Scripting Applescript Editor and saving files

I am guessing that you are still running Snow Leopard, since this doesn't seem to work anymore in Lion.

I'm glad you found your original problem - you didn't specify a file name to save the file into (I'm even more glad it failed and didn't affect your hard drive since what you were asking it to do was replace the contents of your hard drive with the script... but I digress).

You're also going about this the long way - forcing Script Editor to open, create a new document and save it, whereas AppleScript can do this all on its own via the store script command:

script myScript

beep

end script

store scriptmyScriptin (path tostartup diskastext) & "Test.app"

If you plan on running it by itself, your stored script won't do as you expect because it won't know what the shlScrpt variable is. I'm still wondering if you have made some global preferences changes (auto-save, versions, etc), since I've used a script snippet generator/code wrapper since at least Tiger, but it will no longer save in Lion.

OK, found the issue with not being able to save my scripted scripts in Lion.

If you script AppleScript Editor to create a new document, do not give it a name. Giving a new document a name apparently now has AppleScript Editor looking for an original script with that name when trying to save it.

Your "finished product" accidentally works because global variables are saved with the script. The variable shlScrpt is not actually defined anywhere in the saved script, so if something happens such as the script getting recompiled, the (inaccessible) global variables will be lost.

I use another approach - my script adds a wrapper script around the clipboard text or a selection in the AppleScript Editor so that it can be used later to insert code snippets or handlers into the current script document. I keep a library of these code insertion scripts in my Scripts Menu so that I can prototype a script fairly quickly. I don't normally auto-save these scripts since I add a description and a few comments before saving to the appropriate folder, but things are back to normal after discovering this new "feature".

Hi all, I'm a little late to this thread in an attempt to get some scripts working in Lion. Thanks for the help. I noticed the way you set your globals, and the way you're having variables get passed on to recompiled scripts.

I take a different approach, by writing my Applescript as text, in quotation marks, and then relying on fields getting filled in when the Applescript Editor is run, and the new script has the correct data. I make one text entry called "QT_multiliner" and fill in variables using quotation marks and ampersands.

THIS FIRST SCRIPT is used to take variables given to it by a database, and generate a custom applescript for any given record in the database.

----------------------------------------------------

set yyyymmdd to (((year of (current date)) * 10000) + ((month of (current date)) * 100) + (day of (current date))) as text

set mmdd to (text items 5 through 8 of (yyyymmdd)) as text

set qtPath to "/path/to/folder/" & mmdd & "/"

set RenderPrefix to "filename_of_choice"

set TGA_path to "/path/to/folder_with_files/" & mmdd & "/" & RenderPrefix & "/" as text

set appletPath to "/path/to/folder/applet_name_" & RenderPrefix & ".app"

set temp_doc to POSIX fileappletPath

--write the applet in Script Editor. Variables will be filled in and compiled in Script Editor.

set QT_multiliner to "tell application \"Finder\"

set thePath to \"" & TGA_path & "\" as string

activate

make new Finder window

set target of Finder window 1 to (POSIX file thePath)

set theSequence to get first file of the front window as alias

close window 1

end tell

set sequenceName to \"" & RenderPrefix & ".mov\"

tell application id \"com.apple.quicktimeplayer\"

activate

open image sequence theSequence frames per second 23.98

set savePath to \"" & qtPath & "/\" & sequenceName

tell movie 1

with timeout of 2400 seconds

export to (POSIX file savePath) as QuickTime movie using settings alias \"path:to:settings:file\"

end timeout

close saving no

end tell

quit

end tell"

-- Write the script to its own applet

tell application id "com.apple.ScriptEditor2"

set x to makenewdocument

set x to the front document

set the text of document 1 to QT_multiliner

compiledocument 1

save document 1 as "application" in (temp_doc)

quit

end tell

------------------------------------------------################################ ######

...now, when that is run, the following applescript is generated with all of the variables filled in.

------------------------------------------------################################ ######

--This applet was saved by the previous script, and is saved as /path/to/folder/applet_name_filename_of_choice.app

tell application "Finder"

set thePath to "/path/to/folder_with_files/0112/filename_of_choice/" as string

activate

makenewFinder window

set target of Finder window 1 to (POSIX file thePath)

set theSequence to get first file of the front window as alias

closewindow 1

end tell

set sequenceName to "filename_of_choice.mov"

tell application id "com.apple.quicktimeplayer"

activate

open image sequencetheSequenceframes per second 23.98

set savePath to "/path/to/folder/0112//" & sequenceName

tell document 1

with timeout of 2400 seconds

export to (POSIX file savePath) as QuickTime movie using settings alias "path:to:settings:file"

end timeout

closesavingno

end tell

quit

end tell

-------------------------------------------------------

I really liked Camelot's "script / end script" function, it's better, but I just couldn't get it to pipe variables through from one script to another. Since I need to run this script on any one of dozens of computers, I need the variables to be compiled and saved within each applet.

all the best,

Vic

That is more or less how I do it. In my original auto code wrapper, I set the name of the new document to the handler name, but Lion doesn't much care for that. I also don't use the store script command in my code wrapper, since I mainly use it to drop handler definitions and code snippets into the current editor window.

I've used this page for reference before (thanks everyone!) and I just wanted to add something which might help other people having a similar issue to the one I found myself with.

My Applescript created stand alone apps which would be passed a string (the path to the file to open) and, when run, would open the file using finder. This was to ensure that the correct Mac OS chosen software would launch when each type of file was opened (if MS Word was installed, Word would launch, if not, TextEdit would launch).

The script I used was very similar to Victor D's method, where a multiline text file is created using variables and then inserted into a new Applescript window and compiled/saved with a specific filename before closing the window and moving onto the next item (taken from a comma separated textfile of filenames).

Although this script worked on AppleScript Editor 2.2.1 on my old PPC G4, version 2.5.1 on my Intel Mac didn't work. It would keep hanging at random points, sometimes halfway through, sometimes further, but it never reached the end of the list to process. I put delays in the code of half seconds, thinking that the new Mac was processing stuff too fast and the script couldn't keep up, but it still kept hanging at random intervals.

Anyway - cut to the end of a long, boring story - the solution was that the original script-creating script was being run from within the Applescript editor itself - so it was trying to run and create new scripts simlutaneously, which confused it. By saving the original script-making script as a standalone app first and then running it as an app, the whole thing worked perfectly as it kept the two processes separate.