AppleScript.md

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AppleScript

Go back (WacOS/Wiki/)

The icon for the AppleScript programming language view it here

AppleScript is a scripting language by Apple Inc for easy automated scripting of MacOS programs, starting from System 7. Its last release was the 2.5 release, released on 2014 October 16th.

Comments

This is how to make source code comments in AppleScript.

--This is a one line comment
# So is this! (in Mac OS X Leopard or later)

(* This is a
multiple
line
comment *)

Hello world program

This is the standard Hello world program in AppleScript, which can be displayed 3 different ways.

display dialog "Hello, world!" -- a modal window with "OK" and "Cancel" buttons
-- or
display alert "Hello, world!" -- a modal window with a single "OK" button and an icon
representing the app displaying the alert
-- or
say "Hello, world!" -- an audio message using a synthesized computer voice

Here is an alternative Hello World program:

display alert "Hello, world!" buttons {"Rudely decline", "Happily accept"}
set theAnswer to button returned of the result
if theAnswer is "Happily accept" then
beep 5
else
say "Piffle!"
end if

Other programs

AppleScript uses the ¬ character.

Simple dialog program

-- Dialog
set dialogReply to display dialog "Dialog Text" ¬
default answer "Text Answer" ¬
hidden answer false ¬
buttons {"Skip", "Okay", "Cancel"} ¬
default button "Okay" ¬
cancel button "Skip" ¬
with title "Dialog Window Title" ¬
with icon note ¬
giving up after 15

Simple list making and entry grabbing

-- Choose from list
set chosenListItem to choose from list {"A", "B", "3"} ¬
with title "List Title" ¬
with prompt "Prompt Text" ¬
default items "B" ¬
OK button name "Looks Good!" ¬
cancel button name "Nope, try again" ¬
multiple selections allowed false ¬
with empty selection allowed

Alerting message

-- Alert
set resultAlertReply to display alert "Alert Text" ¬
as warning ¬
buttons {"Skip", "Okay", "Cancel"} ¬
default button 2 ¬
cancel button 1 ¬
giving up after 2

Printing pages from a document

print page 1
print document 2
print pages 1 thru 5 of document 2

Telling Microsoft word to quit

tell application "Microsoft Word"
quit
end tell

Alternative method 1

tell application "Microsoft Word" to quit

Alternative method 2

quit application "Microsoft Word"

An example of the object hierarchy

tell application "QuarkXPress"
  tell document 1
    tell page 2
      tell text box 1
        set word 5 to "Apple"
      end tell
    end tell
  end tell
end tell

Getting a selection of a TIFF image

pixel 7 of row 3 of TIFF image "my bitmap"

Pseudocode of how to do this in another language

getTIFF("my bitmap").getRow(3).getPixel(7);

A failsafe calculator

tell application "Finder"
-- Set variables
set the1 to text returned of (display dialog "1st" default answer "Number here" buttons
{"Continue"} default button 1)
set the2 to text returned of (display dialog "2nd" default answer "Number here" buttons
{"Continue"} default button 1)
try
set the1 to the1 as integer
set the2 to the2 as integer
on error
display dialog "You may only input numbers into a calculator." with title "ERROR"
buttons {"OK"} default button 1
return
end try
-- Add?
if the button returned of (display dialog "Add?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default button 2)
is "Yes" then
set ans to (the1 + the2)
display dialog ans with title "Answer" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
say ans
-- Subtract?
else if the button returned of (display dialog "Subtract?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default
button 2) is "Yes" then
set ans to (the1 - the2)
display dialog ans with title "Answer" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
say ans
-- Multiply?
else if the button returned of (display dialog "Multiply?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default
button 2) is "Yes" then
set ans to (the1 * the2)
display dialog ans with title "Answer" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
say ans
-- Divide?
else if the button returned of (display dialog "Divide?" buttons {"No", "Yes"} default
button 2) is "Yes" then
set ans to (the1 / the2)
display dialog ans with title "Answer" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
say ans
else
delay 1
say "You haven't selected a function. The operation has cancelled."
end if
end tell

A simple username and password program

tell application "Finder"
set passAns to "app123"
set userAns to "John"
if the text returned of (display dialog "Username" default answer "") is userAns then
display dialog "Correct" buttons {"Continue"} default button 1
if the text returned of (display dialog "Username : John" & return & "Password"
default answer "" buttons {"Continue"} default button 1 with hidden answer) is passAns then
display dialog "Access granted" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
else
display dialog "Incorrect password" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end if
else
display dialog "Incorrect username" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end if
end tell

Conditionals

-- Simple conditional
if x < 1000 then set x to x + 1
-- Compound conditional
if x is greater than 3 then
-- commands
else
-- other commands
end if

Forever loop

repeat
-- commands to be repeated
end repeat

Repeat 10 times loop

repeat 10 times
-- commands to be repeated
end repeat

Repeat while loop

set x to 5
repeat while x > 0
set x to x - 1
end repeat
set x to 5
repeat until x ≤ 0
set x to x - 1
end repeat

Repeat variable loop

-- repeat the block 2000 times, i gets all values from 1 to 2000
repeat with i from 1 to 2000
-- commands to be repeated
end repeat
-- repeat the block 4 times, i gets values 100, 75, 50 and 25
repeat with i from 100 to 25 by -25
-- commands to be repeated
end repeat

Enumerating a list

set total to 0
repeat with loopVariable in {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
set total to total + loopVariable
end repeat

Application

-- Simple form
tell application "Safari" to activate
-- Compound
tell application "MyApp"
-- commands for app
end tell

Error handling

try
-- commands to be tested
on error
-- error commands
end try

Function handler

on
myFunction(parameters...)
-- subroutine
commands
end myFunction

Folder actions block

on adding folder items to thisFolder after
receiving theseItems
-- commands to apply to the folder or
items
end adding folder items to

Run handler

on run
--
commands
end run

Handler with labeled parameters

on rock around the clock
display dialog (clock as
string)
end rock
-- called with:
rock around the current date

Handler using "to" and label parameters

to check for yourNumber from bottom thru top
if bottom ≤ yourNumber and yourNumber ≤ top
then
display dialog "Congratulations! You
scored."
end if
end check
--called with:
check for 8 from 7 thru 10

Open handler

on open theItems
repeat with thisItem in theItems
tell application "Finder" to update thisItem
end repeat
end open

Idle handler

on idle
--code to execute when the script's execution has completed
return 60 -- number of seconds to pause before executing idle handler again
end idle

Quit handler

on quit
--commands to execute before the script quits
continue quit -- required for the script to actually quit
end quit

Script objects

script scriptName
-- commands and handlers specific to the script
end script

Miscellaneous information

set variable1 to 1 -- create an integer variable called variable1
set variable2 to "Hello" -- create a text variable called variable2
copy {17, "doubleday"} to variable3 -- create a list variable called variable3
set {variable4, variable5} to variable3 -- copy the list items of variable3 into separate
variables variable4 and variable5
set variable6 to script myScript -- set a variable to an instance of a script

Cannot call subroutines at this time

tell application "Finder"
set x to my myHandler()
-- or
set x to myHandler() of me
end tell
on myHandler()
--commands
end myHandler

Improved performance example

tell application "Finder"
set anyNumber to my (random number from 5 to 50)
end tell

Source: Wikipedia

Use in WacOS

The WacOS project plans to have an open-source reverse-engineered implementation of AppleScript to use for legacy purposes in the system.

Use by Apple

AppleScript is used primarily to make MacOS programs since System 7, and is still being used to this day. I am not sure if it is being run on other Apple systems though.

This article on programming languages is a stub. You can help by expanding it!

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Article info

Written on: 2021, Wednesday September 15th at 3:18 pm)

Last revised on: 2021, Wednesday September 15th at 3:18 pm)

File format Markdown document (*.md *.mkd *.markdown)

Article version: 1 (2021, Wednesday September 15th at 3:18 pm)

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