Use Jenkins On Firefox By Talking To Your Mac

I was watching I, Robot the other day, and thought how great it would be to use voice to control Jenkins.

So last night I did a quick read, and then recorded this video.
This used Mac Speech Recognition, so in theory I talked to my Mac, which then opened Jenkins pages on Firefox. Here are the commands:

1. ‘Open Jenkins’: opens Jenkins home page (dashboard)
2. ‘Build Bob’: builds a project called Bob
3. ‘Configure system’: opens Jenkins configuration page

I had to repeat each command 2-3 times because I speak Indonesian-accented English.

Note: I scrolled the page up and down using the trackpad, it could be voice-controlled too actually.

It’s easy to add a command:

1. Create a new file in /Users/<username>/Library/Speech/Speakable Items/Application Speakable Items/firefox directory containing:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
   <key>URL</key>
   <string>http://jenkins-host:8080</string>
   </dict>
   </plist>
   

   This format is Mac OS X Property List.

2. Save this file as <command>, e.g. Open Jenkins (yes, with the space).
3. Open System Preferences -> Speech, and switch Speakable Items on.
4. Configure the Listening Method. I set it to Listen continuously with keyword, and keyword is Required before each command. My keyword is VIKI, you know, Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence, from the movie.

I haven’t investigated how much programming can be done on the command file, but this opens up the possibility of mapping Jenkins HTTP API to commands, and we will be able to fully interact with Jenkins using voice.

Then the only thing left to do is… develop an American accent.