Hi guys,
I’m not sure if many here still use Seeshell ( I find its user interface a lot friendlier), but can someone point me into the direction of how I can loop a macro in Seeshell?
Thanks,
1 Like
I used to use SeeShell and I liked its embedded browser and the friendly user interface, too. On the other hand, UI.Vision works directly in the web browser, is cross-platform and has desktop automation (RPA) support. This package convinced me, so I switched 
Anyway, to answer your question: SeeShell has no built-in loop support except the LOOP button. To do loops programmatically, you must use the SeeShell API plus external scripting.
Ui.Vision on the other hand, has plenty of loop commands (TIMES, WHILE…END, REPEAT…UNTIL).
Thanks for the response! Without much scripting experience Seeshell was more appealing for my simple applications. However, I will make sure to give Ui.Vision a shot to see if it can do what I need.
1 Like
Hi Albert,
I am kind of in the same boat as you. I find that the Seeshell interface is very straight forward, but I realize I will have to move to UI.Vision. UI.Vision seems to have a much steeper learning curve and I have built 10-12 intensive processes using Seeshell and can’t imagine tackling them again with a new interface.
I approached loops by building the loop in Seeshell and then extracting the .json file and copying and pasting the loop as many times as I need it to repeat (or more if it is variable). What this looks like in practice for me, is that I need to run a series of Macros that each end on my desired loop function. For example, if I need macro C to run after macro B and macro B to run after macro A, but I don’t know how many times I need the loop in macro A or the loop in macro B to run, then I will create the macros so that the loops within macro A and macro B will run a handful of times more than should be necessary in most situations. Say, most days I need the macro A loop to run 50 times, I’ll set up the macro so the loop always happens 60 times, just to be safe. I then schedule them using Task Scheduler in Windows and leave enough time for A to fully complete 60 loops before macro B is triggered. Then I leave enough time for macro B to run before I schedule macro C. Because macros A and B won’t necessarily have to complete all of the loops that have been programmed in, I ensure that any cleanup of partially completed loops is done at the beginning of subsequent macros.
For example, if macro A leaves a number of windows/applications open once the loops have completed, macro B will begin by closing all open windows before setting up it’s own loop and then macro C will clean up after macro B and continue on.
This is by no means the best way that I can accomplish the tasks at hand, but I got myself in too deep into the Seeshell macro creation before realizing it wasn’t the right tool for the job (UI.Vision probably is this).
One major flaw that I have found in running my processes in this way is that Seeshell has a serious memory leak issue that means part of my cleanup between macros A and B and C has to be to have windows shut down Seeshell.exe and reopen it to bring the memory usage down below a critical level. Most of my macros run for only 10-15 minutes, but some of the longer ones will hit a critical memory level after about 30-40 minutes and the workstation will lock up until I close Seeshell.exe and watch the memory slide back down.
In conclusion, if you have time to learn UI.Vision, please do so as Seeshell.exe will lead you to some serious instabilities and frustrations.
Also, if anyone has a hot tip as to how to translate a pile of Seeshell macros over into UI.Vision, I am all ears.
Hope this helps.
Here is a basic example of what I am talking about. Here your goal would be to send a list of websites related to dogs to the first few people in your address book. If there are only 2 pages of results for the query “Dogs” on google (yeah right!), the process will still complete, but your emails will just contain two web addresses. If you clear out your address book and only have two names then only two emails will send, but you should be left with a clear desktop at the end anyway.
Macro A:
Open Chrome,
Go to Google.com
Search Dogs
Open Notepad
Comment Start Loop
Copy top link from Google Search results and paste to Notepad File
Enter to next line of Notepad File
Click next page on Google Search results
Comment End Loop
Comment Start Loop
Copy top link from Google Search results and paste to Notepad File
Enter to next line of Notepad File
Click next page on Google Search results
Comment End Loop
Comment Start Loop
Copy top link from Google Search results and paste to Notepad File
Enter to next line of Notepad File
Click next page on Google Search results
Comment End Loop
Comment Start Loop
Copy top link from Google Search results and paste to Notepad File
Enter to next line of Notepad File
Click next page on Google Search results
Comment End Loop
Macro B:
Save Notepad file
Close Notepad
Close Chrome
Open Outlook
Open Address Book
Compose New Mail
Attach created Notepad File
Send email to first name in address book
Tab down to next name in address book
Comment Start Loop
Compose New Mail
Attach created Notepad File
Send email to selected name in address book
Tab down to next name in address book
Comment End Loop
Comment Start Loop
Compose New Mail
Attach created Notepad File
Send email to selected name in address book
Tab down to next name in address book
Comment End Loop
Comment Start Loop
Compose New Mail
Attach created Notepad File
Send email to selected name in address book
Tab down to next name in address book
Comment End Loop
Comment Start Loop
Compose New Mail
Attach created Notepad File
Send email to selected name in address book
Tab down to next name in address book
Comment End Loop
Macro C:
Close Outlook
Close Address Book
Seeshell what is ?
It’s is the old name of ui vision or another software ?
@newuserkantu Yes, SeeShell was an earlier (the first?) version of UI Vision, it was for Windows only and based on the webkit component CEF. The old page is still here SeeShell - Visual Desktop and Web Browser Automation
Actually switching to native browser extensions was a good and future-proof decision. Because just yesterday I was reading that starting January 4, 2021, Google will block all sign-ins to Google accounts from embedded browser frameworks like CEF. (from here) - this will stop a lot of CEF based automation tools from working with Google pages. This also effects the iMacros browser with its Internet Explorer component.
1 Like