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AppleScript Tutorial
- Thread starter nathanpc
- Start date
1. Start up the script editor.
2. Turn recording on.
3. Switch to Finder
4. Move a couple of files around
5. Switch back to editor
6. Stop recording
7. Save script as a file
8. End of tutorial
You should see lots of "tell type name" to do something with things. That's basically AppleScript, it's about sending AppleEvents which are defined in the target applications dictionaries. Oh, and a few variables and flow control. Where it gets fancy is when people integrate with MacHTTP and start writing web-sites in AppleScript, look for those samples around.
2. Turn recording on.
3. Switch to Finder
4. Move a couple of files around
5. Switch back to editor
6. Stop recording
7. Save script as a file
8. End of tutorial
You should see lots of "tell type name" to do something with things. That's basically AppleScript, it's about sending AppleEvents which are defined in the target applications dictionaries. Oh, and a few variables and flow control. Where it gets fancy is when people integrate with MacHTTP and start writing web-sites in AppleScript, look for those samples around.
Lots of references to Mac OS X, but dig around on some of the links provided from this great site:
http://www.latenightsw.com/scripting.html
The MacScript mailing list was a great resource in the 1990s so it is worth searching for archives on Google.
http://www.latenightsw.com/scripting.html
The MacScript mailing list was a great resource in the 1990s so it is worth searching for archives on Google.
The Tao of AppleScript is a well-written introduction.
Yes, this is a very well written documentation. I used the book as a guide to write and understand my first lines of AppleScript code. If, in any case, AppleSrcipt is not capable of performing some tasks you would like to include into your project, and you did not want to deal with something less easy to learn, try to combine it with the Classic Software KeyQuencer. It allows to write similar script programmes with a set of inbuilt functions, and also to execute AppleScript code from within a KeyQuencer macro script. Have fun!
