Automator AppleScript Actions Tutorial

Apple Inc.

Description

AutomatorAppleScriptActionsTutorial
AppleApplications>Automator
2007-07-18IMPLIED,WITHRESPECTTOTHIS
DOCUMENT,ITSQUALITY,ACCURACY,
AppleInc. MERCHANTABILITY,ORFITNESSFORA
PARTICULARPURPOSE.ASARESULT,THIS©2005,2007AppleInc.ISPROVIDED“ASIS,”AND
Allrightsreserved. YOU,THEREADER,AREASSUMINGTHE
ENTIRERISKASTOITSQUALITYAND
ACCURACY.Nopartofthispublicationmaybe
INNOEVENTWILLAPPLEBELIABLEFORreproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or
DIRECT,INDIRECT,SPECIAL,INCIDENTAL,
transmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, ORCONSEQUENTIALDAMAGES
RESULTINGFROMANYDEFECTORmechanical,electronic,photocopying,
INACCURACYINTHISDOCUMENT,evenif
recording,orotherwise,withoutprior advisedofthepossibilityofsuchdamages.
writtenpermissionofAppleInc.,withthe THEWARRANTYANDREMEDIESSET
followingexceptions:Anypersonishereby FORTHABOVEAREEXCLUSIVEANDIN
LIEUOFALLOTHERS,ORALORWRITTEN,authorizedtostoredocumentationona
EXPRESSORIMPLIED.NoAppledealer,agent,
singlecomputerforpersonaluseonlyand oremployeeisauthorizedtomakeany
modification,extension,oradditiontothistoprintcopiesofdocumentationfor
warranty.
personaluseprovidedthatthe
SomestatesdonotallowtheexclusionordocumentationcontainsApple’scopyright limitationofimpliedwarrantiesorliabilityfor
notice. incidentalorconsequentialdamages,sothe
abovelimitationorexclusionmaynotapplyto
TheApplelogoisatrademarkofAppleInc. you.Thiswarrantygivesyouspecificlegal
rights,andyoumayalsohaveotherrightswhich
Useofthe“keyboard”Applelogo varyfromstatetostate ...

Sujets

• User Interface Privilege Isolation
• AppleScript
• Workflow
• La Passion du Christ
• Xcode
• Palette couleurs

Informations

• Publié par: Chuwyar
• Nombre de lectures: 130
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

AutomatorAppleScript AppleApplications>Automator 2007-07-18 ActionsTutorial

IMPLIED,WITHRESPECTTOTHIS DOCUMENT,ITSQUALITY,ACCURACY, AppleInc. MERCHANTABILITY,ORFITNESSFORA ©2005,2007AppleInc. PARTICULARPURPOSE.ASARESULT,THIS DOCUMENTISPROVIDED“ASIS,”AND Allrightsreserved. YOU,THEREADER,AREASSUMINGTHE ENTIRERISKASTOITSQUALITYAND Nopartofthispublicationmaybe ACCURACY. reproduced,storedinaretrievalsystem,or INNOEVENTWILLAPPLEBELIABLEFOR DIRECT,INDIRECT,SPECIAL,INCIDENTAL, transmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, ORCONSEQUENTIALDAMAGES mechanical,electronic,photocopying, RESULTINGFROMANYDEFECTOR INACCURACYINTHISDOCUMENT,evenif recording,orotherwise,withoutprior advisedofthepossibilityofsuchdamages. writtenpermissionofAppleInc.,withthe THEWARRANTYANDREMEDIESSET followingexceptions:Anypersonishereby FORTHABOVEAREEXCLUSIVEANDIN authorizedtostoredocumentationona LIEUOFALLOTHERS,ORALORWRITTEN, EXPRESSORIMPLIED.NoAppledealer,agent, singlecomputerforpersonaluseonlyand oremployeeisauthorizedtomakeany toprintcopiesofdocumentationfor modification,extension,oradditiontothis personaluseprovidedthatthe warranty. Somestatesdonotallowtheexclusionor documentationcontainsApple’scopyright limitationofimpliedwarrantiesorliabilityfor notice. incidentalorconsequentialdamages,sothe abovelimitationorexclusionmaynotapplyto TheApplelogoisatrademarkofAppleInc. you.Thiswarrantygivesyouspecificlegal rights,andyoumayalsohaveotherrightswhich Useofthe“keyboard”Applelogo varyfromstatetostate. (Option-Shift-K)forcommercialpurposes withoutthepriorwrittenconsentofApple mayconstitutetrademarkinfringementand unfaircompetitioninviolationoffederal andstatelaws. Nolicenses,expressorimplied,aregranted withrespecttoanyofthetechnology describedinthisdocument.Appleretains allintellectualpropertyrightsassociated withthetechnologydescribedinthis document.Thisdocumentisintendedto assistapplicationdeveloperstodevelop applicationsonlyforApple-labeled computers. Everyefforthasbeenmadetoensurethat theinformationinthisdocumentis accurate.Appleisnotresponsiblefor typographicalerrors. AppleInc. 1InfiniteLoop Cupertino,CA95014 408-996-1010 Apple,theApplelogo,AppleScript, AppleScriptStudio,Cocoa,iPhoto,iPod, iTunes,Mac,MacOS,Objective-C,and XcodearetrademarksofAppleInc., registeredintheUnitedStatesandother countries. FinderisatrademarkofAppleInc. SimultaneouslypublishedintheUnited StatesandCanada. EventhoughApplehasreviewedthisdocument, APPLEMAKESNOWARRANTYOR REPRESENTATION,EITHEREXPRESSOR

Contents Introduction Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5 Chapter6 IntroductiontoAutomatorAppleScriptActionsTutorial 7 OrganizationofThisDocument7 BeforeYouStart 9 WhatIsanAutomatorAction?9 TheActionYouWillCreate11 CreatingtheProject 13 CreatingtheUserInterface 19 OpeningtheActionNibFile19 PlacingandConfiguringUser-InterfaceObjects20 EstablishingBindings 27 BindingsinanAction27 EstablishingtheBindingsoftheAction28 AlternativestoBindings31 ConfiguringtheAction 33 EditingtheInformationPropertyList33 ActionInputandOutput35 DefaultParameterSettings37 TheActionDescription38 OtherSettings39 WritingtheActionScript 41 TheonrunCommandHandler41 WritingtheSubroutines43 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved. 3

Chapter7 4 CONTENTS BuildingandTestingtheAction DocumentRevisionHistory 2007-07-18| 94 45 ©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved.

Chapter1 Chapter2 Chapter3 Chapter4 Chapter5 Figures BeforeYouStart 9 Figure1-1TheFindMessagesinMailaction9 Figure1-2TheCopyUnreadMailtoiPodNotesworkflow10 Figure1-3ThePassRandomItemsactioninaworkflow11 CreatingtheProject 13 Figure2-1SelectingtheAppleScriptactionprojecttemplate14 Figure2-2Specifyingprojectnameandlocation15 Figure2-3ThefilesofanAppleScriptactionprojectinXcode16 CreatingtheUserInterface 19 Figure3-1Thenibfilewindow,initialactionview,andpalette19 Figure3-2Automatoricon20 Figure3-3Placingatextfieldbydraggingitfromthepalette21 Figure3-4Settingthesizeattributeofthetextfield22 Figure3-5Resizingthetextfield23 Figure3-6Changingthestringinainanon-editabletextfield(alabel)23 Figure3-7Changingthenumberofradiobuttonsinamatrix(radiobuttons)24 Figure3-8Changingthetitleofabutton24 Figure3-9FinaluserinterfaceofPassRandomItemsaction25 EstablishingBindings 27 Figure4-1Bindingbetweenthepop-uplistandapropertyoftheparameterdictionary 82 Figure4-2AddingkeysasattributesoftheParametersinstance.29 Figure4-3Bindingbetweenthecontrollerandtheparametersdictionary30 Figure4-4TheselectedIndexattributeinthebindingsinspector31 ConfiguringtheAction 33 Figure5-1ThepropertyinspectorforAutomatoractions(generalcollection)34 Figure5-2ThecompletedGeneralcollectionofAutomatorproperties)35 Figure5-3Automatorpropertyinspector—Inputcollection36 Figure5-4ThedefaultparametersforthePassRandomItemsaction38 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved. 5

Chapter6 Chapter7 6 FIGURES Figure5-5ThedescriptionforthePassRandomItemsaction38 WritingtheActionScript 41 Figure6-1Thetemplateforthe onrun handler41 Figure6-2Initializinglocaloutputandparametervariables42 Figure6-3Thefinal onrun handler42 Figure6-4Subroutinescalledbythemainscript43 BuildingandTestingtheAction 45 Figure7-1 Figure7-2 Figure7-3 ExecutablesettingsforthePassRandomItemsaction45 TestingthePassRandomItemsactioninaworkflow46 TheAppleScriptdebugger47 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved.

INTRODUCTION IntroductiontoAutomatorAppleScript ActionsTutorial ThistutorialshowsyouhowtocreateanactionfortheAutomatorapplicationusingAppleScriptas theimplementationlanguage. Important:SomeoftheXcodefeaturesmentionedinthistutorial,suchastheAppleScriptdebugger andthepropertyinspector,wereintroducedwithXcode2.1.IfyouhaveanearlierversionofXcode, youdonothaveaccesstothesefeatures. ThetutorialassumesthatyouarefamiliarwithAppleScript,butotherwisehasnootherprerequisites. Itishelpful,however,ifyouhavesomeexperiencewithAppleScriptStudio. OrganizationofThisDocument Thistutorialhasthefollowingchapters,whicharemeanttobereadinthegivenorder: 1.“BeforeYouStart”(page9)givesanoverviewofAutomatoractionsandworkflows.Italso describestheactionthatyouwillcreateinthetutorial. 2.“CreatingtheProject”(page13)explainshowtocreateanAppleScriptactionprojectandidentifies thekeyelementsofsuchprojects. 3.“CreatingtheUserInterface”(page19)showsyouhowtocreatetheuserinterfaceoftheaction usingtheInterfaceBuilderapplication. 4.“EstablishingBindings”(page27)explainswhatCocoabindingsareanddescribeshowyou establishbindingsfortheaction. 5.“ConfiguringtheAction”(page33)discusseshowtosetthepropertiesoftheactioninits Info.plist file. 6.“WritingtheActionScript”(page41)showsthescriptthatyouwritefortheactionandexplains thegeneralstructureandbehaviorofallsuchscripts. 7.“BuildingandTestingtheAction”(page45)describestechniquesfortestinganddebuggingan actionafteritisbuilt. OrganizationofThisDocument 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved. 7

8 INTRODUCTION IntroductiontoAutomatorAppleScriptActionsTutorial OrganizationofThisDocument 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved.

CHAPTER1 BeforeYouStart InthistutorialyouaregoingtolearnthebasicstepsforconstructinganAutomatoractionusing AppleScriptasthedevelopmentlanguage.Intheprocessoflearning,youwillcreateaactionthat youcanproductivelyuseinworkflows.Butbeforeyoubegin,let’stakeamomenttoreviewwhatan actionisandtolookattheactionyouwillcreate. WhatIsanAutomatorAction? Mostpeoplearefamiliarwiththenotionofbuildingblocks.Byplacingsmallbutwell-definedunits incertainrelationshipswitheachother,onecancomposecomplexandevenelegantstructures.An Automatoractionissuchabuildingblock.Anactionisasmall,discretefunctionalunit;itperforms awell-definedoperationusuallyondataofaspecifictype,suchascopyingafileoraddingphotos toaniPhotoalbum.Itoftenofferstheuserasimpleuserinterfaceforsettingcertainparametersof theoperation.Forexample,theactioninFigure1-1selectscertainMailmessagesbasedonspecified criteria. Figure1-1TheFindMessagesinMailaction Byitself,anactioncannotdomuch.Foronething,itrequirestheAutomatorapplicationtoprovide thecontextforitsexecution.But,moreimportantly,anaction’sverydiscretenesslimitsitsusefulness; anactionisdesignedtocompleteasmall,well-definedtask,andnothingmore.Tobeeffective,an actionmustbeplacedinameaningfulsequenceofotheractions.Thissequenceofactionsiscalleda workflow.Inaworkflowtheoutputofoneactionisusually(butnotalways)passedtothenextaction intheworkflowasinput.Automatororchestratesthisprocessbystartingeachactioninturnand passingittheoutputofthepreviousaction.Aworkflowexpressesaoperationthatcanbearbitrarily WhatIsanAutomatorAction? 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved. 9

10 CHAPTER1 BeforeYouStart complex,andthefinalproductofthatoperationisusuallytheoutputofthelastaction.Forexample, theworkflowinFigure1-2getsauser’sunreadmailanddownloadsthemessagestotheNotessection ofaconnectediPod. Figure1-2TheCopyUnreadMailtoiPodNotesworkflow AsanAutomatorworkflow(suchastheoneabove)illustrates,anactionisusuallydesignedtoaccept inputandproduceoutputofspecificdatatypes(althoughsomeactionswilltakeandprovideany typeofdata).Thussomeactionsmaybeincompatiblewithotheractions;theCombineMailMessages action,forinstance,couldnotacceptAddressBookdata.Buttherecanbewhatarecalledconversion actionstobridgebetweenactionswithincompatibletypesofdata. Fromadevelopmentperspective,anactionisaloadablebundleinstalledinoneoffourlocations:  � /System/Library/Automator (Apple-providedactions)  � /Library/Automator (third-partyactions,generalaccess)  � ~/Library/Automator (per-useraccess)  � Insideanapplicationbundle(accessdeterminedbyaccesstoapplication) WhatIsanAutomatorAction? 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved.

CHAPTER1 BeforeYouStart Theactionbundlecancontainexecutablecode,AppleScriptscripts,shellscripts,andlocalizedstrings, nibfiles,andotherresources.WhenAutomatorislaunched,theapplicationextractsconfiguration informationfromtheactionbundlesanddisplayssomeofthisinformationinitsuserinterface.Italso loadsthebundlesoftheactionsplacedinaworkflowatsomepointbeforetheexecutionofthe workflow(theexactmomentdiffersforactionsbasedonObjective-CandactionsbasedonAppleScript). ForacompletedescriptionofthearchitectureofAutomatoractionsandworkflows,see“How AutomatorWorks”intheAutomatorProgrammingGuide. TheActionYouWillCreate InthistutorialyouwillcreateanactionnamedPassRandomItems.Theactionacceptsalistofitems (ofanytype)fromthepreviousactionandpassesarandomsubsetofthoseitemstothenextaction. Userscanspecifythenumberorpercentageofitemstopassintheaction’suserinterface.Figure1-3 showsthePassRandomItemsactioninaworkflow. Figure1-3ThePassRandomItemsactioninaworkflow Note:TheprojectforthePassRandomItemsactionisinstalledasanexample(underthename Randomizer)in /Developer/Examples/Automator . Inthisworkflow,theFilterPhotosiniPhotoactionpassesallselectedphotostakenwithinthelast twomonthstoPassRandomItems.Thisaction,inturn,passes20randomphotosfromthatinitial selectiontoanactionthatplaystheminaslideshow. Afteryoucompletethistutorialandbeforeyouattemptdevelopinganyactiononyourown,you shouldtaketimetoconsiderthedesignoftheaction.Read“DesignGuidelinesforActions”in AutomatorProgrammingGuideforasummaryofpertinentdesignguidelines. TheActionYouWillCreate 2007-07-18|©2005,2007AppleInc.AllRightsReserved. 11