Solved Automate clicking a link on a keypress

rf10

I need to use a Web site that has Previous page/Next page links on each page. As I'll need to click these thousands of times I'd like to automate the clicking with a keypress. Ideally so pressing 'a' finds and clicks 'Previous page' and 'd' clicks 'Next page'.

I've spent too long searching for this and got nowhere. Solutions that just may do this (or may not) are so complicated I can't entertain them. I use Autohotkey but that doesn't seem to be able to do this (apart from very complicated solutions as mentioned involving injecting Javascript and stuff way over my head).

It's very frustrating. All I want is 'find link, click it' - simple and fast so I can have WASD style navigation of the site.

Surely there must be a way to do this? It's so simple.

rf10

I worded my reply ambiguously as I detected a similar oblique approach in your post - a hint at what to look for instead of a direct instruction. Maybe I've been reading too much John le Carré.

My solution was to grep Vivaldi's files for 'next page' and I found it in inject-root-bundle.js which I edited. If you think that's appropriate for the Tips and Tricks thread then I'll post. If it's too hacky then maybe best not to.

RealMat0s

Hello, @rf10

In the status bar there are two functions which are ''fast backward'' and ''fast forward''. That is what you will need to do the function you need.

To bring them up, activate - or display - the status bar and with shift you can bring it up.

Pesala

@rf10 On some sites with multiple pages like this forum index page you can press the spacebar.

rf10

Hi both. Unfortunately Vivaldi's fast forward (SHIFT x) or space bar don't work on this site. I don't think it has any accessibility keys either.

The closest that I've come is an Autohotkey script that presses spatial navigation keys in the right order to land on a link and press Enter. It's not very reliable though as I've also found when trying to automate other things in Vivaldi with Autohotkey (timing/latency always seems a problem - maybe it works 60% of the time).

Separately, if the page zoom is anything other than 100% (which it often will be) Vivaldi's WASD spatial keys don't work properly - on all sites I've tried, not just this one. Pressing Enter activates a different link to the one highlighted, or does nothing.

I was hoping for a reliable and less hacky solution, but if Vivaldi can't do it itself, I guess it isn't really a Vivaldi question.

Pesala

@rf10 said in Automate clicking a link on a keypress:

I don't think it has any accessibility keys either.

Have you enabled them in Settings, Keyboard:

Allow Access Keys

rf10

Yes. And other keyboard settings are enabled too - Enable Keyboard Shortcuts, Single Key Shortcuts, Space Key to Fast Forward. Fast Forward is set to SHIFT X.

If it were possible to customise the link text that Fast Forward looks for, that might be a solution but I don't think that's possible.

Pesala

@rf10 In old Opera this was also hit and miss because it depends on how the site is coded. There was file named FastForward.ini that could be edited.

Opera Preferences version 2.0
; This file is part of the Opera browser.
; This file is UTF-8 encoded.

[Fast forward]
;First some built in types and their scores
Link element=400
Wand login=300
Show image=50
Next image=200

;Then other words and their scores.
;If no score is given, it defaults to 100
;If score is 100 or more, Opera will allow
;the word or words to also only be the start or end
;word of the whole link text

;Special ones
"->"
"- >"
"-->"
"-- >"
"=>"
"= >"
"==>"
"== >"
"&gt;&gt;"
"&gt; &gt;"
»
>>
"> >"
"> > >"
index.html=78
index.htm=78
default.htm=90
index.php=78
default.aspx=80
default.asp=80
index.html=90
welcome.htm=90

;English
Next=101
Next page=102
"[Next]"=101
Next»=101
"Next »"=101
Next>>=101
"Next >>"=101
"Next=>"=101
"Next =>"=101
"Next==>"=101
"Next ==>"=101
More
"More..."
"More ..."

;Norwegian
Neste=101
Neste»=102
Neste side=102

;Deutsch
Nächste=101
Nächste Seite=102
Naechste=101
Naechste Seite=102
Weiter
Vorwärts
Vorwaerts

;Afrikaans
Volgende=101
Volgende bladsy=102
Volg
Verder

;Dutch
Volgende pagina=102

;French
Suiv=101
Suivant=101
Prochaine=101
Page suivante=102
Page prochaine=102
Suivants
Suivantes

;Italian 
Avanti=101 
Successive 
Successiva=101 
Successivo=101 
Prossime 
Prossima=101 
Prossimo=101 
Altro 
Altra 
Pagina successiva=102 
Pag successiva=102 
Pag succ=102 
Succ=101

;Spanish
Siguiente=101
Página siguiente=102
Próxima=101
Próximos
Pagina siguiente=102

;Portuguese
Próximo=101
Página próximo=102
Página seguinte=102

;Esperanto
Venonta=101
Venonta pago=102
Venonta pagho=102
Venonta pagxo=102

;Swedish
Nästa=101
Nästa sida=102

;Danish
Næste=101
Næste side=102

;Chinese (traditional and simplified)
下一頁
下一页

;Turkish
Sonraki

;Russian
Следующая

;Korean
다음
다음 페이지

;Japanese
次へ

;Icelandic
Næst=101

;Finnish
Seuraava

;Greek
Επόμενη=101

;Bulgarian
Напред
Следващ=101
Следващо=101
Следваща=101
Следващ сайт=102
Следваща страница=102
Следващи=101
Нататък=101
Следва
Следна
Пълен напред

; Polish
Dalej=101
Następna=101
Następne=101
Następny=101
Więcej

;Hungarian
Tovább
Következő
Köv.
Bővebben

;Romanian
Înainte=101
Înaintare=101
Înaintează=101
Avansează
Următoare=101
Următor=101
Următorul=101
Pagina următoare=102
;Next article
Articolul următor
Următorul articol
;Next image
Imaginea următoare=102

rf10

@pesala Well, thank you very much! The details differ but it's essentially the same. It works perfectly now!

Pesala

@rf10 If you have time, please make a topic in Tips and Tricks to explain how you got Fast Forward working better.

rf10

I worded my reply ambiguously as I detected a similar oblique approach in your post - a hint at what to look for instead of a direct instruction. Maybe I've been reading too much John le Carré.

My solution was to grep Vivaldi's files for 'next page' and I found it in inject-root-bundle.js which I edited. If you think that's appropriate for the Tips and Tricks thread then I'll post. If it's too hacky then maybe best not to.

Pesala

@rf10 It is too geeky for me, but there are plenty of geeks on the forums who might appreciate it.