aTbRef: improvements to AppleScript articles

Tutorials and Examples
1

I finally got around to adding some pointers, arising from forum discussions, into the aTbRef section on Applescript. Thanks to all forum member cotributing their expertise and, in particular, thanks to @sumnerg .

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2

Drawing on some helpful feedback, Iā€™ve expanded the AppleScript a bit more and broken some of the larger articles into smaller ones allowing for better linking.

Question/corrections welcome. I think the four articles on objectsā€™ properties could probably do with a simple explanatory code example to indicate the syntax. Code suggestions welcomed!

The TBX zip, search index and sitemap are all updated.

Side note; Iā€™ve adjusted the site CSS so the grey background to <code> elements is a bit lighter to give better contrast balance from the white page background and to the dark red text.

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What Iā€™ve tried to dig into with the code examples is the fine detail of the code syntax. AppleScriptā€™s app dictionary UI lacks such info so having to guess the code to write is a bore. I suspect that missing info also nerfs general occasional use of AppleScript except to run othersā€™ completed scripts.

An interesting example, realised from this re-write, AppleScript doesnā€™t let you describe a note by its $Path. Instead you have to ā€˜findā€™ (find note in operator) the note at the path and make a variable of that object and then use the latter. You can write it as a one liner, but the line gets very long and hard to read. Also there is no copy/duplicate method, though one can communicate with the appā€™s menu using general AppleScript menus. I also noted the appā€™s AS dictionary has no notion of aliases (so, making an alias would have to use menu interaction). Perhaps I need to add an article with a non-exhaustive list of unsupported note management tasks?

That might include:

  • Making aliases. A workaround is to make an agent to find only the to-be-aliased note, move the child alias to a desired place then deleting the agent. Existing aliases are addressed as if actual notes, being aware that an alias/original state can be checked by reading its $IsAlias value.
  • Copying notes/agents/adornments. Here, I think using AppleScript System Events to drive the menus is the workaround.
  • Adding ā€˜built-inā€™ features (as from app file menu). Again, use AppleScript System Eventsā€ .
  • making/deleting links. The appā€™s dictionary is mainly for dealing with existing links. Currently this task has to be effected via an ā€˜evaluateā€™ call (akin to action code eval) on action code operatorsā€”i.e. the expression being evaluated as in the code example here.

The point of the above list is not to militate for loads more built-in AppleScript dictionary functionality (as the ROI for that isnā€™t clear) but to indicate, for those making occasional try-out of AppleScript use, that a solution is possible even if not via a single baked-in code. Using System Events makes very verbose code that is new-user unfriendly, thus the suggestion in the footnote.

ā€ . Perhaps some AS-competent person would like to write a pair of AS sub-routines (aka functions) for calling menu items or menus sub-menu items akin to those seen in this answer #2 of this StackOverlow thread. If such a solution emerges, Iā€™d happily add that to the aTbRef AppleScript section. As the solution to a number of ā€˜missingā€™ tasks is to drive menus, having a re-useable subroutine where you just feed in the current arguments (e.g. menu option label) makes a lot of sense.

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4

A generic ā€œhandlerā€ to call a menu item could be something like this:

-- call example 1: my do_menu("Tinderbox 10", "Stamps", "Turn red")
-- call example 2: my do_menu("Tinderbox 10", "Edit", "Duplicate")

on do_menu(app_name, menu_name, menu_item)
	try
		tell application app_name to activate --must bring to front		
		tell application "System Events"
			tell process app_name
				tell menu bar 1
					tell menu bar item menu_name
						tell menu menu_name
							click menu item menu_item
						end tell
					end tell
				end tell
			end tell
		end tell
		return true
	on error error_message
		return false
	end try
end do_menu

This seems to work for sub-menu items:

-- call example: my do_menu("Tinderbox 10", "Format", "Font", "Bold")

on do_menu(app_name, menu_name, menu_item, sub_item)
	try
		tell application app_name to activate --must bring to front		
		tell application "System Events"
			tell process app_name
				tell menu bar 1
					tell menu bar item menu_name
						tell menu menu_name
							tell menu item menu_item
								tell menu menu_item
									click menu item sub_item
								end tell
							end tell
						end tell
					end tell
				end tell
			end tell
		end tell
		return true
	on error error_message
		return false
	end try
end do_menu
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5

Thanks. Iā€™ve added a new aTbRef article: Accessing app menu items.

Site map, search index and TBX file zip are updated online.