Setting up your work environment with automator

I frequently find myself having to open the same set of applications in order to work (textmate, terminal with several tabs, browser, etc.). So I figured I'd spend some time figuring out how to automate the process.

• open automator
• create a new application
• find "run shell script" <-- try it with this one first, if it doesn't work, use "run applescript"
• input the following into the shell scripting area (it's a rather small textarea). Change the settings for your particular set of applications you need to use. For me, I want to open my default browser to my local app, open textmate with my project, open my text file with my ongoing notes, and open several terminal tabs with various commands already entered.


open http://myapp.localhost
open ~/Work/myapp/myapp.tmproj
open ~/Desktop/myapp.rtf

osascript 2>/dev/null << EOF

    tell application "Terminal"
       activate
    end tell
    tell application "system events" to tell process "Terminal" to keystroke "t" using command down
    tell application "system events" to tell process "Terminal" to keystroke "t" using command down
    tell application "system events" to tell process "Terminal" to keystroke "t" using command down
    tell application "Terminal"
        do script with command "cd ~/Work/myapp; rails console" in first tab of first window
        do script with command "cd ~/Work/myapp/log; tail -f development.log" in second tab of first window
        do script with command "cd ~/Work/myapp; su -" in last tab of first window
    end tell
EOF


• save it and put it in your applications directory (it doesn't matter where you put it, but I figure this is the best place)
• then drag it to your dock