Open an Application from within RR-Andre's a Genius 3
An example of using appleScript from Run Rev to
open an Application and check the result (in case it
was not installed is the Mac OS 9, OS X)
Ken this is a great example of RunRev's ability to
use appleScript. This line by line explanation was of
great help to me on many levels. If you don't mind I
am going to forward this to Dan Shafer for future
publication inclusion considerations. It will help
many others like myself who are new to appleScript
calls using the Transcript Language. I know it took
your valuable time to carefully explain each step.
It's also a good example of offsets and function
calls. (It's been years sense hyperCard and a lot of
us are a little rusty.) We need more of these
examples and I hope runRev is listening :)
Again many Thanks.
Kathy Graves Jaqua
A Wildest Dream Software
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The scripts to which I have been referring are as
follows:
A. From Andrew Garzia (using appleScript only)
B. From Ken Ray (calling appleScript from RunRev or
MetaCard)
A. Opens the Application "iCal" (Traditional
appleScript)
Kathy try putting this on a field called "myscript":
tell application "iCal"
activate
end tell
put a button with the following script
on mouseUp
do field "myscript" as applescript
end mouseUp
---
B. Opens Application "iCal" and checks to see if it is
open (Using Transcript to call Applescript)
OK, Kathy, no problem. You already know from Andre's
script that you can use
Rev to run an AppleScript, just as if you'd done it in
Apple's Script Editor
application. The AppleScript is executed by Rev using
the syntax:
do as AppleScript
where is the script you want to execute.
As you are currently
doing, you can provide the script by using the
contents of a field. But you
can also provide using a variable. So your "Open iCal"
script (which is
currently sitting in a field) could also be executed
like this:
on mouseUp
put "tell application" && quote & "iCal" & quote &
return & \
"activate" & return & "end tell" into tScript
do tScript as AppleScript
end mouseUp
This would mean you could remove that extra field if
you wanted to because
it's all in the script.
The nice thing about Rev is that you can do certain
things to shorten the
script and/or make it more readable. For example,
"return" can be replaced
with "cr" (which does the same thing), and I
personally don't like typing
"quote & & quote" in a script
(especially if I'm doing it a
lot), so I created a function called "q" that puts
quotes around things:
function q pWhat
return quote & pWhat & quote
end q
(BTW: I forgot to include this function with my last
email - sorry...)
Additionally, you can use the backslash character to
break script lines for
readability. I do this with things like AppleScript so
that one visible line
in Transcript corresponds to one visible line in
AppleScript. You don't have
to do this, but I happen to like it. So your "Open
iCal" script can now look
like this:
on mouseUp
put "tell application" && q("iCal") & cr & \
"activate" & cr & \
"end tell" into tScript
do tScript as AppleScript
end mouseUp
So the code I'd sent you:
function isAppRunning pAppname
replace ".app" with "" in pAppName
put "tell application " & q("Finder") & cr & \
"return the processes" & \
cr & "end tell" into tAS
do tAS as AppleScript
put the result into tProcs
return (offset("process" && q(pAppName),tProcs) <>
0)
end isAppRunning
Would be called like this:
on mouseUp
if isAppRunning("iCal") then
answer "iCal's running!
else
answer "iCal's not running."
end if
end mouseUp
And the code does this (I'm adding line numbers for
clarity):
1: function isAppRunning pAppname
2:replace ".app" with "" in pAppName
3:put "tell application " & q("Finder") & cr & \
"return the processes" & \
cr & "end tell" into tAS
4:do tAS as AppleScript
5:put the result into tProcs
6:return (offset("process" && q(pAppName),tProcs)
<> 0)
7: end isAppRunning
In line 1, we pass in the name of the application we
want to check as a
parameter to the isAppRunning function. The name can
either be the short
name of the application (like "iCal") or the name of
the application with
its extension ("iCal.app").
In line 2, since the AppleScript that runs returns a
list of running
applications *without* their extensions, I want to
eliminate the ".app" if
for some reason it was passed to the function, so I
call the "replace"
command to do that job.
Lines 3 to 4 you are more familiar with, in that they
run an AppleScript
that returns the list of running processes
(applications).
Whenever AppleScript returns a value, Rev can retrieve
that value by
checking "the result" right after the AppleScript is
called. Line 5 does
this, and puts the list of running applications into
the local variable
'tProcs'.
In line 6 we check to s
Re: Open an Application from within RR-Andre's a Genius
On 9/28/04 12:17 AM, "Kathy Jaqua" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Thanks Ken,
>
> You guys are so bright! This genius list is growing.
> So where should I place your learned following script:
> (which I might add is just a tiny bit over my head ;)
OK, Kathy, no problem. You already know from Andre's script that you can use
Rev to run an AppleScript, just as if you'd done it in Apple's Script Editor
application. The AppleScript is executed by Rev using the syntax:
do as AppleScript
where is the script you want to execute. As you are currently
doing, you can provide the script by using the contents of a field. But you
can also provide using a variable. So your "Open iCal" script (which is
currently sitting in a field) could also be executed like this:
on mouseUp
put "tell application" && quote & "iCal" & quote & return & \
"activate" & return & "end tell" into tScript
do tScript as AppleScript
end mouseUp
This would mean you could remove that extra field if you wanted to because
it's all in the script.
The nice thing about Rev is that you can do certain things to shorten the
script and/or make it more readable. For example, "return" can be replaced
with "cr" (which does the same thing), and I personally don't like typing
"quote & & quote" in a script (especially if I'm doing it a
lot), so I created a function called "q" that puts quotes around things:
function q pWhat
return quote & pWhat & quote
end q
(BTW: I forgot to include this function with my last email - sorry...)
Additionally, you can use the backslash character to break script lines for
readability. I do this with things like AppleScript so that one visible line
in Transcript corresponds to one visible line in AppleScript. You don't have
to do this, but I happen to like it. So your "Open iCal" script can now look
like this:
on mouseUp
put "tell application" && q("iCal") & cr & \
"activate" & cr & \
"end tell" into tScript
do tScript as AppleScript
end mouseUp
So the code I'd sent you:
function isAppRunning pAppname
replace ".app" with "" in pAppName
put "tell application " & q("Finder") & cr & \
"return the processes" & \
cr & "end tell" into tAS
do tAS as AppleScript
put the result into tProcs
return (offset("process" && q(pAppName),tProcs) <> 0)
end isAppRunning
Would be called like this:
on mouseUp
if isAppRunning("iCal") then
answer "iCal's running!
else
answer "iCal's not running."
end if
end mouseUp
And the code does this (I'm adding line numbers for clarity):
1: function isAppRunning pAppname
2:replace ".app" with "" in pAppName
3:put "tell application " & q("Finder") & cr & \
"return the processes" & \
cr & "end tell" into tAS
4:do tAS as AppleScript
5:put the result into tProcs
6:return (offset("process" && q(pAppName),tProcs) <> 0)
7: end isAppRunning
In line 1, we pass in the name of the application we want to check as a
parameter to the isAppRunning function. The name can either be the short
name of the application (like "iCal") or the name of the application with
its extension ("iCal.app").
In line 2, since the AppleScript that runs returns a list of running
applications *without* their extensions, I want to eliminate the ".app" if
for some reason it was passed to the function, so I call the "replace"
command to do that job.
Lines 3 to 4 you are more familiar with, in that they run an AppleScript
that returns the list of running processes (applications).
Whenever AppleScript returns a value, Rev can retrieve that value by
checking "the result" right after the AppleScript is called. Line 5 does
this, and puts the list of running applications into the local variable
'tProcs'.
In line 6 we check to see if the application name that was passed into the
function exists in the list of currently running applications that
AppleScript returned. This line is a "combination" line of code; that is, it
is the collapsed form of:
if offset("process" && q(pAppName),tProcs) <> 0 then
return true
else
return false
end if
Since AppleScript returns the list in its own format, the variable tProcs
looks something like this:
{application process "loginwindow" of application "Finder", application
process "Dock" of application "Finder", application processs "iCal" of
application "Finder"}
So to determine if "iCal" is in this list, I'm checking to see if the
phrase:
process "iCal"
exists in the list of processes using the offset() function. If it does, it
returns a value that corrresponds to the location in the string where I can
find it; if not, it returns 0. For the purposes of my code, all I care about
is whether it returns 0 or not; 0 is "false", anything else is "true".
Then we end the function in line 7 and we're done! So if you include the
isAppRunning() function along with the q() function in your script, and call
it like this:
if isAppRunning("iCal") then ...
Open an Application from within RR-Andre's a Genius
Thanks Ken,
You guys are so bright! This genius list is growing.
So where should I place your learned following script:
(which I might add is just a tiny bit over my head ;)
function isAppRunning pAppname
replace ".app" with "" in pAppName
put "tell application " & q("Finder") & cr &
"return the processes" & \
cr & "end tell" into tAS
do tAS as AppleScript
put the result into tProcs
return (offset("process" && q(pAppName),tProcs) <>
0)
end isAppRunning
So what exactly does this script do; since I
understood-- lets see; replace, with, put,
&cr&...Umm-- shall I go on with this list.
All kidding aside I really want to learn this script!
I now have this button "open iCal" that say:
on mouseUp
do field "myscript" as applescript
end mouseUp
field "myscript":
tell application "iCal"
activate
end tell
Now what do I do?
Kathy Graves Jaqua
A Wildest Dream Software
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Re: Open an Application from within RR-Andre's a Genius
On 9/27/04 11:42 PM, "Kathy Jaqua" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Andre or...
>
> How can I tell if the application "iCal" is opened?
> Maybe they deleted it or something. Is there a script
> to check this so I can give them a dialog box
> suggesting they might reinstall the application.
How about this:
function isAppRunning pAppname
replace ".app" with "" in pAppName
put "tell application " & q("Finder") & cr & "return the processes" & \
cr & "end tell" into tAS
do tAS as AppleScript
put the result into tProcs
return (offset("process" && q(pAppName),tProcs) <> 0)
end isAppRunning
HTH,
Ken Ray
Sons of Thunder Software
Web site: http://www.sonsothunder.com/
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Open an Application from within RR-Andre's a Genius
Andre or... How can I tell if the application "iCal" is opened? Maybe they deleted it or something. Is there a script to check this so I can give them a dialog box suggesting they might reinstall the application. Kathy Graves Jaqua A Wildest Dream Software [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
Open an Application from within RR-Andre's a Genius
Andre So what took you so long--at least a minute has past. Can we try for 15 seconds next time!! Yes This worked and I think you just taught me Apple Script as well. I'm at luv and kisses now. Kathy Graves Jaqua A Wildest Dream Software ___ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
