Idle Time

NSDictionary *errorDict = nil;
script = [[[(OSAScript | NSAppleScript) alloc] initWithContentsOfURL:scriptURL error:&errorDict] autorelease];
result = [script executeAndReturnError:&errorDict];

22 Responses to “Framework Friday: OSAKit”

1. Carl Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 01:29:19

   OT, but I know you’re also into Python. Is there a good way to do AppleScript from Python? I’ve looked at the Apple website before and they make it seem like there might be, but then do absolutely zero documentation of what it is…

2. Carl Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 01:34:28

   Oh, did you see how your proposed for-loop chainer is in itertools for Python 2.6:

   
>>> from itertools import product
>>> tf = (True, False)
>>> for x, y, z in product(tf, tf, tf):
... print(x, y, z)
...
True True True
True True False
True False True
True False False
False True True
False True False
False False True
False False False

   Pretty cool.

3. Peter Hosey Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 02:14:29

   Carl:

   #1: Not that I know of. import Carbon.OSA doesn’t work, and PyObjC doesn’t expose the OSA Kit.

   #2: You’re referring to this previous blog post, I think. I hadn’t seen that. Awesome.

4. Martin Michel Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 03:06:15

   @Carl:
   If you want to do AppleScript from Python, I absolutely recommend to take a look at py-appscript developed by Hamish Sanderson:

   http://appscript.sourceforge.net/

   It’s really a great tool and I use it all the time for my private scripting projects. Of course you can also combine AppleScript & Python with AppleScript’s «do shell script» command. I have written a small article about this at MacScripter:

   http://bbs.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=98398

   @Peter:
   Thank you so much for this article. I was always unhappy with NSAppleScript and will now try to use the OSAScript class for some of my command line tools.

   Best regards from Germany!

5. Ronald Oussoren Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 03:39:33

   Carl: you can use appscript to do AppleScript from python (http://appscript.sourceforge.net/)

6. Jeff Johnson Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 08:58:08

   Peter, what exactly is your experience with -[OSAScript executeHandlerWithName:arguments:error:]? Does it always fail when you send arguments, or does it always fail period? I definitely have it working with an empty array for arguments, and I seem to recall getting it to work with arguments, though I’m not certain about the latter. I may be able to help if I can see the script you’re using. It’s extremely finicky, just like Applescript itself. :-)

7. Harvey Swik Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 10:33:48

   @Carl:
   You can also use ScriptingBridge.framework from python. http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ScriptingBridgeConcepts/Introduction/chapter_1_section_1.html

8. Paul Kim Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 11:48:29

   -executeHandlerWithName:arguments:error: works fine for me. You just have to make sure that you lowercase the handler name (even if the actual handler name is mixed/upper case). This was also the case in the different categories people did to extend NSAppleScript to be able to call handler with arguments.

9. Peter Hosey Says:
   November 9th, 2008 at 13:21:18

   Jeff and Paul: Download the test app. I’ve updated it to include a couple more sample scripts.

   It definitely does not work with the run handler. Calling OSAGetHandlerNames shows the run handler as an Apple Event descriptor rather than a string descriptor, so that may be the problem there.

   But I couldn’t get it to work with a specific handler, either—I got the same result either way. (Yes, I did add a message to call that handler specifically.)

10. Jon Nathan Says:
    November 9th, 2008 at 17:04:00

    Thanks for the post, Peter. Getting a 404 on the download link for the OSAKit-osascript-1.0.1.tbz project, though.

11. Peter Hosey Says:
    November 9th, 2008 at 17:28:15

    Jon Nathan: Sorry; I broke the link in changing it to the new filename.

    I have now fixed it. Thanks for the report.

12. Jeff Johnson Says:
    November 9th, 2008 at 22:54:12

    Several issues: (1) The syntax is “on” rather than “to” for the handlers. (2) I think that “run” may be a reserved word, try “my_run”. (3) You need parentheses after the handler name, e.g., “my_run()”. (4) It doesn’t seem to like the .applescript file extension, try .scpt.

    
on my_run()
beep
end my_run


13. Peter Hosey Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 00:03:05

    Jeff: No. The script is a valid AppleScript script (1–3), and both my application and OSA support .applescript files just fine (4). In fact, it shouldn’t make any difference whether it’s already-compiled or not, since OSA has supported plain-text scripts since Mac OS.

14. Jeff Johnson Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 09:30:45

    Heh, not sure what you mean by no. No it didn’t work, or no you refuse to follow my advice?

15. Peter Hosey Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 09:51:43

    Jeff: No, your statements are wrong.

    1. to handler-name is a valid way to start a handler. It’s synonymous with on handler-name.
    2. run is a reserved word: reserved for the name of the main handler (synonymous with just putting all your code at the top level, if you don’t have any other handlers). That’s what I wanted.
    3. You only need parentheses after the handler name if the handler is not run. For the run handler, the parentheses are optional.
    4. OSA, OSA Kit, and my program all accept text-only (.applescript) scripts, and treat them equally to how they treat compiled (.scpt) scripts. (How to prove this: Compile the script, then run my program on the result. You’ll see the same result.)

    I sincerely thank you for trying, but none of the advice you gave applies.

16. Paul Kim Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 11:33:17

    I did manage to get your program working when using a non-“run” handler. One problem I found was that the args aren’t being converted to NSAppleEventDescriptors. Try that and see if it works for you.

17. Paul Kim Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 11:50:26

    Actually, scratch that. It works even without conversion. But in any case, it does work on handlers besides the “run” one.

18. has Says:
    November 10th, 2008 at 14:14:20

    -[OSAScript executeHandlerWithName:arguments:error:] is working as advertised; the problem is that it’s only suitable for calling AppleScript handlers whose names are user-defined identifiers. Handlers whose names are reserved keywords must be invoked using the equivalent raw AE codes. Here’s a simple example to illustrate (it’s modified from the CallAppleScriptHandler project in the objc-appscript svn repository):

    
#import "Appscript/Appscript.h"

    int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    NSAutoreleasePool * pool = [[NSAutoreleasePool alloc] init];

    // Create AEMApplication object for building AEMEvents
    AEMApplication *app = [[AEMApplication alloc] init];

    // Create AEMCodecs object for unpacking script results
    AEMCodecs *codecs = [[AEMCodecs alloc] init];

    // Create 'aevtoapp' (run) AEMEvent
    AEMEvent *evt = [app eventWithEventClass:kCoreEventClass
    eventID:kAEOpenApplication];

    // Build direct parameter for 'run' event and add it to AEMEvent
    NSMutableArray *params = [NSMutableArray array];
    int i;
    for (i=1; i < argc; i++)
    [params addObject: [NSString stringWithUTF8String: argv[i]]];
    [evt setParameter:params forKeyword:keyDirectObject];

    // Compile (or load) the AppleScript
    NSAppleScript *scpt = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:
    @"on run params\n"
    @" return params as text\n"
    @"end run"];

    // Get an NSAppleEventDescriptor from AEMEvent
    NSAppleEventDescriptor *evtDesc = [evt descriptor];

    // Send event to AppleScript
    NSDictionary *error = nil;
    NSAppleEventDescriptor *resultDesc = [scpt executeAppleEvent:evtDesc
    error:&error];

    if (resultDesc) {
    // Unpack script result
    id res = [codecs unpack:resultDesc];
    NSLog(@"Result = %@", res);
    } else
    NSLog(@"Script error = %@", error);

    [scpt release];
[codecs release];
[app release];
[pool release];
return 0;
}


    Uses objc-appscript’s AEM API for building events and converting ObjC values to NSAppleEventDescriptors and back. Plus NSAppleScript (which does indeed leak like a sieve on 10.4 and earlier, although I believe it’s somewhat improved in 10.5) for executing scripts, but you could replace that with OSAScript easily enough if you wanted.

    HTH

    has
    —
    Control AppleScriptable applications from Python, Ruby and ObjC:
    http://appscript.sourceforge.net

19. Joshua Says:
    November 15th, 2008 at 07:08:59

    Can OSAKit be used on a secondary thread? That’s the primary limitation of NSAppleScript for me, currently.

20. Peter Hosey Says:
    November 15th, 2008 at 14:15:36

    Joshua: I don’t know anything that isn’t in the headers or the documentation. Neither of those said anything about it. (Of course, there is no documentation specifically for OSA Kit; the only material about OSA Kit in the documentation is that which mentions OSA Kit.)

    So, you should file a documentation bug. ☺

21. Joshua Says:
    November 17th, 2008 at 10:37:30

    Bug filed :-)

22. Peter Hosey Says:
    November 17th, 2008 at 14:30:42

    Joshua: Don’t forget to link to the x-radar://problem/XXXXXX URL, so that any Apple employees who read this post can get to your bug easily.

    If possible, it would also be nice if you’d copy the report into OpenRadar, so that anyone can read it.

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