AutoHotkey reads as a window id: "ahk_id " IO_GestureWindow names the window in WinActivate, WinGetTitle and the other window functions.
• Positions are screen coordinates in physical pixels, from the top-left corner of the main monitor. Set CoordMode "Mouse", "Screen" before using them with AutoHotkey's mouse functions, which otherwise work relative to the active window.
• Text arrives exactly as it was; quotes, backticks and line breaks in an action or group name are escaped for you.
• A variable the trigger doesn't provide isn't set at all, and AutoHotkey stops the script when it reads an unset variable. An action with several kinds of trigger, or a snippet called from different actions, should check IO_TriggerKind first, or use IsSet(IO_GestureWindow).

For example, an action that runs from a gesture or a hotkey, bringing the window it was used on to the front and showing its title:

CoordMode "Mouse", "Screen"
win := IO_TriggerKind = "Gesture" ? IO_GestureWindow : IO_HotkeyWindow
WinActivate "ahk_id " win
MsgBox WinGetTitle("ahk_id " win), IO_ActionName

Plugin script engines

A plugin can add a script engine of its own. It then appears under Written as with the plugin's name, and the text you type there goes to the plugin exactly as written; Input.Observer doesn't check it. If no running plugin provides that engine, the page warns that the action is skipped when it runs. See Plugins.

In Simple mode

Simple mode shows Written as only for an action that already has a script or an AutoHotkey body. For any other action the card shows the steps directly. To write a new action as a script, switch the window to Advanced mode (The configuration window).