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Configuring Actions

Actions are triggered when ControlPlane decides to change your context. They can be performed when you arrive at a context, leave a context or both and individual actions can be delayed for a period of time.

Most actions will be Arrival actions; that is, they will be triggered when ControlPlane switches to that context. The alternative is a Departure action, which is triggered when ControlPlane switches away from that action's context. In this case, the delay parameter will be the length of time from the action being triggered until the context is switched.


Default Printer actions

Changes the default printer

Default Browser action

Changes default browser based on a list of installed browsers

Desktop Background action

Changes the desktop background.

Display Brightness action

Change display brightness to defined level. Level is defined by a percentage

Display Sleep Time action

Change the timeout for when the display will go to sleep

iChat/Messages Status actions

Actions of type iChat change your iChat or Messages status message.

Play iTunes Playlist action

Select an iTunes play list to play

Lock Keychain action

Lock or unlock the key chain

Change Mail IMAP Server Action

Changes the IMAP server of an email account in Mail.app

Change Mail SMTP Server actions

Actions of type MailSMTPServer change the default SMTP server of your Mail.app accounts.

Change New Mail Check Interval action

Change how often Mail.app checks for new messages

Mount actions

Actions of type Mount attempt to mount a network volume (afp://, smb://, etc.).

Mute actions

Actions of type Mute will mute or unmute your system audio.

Network Location actions

Actions of type NetworkLocation will change your current Mac OS X Network Location.

Open actions

Actions of type Open are the most general actions. Upon triggering, ControlPlane will open that file: if it is an application, it will be launched; if it is an AppleScript, it will be executed; otherwise, it will be opened with that file's default application. This is roughly equivalent to double-clicking on that file in Finder.

Although Open will still run AppleScript files for backwards compatibility, AppleScripts and shell scripts should use the ShellScript action now instead.

Open URL action

Open the given URL

Quit Application action

Enter the name of the app you wish to close. For example, if you wish to close Adium you would enter Adium.app. To get the name of an app you wish to close, start Activity Monitor and find the Process Name of the app you wish to quit. Enter the value into ControlPlane.

Screen Saver Password actions

Actions of type ScreenSaverPassword either enable or disable your screen saver's password.

Start Screen Saver Now action

Starts the screen saver

Screen Saver Time actions

Actions of type ScreenSaverTime can change the idle time before your screen saver activates.

ShellScript actions

Actions of type ShellScript allow you to execute arbitrary shell scripts using /bin/sh. Arguments may be passed to the script by using a pipe character ("|") as a separator in the parameter. (e.g. /path/to/script.sh|argument1|argument2)

Speak action

Speak the entered text

Start Time Machine action

Allows you to start a new Time Machine backup or stop an already running backup

Time Machine Destination action

This action requires that you have Tedium installed (available at http://www.tediumapp.com/). This action will allow you to automatically change your Time Machine destination disk.

Toggle Bluetooth and Toggle WiFi actions

Actions of type ToggleBluetooth or ToggleWiFi allow you to control the power state of your computer's built-in Bluetooth and WiFi controllers.

Toggle ControlPlane Context is Sticky

Allows you to toggle if a guesses (or forced) context is sticky. This is useful if you want to stay at a guessed or forced context until you manually select a different one. If you only want a single context to be sticky, remember to set an associated "untoggle" on departure.

Toggle Firewall action

Toggle the firewall on or off. This will globally enable or disable any rules you have configured, it does not allow you to modify firewall rules

Toggle FTP Sharing action

Allows you to toggle FTP sharing, even under Lion!

Toggle Internet Sharing action

Toggles internet connection sharing on or off. Internet sharing must be configured in System Preferences for this to work properly, meaning you must define what connection is to be shared, etc. Toggle Internet Sharing will then toggle whether or not sharing is enabled

Toggle Notification Center Alerts

Allows you to toggle Notification Center alerts, only works on Mountain Lion or newer

Toggle Printer Sharing action

Toggle Printer Sharing

Toggle Remote Login action

Allows you to toggle OS X's ssh service (Remote Login)

Toggle TFTP Sharing action

Allows you to enable/disable OS X's TFTP server

Toggle Time Machine action

Toggles Time Machine on or off. This action requires additional privileges and when first invoked will ask you to install a helper application. Simply click install to install the helper application.

Under Lion this will enable/disable hourly backups to external drives and Time Capsules but leaves local backups enabled (MobileBackups). Under Snow Leopard this action simply enables or disables Time Machine. NOTE: Under Snow Leopard, the Time Machine icon may not faithfully display Time Machine's actual status.

Toggle Web Sharing action

Allows you to toggle Web Sharing

Unmount action

Unmounts a given disk

VPN actions

Actions of type VPN can establish or disconnect from your default PPTP, L2TP VPN or Cisco IPSec.

See also

Configuring Rules
Tips and tricks