Set The Bing Image Of The Day As Your Desktop Wallpaper

This AppleScript fetches the Bing image of the day using any choice of a valid market code and sets it as your desktop wallpaper.

The AppleScript may then be added to the Shortcuts.app in macOS and run from the Menu Bar.

Using the Japanese market code ja-JP as an example, the direct download link for the Bing image of the day can be found from

http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=ja-JP

where:

• format can take the values js (short for json), hp (short for html), xml (the default) and rss;
• uhd can take the values 0 and 1, with 0 meaning fetch the standard resolution version of the image (normally a resolution of 1920x1080) and 1 meaning fetch the ultra high definition resolution version of the image (which can vary from a minimum resolution of 1920x1080 -- for example, the image obtained in the example below is 5349×3009);
• idx is the number days previous to the present day, with 0 meaning the present day;
• n is the number of images to fetch previous to the day given by idx, with 1 meaning fetch the one image for day idx; and
• mkt is the market code. There are currently a total of 38 market codes as listed here, and at present (December 2024) only the market codes de-DE, en-CA, en-GB, en-IN, en-US, es-ES, fr-CA, fr-FR, it-IT, ja-JP, ko-KR (sometimes), no-NO (sometimes), pt-BR and zh-CN have their own localised versions. Other market codes are set as being the “Rest of the World” (with the generic market code ROW).

Details

The AppleScript basically works by first downloading the Bing image of the day and saving it to ~/Downloads/bing_image_of_the_day.jpg, then setting this image as the desktop wallpaper.

Again using the Japanese market code ja-JP as an example, the Bing image of the day can be downloaded with the following one-liner CLI command

curl --silent "http://www.bing.com/$(curl --silent "http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=ja-JP" | grep --only-matching "\"url\":\"\/.*\.jpg" | sed 's/"url":"\///g')" > ~/Downloads/bing_image_of_the_day.jpg

 

Let's unpack what this one-liner CLI command does ...

Step 1

The command

curl --silent "http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=ja-JP"

outputs the information for the current image of the day, like so:

{"images":[{"startdate":"20211120","fullstartdate":"202111201500","enddate":"20211121","url":"/th?id=OHR.ElephantGiving_JA-JP6387498046_UHD.jpg&rf=LaDigue_UHD.jpg&pid=hp&w=1920&h=1080&rs=1&c=4","urlbase":"/th?id=OHR.ElephantGiving_JA-JP6387498046","copyright":"アフリカゾウの家族, ケニア （© Yva Momatiuk and John Eastcott/Minden Pictures）","copyrightlink":"https://www.bing.com/search?q=%E3%82%A2%E3%83%95%E3%83%AA%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BE%E3%82%A6+%E5%AE%B6%E6%97%8F&form=hpcapt&filters=HpDate%3a%2220211120_1500%22","title":"今日は「家族の日」","quiz":"/search?q=Bing+homepage+quiz&filters=WQOskey:%22HPQuiz_20211120_ElephantGiving%22&FORM=HPQUIZ","wp":true,"hsh":"1870702a47d30be6d7aee03f41b36604","drk":1,"top":1,"bot":1,"hs":[]}],"tooltips":{"loading":"読み込み中...","previous":"前の画像へ","next":"次の画像へ","walle":"この画像を壁紙としてダウンロードすることはできません。","walls":"この画像をダウンロードできます。画像の用途は壁紙に限定されています。"}}

Step 2

The next part, namely

grep --only-matching "\"url\":\"\/.*\.jpg"

then pulls out relevant part of the url location from the previous output, so that the command

curl --silent "http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=ja-JP" | grep --only-matching "\"url\":\"\/.*\.jpg"

outputs

"url":"/th?id=OHR.ElephantGiving_JA-JP6387498046_UHD.jpg&rf=LaDigue_UHD.jpg

Step 3

The next part, namely

sed 's/"url":"\///g'

then removes the "url":"/ part of the previous output, so that the command

curl --silent "http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=ja-JP" | grep --only-matching "\"url\":\"\/.*\.jpg" | sed 's/"url":"\///g'

outputs

th?id=OHR.ElephantGiving_JA-JP6387498046_UHD.jpg&rf=LaDigue_UHD.jpg

Step 4

We then have the required direct download link, namely

http://www.bing.com/th?id=OHR.ElephantGiving_JA-JP6387498046_UHD.jpg&rf=LaDigue_UHD.jpg

and the last step is to download the image and save it as ~/Downloads/bing_image_of_the_day.jpg, which is accomplished with the final one-liner CLI command shown above, and the resultant image is illustrated below:

Note that the &rf=LaDigue_UHD.jpg part of the direct download link is a "fallback" image if the actual image ElephantGiving_JA-JP6387498046_UHD.jpg is not available. So if the downloaded image is the one illustrated below, something is wrong!

To use this one-liner CLI command in AppleScript, it is necessary to escape some characters (namely the "'s and \'s). The following is an AppleScript that sends this one-liner CLI command to Terminal.app:

tell application "Terminal"
	do script "curl --silent \"http://www.bing.com/$(curl --silent \"http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=ja-JP\" | grep --only-matching \"\\\"url\\\":\\\"\\/.*\\.jpg\" | sed 's/\"url\":\"\\///g')\" > ~/Downloads/bing_image_of_the_day.jpg" in front window
end tell

The Full AppleScript

 

Let's unpack what this AppleScript does ...

Step 1

The first part of the AppleScript, namely

set market_code_choices to {"da-DK, Denmark, Danish", "de-AT, Austria, German", "de-CH, Switzerland, German", "de-DE, Germany, German", "en-AU, Australia, English", "en-CA, Canada, English", "en-GB, United Kingdom, English", "en-ID, Indonesia, English", "en-IN, India, English", "en-MY, Malaysia, English", "en-NZ, New Zealand, English", "en-PH, Republic of the Philippines, English", "en-US, United States, English", "en-ZA, South Africa, English", "es-AR, Argentina, Spanish", "es-CL, Chile, Spanish", "es-ES, Spain, Spanish", "es-MX, Mexico, Spanish", "es-US, United States, Spanish", "fi-FI, Finland, Finnish", "fr-BE, Belgium, French", "fr-CA, Canada, French", "fr-CH, Switzerland, French", "fr-FR, France, French", "it-IT, Italy, Italian", "ja-JP, Japan, Japanese", "ko-KR, Korea, Korean", "nl-BE, Belgium, Dutch", "nl-NL, Netherlands, Dutch", "no-NO, Norway, Norwegian", "pl-PL, Poland, Polish", "pt-BR, Brazil, Portuguese", "ru-RU, Russia, Russian", "sv-SE, Sweden, Swedish", "tr-TR, Turkey, Turkish", "zh-CN, Peoples Republic of China, Chinese", "zh-HK, Hong Kong SAR, Traditional Chinese", "zh-TW, Taiwan, Traditional Chinese"}

set market_code to choose from list market_code_choices with prompt "Market code (Code, Country/Region, Language):" default items {"ja-JP, Japan, Japanese"}

if market_code is false then return

opens up a list of valid market codes for selection:

and selecting Cancel exits the AppleScript.

For the above example, the market code ja-JP is selected and the variable market_code is then set to ja-JP, Japan, Japanese.

Step 2

The next part of the AppleScript

tell application "System Events"
	tell every desktop
		set picture to "~/Downloads/no_image.jpg"
	end tell
end tell

just removes the current wallpaper image.

Step 3

The next part of the AppleScript

tell application "Terminal"
	do script "curl --silent \"http://www.bing.com/$(curl --silent \"http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=$(echo " & market_code & " | grep --extended-regexp --only-matching \"[a-z]{2}-[A-Z]{2}\")\" | grep --only-matching \"\\\"url\\\":\\\"\\/.*\\.jpg\" | sed 's/\"url\":\"\\///g')\" > ~/Downloads/bing_image_of_the_day.jpg" in front window
end tell

then sends the one-liner CLI command to Terminal.app, where the (suitably escaped for AppleScript) command

echo " & market_code & " | grep --extended-regexp --only-matching \"[a-z]{2}-[A-Z]{2}\"

just pulls out the market code from the market_code variable.

For example, the CLI command

echo ja-JP, Japan, Japanese | grep --extended-regexp --only-matching "[a-z]{2}-[A-Z]{2}"

simply outputs

ja-JP

Step 4

The next part of the AppleScript

tell application "System Events"
	tell every desktop
		set picture to "~/Downloads/bing_image_of_the_day.jpg"
	end tell
end tell

then sets the downloaded image ~/Downloads/bing_image_of_the_day.jpg as the desktop wallpaper.

Step 5

The final part of the AppleScript

tell application "Terminal"
	do script "curl --silent \"http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=$(echo " & market_code & " | grep --extended-regexp --only-matching \"[a-z]{2}-[A-Z]{2}\")\" | grep --only-matching \"\\\"url\\\":\\\"\\/.*\\.jpg\" | sed 's/\"url\":\"\\/th?id=OHR\\.//g' | sed 's/\\.jpg.*//g'" in front window
end tell

provides a simple check of the file name, market code and image resolution obtained by the one-liner CLI command.

For example, the CLI command

curl --silent "http://www.bing.com/HPImageArchive.aspx?format=js&uhd=1&idx=0&n=1&mkt=$(echo ja-JP, Japan, Japanese | grep --extended-regexp --only-matching "[a-z]{2}-[A-Z]{2}")" | grep --only-matching "\"url\":\"\/.*\.jpg" | sed 's/"url":"\/th?id=OHR\.//g' | sed 's/\.jpg.*//g'

simply outputs

ElephantGiving_JA-JP6387498046_UHD

Adding the AppleScript to the Shortcuts.app

In the Shortcuts.app, create a new Shortcut

that performs a Run AppleScript action with the above AppleScript code

that may then be run from the Menu Bar

License

Do What The Fuck You Want To Public License.