[rw]

I swear, trying to do anything with AppleScript is like banging your head against a wall.

I have a script that runs just fine if I open it in Script Editor and click the Run button. But if I save it as an application and run it, it doesn't work. What's up with that? Any AppleScript gurus out there who know how I might even go about debugging problem like that?

[Moonray]

You'd need to give more info. Other applescripts run fine as application? Can you boil down your script to a few lines to see what actually isn't working?

-

[rw]

I've managed to track down the part of the script that isn't working, and created a short test script that exhibits the same behavior:

Code:
on run
	tell application "Finder"
		set shoppingList to (desktop as string) & "ShoppingList.ooutline"
	end tell
	tell application "OmniOutliner"
		open shoppingList
		repeat with theRow in every row of document 1
			if state of theRow as string is "checked" then
				display dialog "OK"
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
end run

Anything inside the if block runs from Script Editor, but not if you run the script as an application. If you want to try this, you will need the OmniOutliner document, which you can find at http://home.earthlink.net/~khr/Shopp...t.ooutline.sit. Unstuff it and place it on your desktop. You will also, of course, need OmniOutliner. The version I have is 2.2.6.

[Diggory Laycock]

Hi,

Not sure what was wrong, but I've cleaned it up a bit (I think!) and it seems happier now:

p.s. you don't have to coerce everything to a string

- e.g. you can write: "if theRow is Checked" because OmniOutliner's Dictionary shows the various 'states' possible for a row:

state none/checked/indeterminate/unchecked -- The state of the check box for this row.

Code:
tell application "Finder"
	set shoppingListFile to file "ShoppingList.ooutline" of desktop
end tell


tell application "OmniOutliner"
	open shoppingListFile
	repeat with theRow in every row of front document
		if state of theRow is checked then
			display dialog (topic of theRow) & " is checked"
		end if
	end repeat
end tell

[suthercd]

You do not need the Finder to set a variable to the file's path.

Code:
set shoppinglist to ((path to desktop as string) & "ShoppingList.ooutline")

CW says to avoid using the Finder in AS when possible.

Craig

[rw]

The script won't run at all if I don't set the path with the Finder. I get this error:

NSReceiverEvaluationScriptError: 4

I'm beginning to suspect that OO's implementation of AS is buggy, since I sometimes (but not always) get an error with this line:

Code:
tell application "OmniOutliner" to quit

This perverse bit of code solves that:

Code:
tell application "OmniOutliner"
    try
        quit
    on error
        quit
    end try
end tell

[Diggory Laycock]

Originally posted by suthercd:
You do not need the Finder to set a variable to the file's path.

Code:
set shoppinglist to ((path to desktop as string) & "ShoppingList.ooutline")

CW says to avoid using the Finder in AS when possible.

Craig

Who's CW?

[suthercd]

Conventional Wisdom.

New scripters think that the Finder needs to be called while many of the classes and commands that folks use are actually a part of the Standard Additions scripting addition.

Take a look at the Finder dictionary and then the Standard Additions dictionary. The latter has a lot more capability.

Applescript now can script System Events and my sense of stuff is that scripting the Finder is being deprecated. There are a few classes that are Finder specific and not found In system Events but not many.

Craig