Applescript- combine multiple IF statments and an abbreviation for home folders

I don't have the brainpower for your IF question, I think you mean:

true and true

which is the same as:

0 is 0 and 1 is 1

Hardcoded HFS paths are always a no-no, instead of "Macintosh HD" you say:

tell application "Finder" to startup disk as alias

which gives you a string you can append a string to.

Your home folder can be invoked like:

tell application "Finder" to path to home folder

You assemble a string like this:

tell application "Finder" to (path to home folder) & "Dropbox:Backup" as string

Note that the data class is still string. You can change it to alias by saying:

tell application "Finder" to ((path to home folder) & "Music") as string as alias

however this had to point to Music bacause I don't have "Dropbox". An alias invokes the existence of the location and you do it in Finder. Hope that helps.

That's because you didn't really use my code, you shortcutted. When you run an Applescript, you are running it in the Applescript interpreter. For example, say this:

me

This means "me" or "my" is the script's handler, so the result is a reference to the script:

«script»

So if you say:

home

Applescript's interpreter doesn't know what that means and it errors. But if you tell Finder to "home":

tell application "Finder" to home

Finder knows home is your home folder. What application you tell to interpret code is of the utmost importance. In the example you gave, Applescript knows what "path tohome folder" means and assembles your string. This is why I told Finder to do it even though Applescript does it just as well, as a reminder that it is a Finder operation. So sending your string to Finder:

tell application "Finder" to existsfilesafariPlist

will get you "false", because no such file exists (on my computer).

A string is a data class of "string", you can see what class a variable is by saying:

class of safariPlist

-> text

Class "text" isn't a filepath, it is just some text. Class "alias" tells Applescript the string is a filepath. So if you say:

existssafariPlist

Applescript knows it is a filepath without even invoking Finder. Pretty cool, huh? This gets useful in long scripts involving various applications. So you can minimalistically say:

set safariPlist to (path to home folder) & "Library:Safari:Bookmarks.plist" as string as alias

if existssafariPlist then

display dialog "It exists."

tell application "Finder" to move safariPlist to trash

end if

Note

Note that in order to move a file to trash you need to invoke Finder because Applescript doesn't know what trash is. Hope that helps.

You're confusing me. The script you said returned that error couldn't possibly have, so you ran a different script from what you posted. Can you see the difference?

If you received that error trying to get "Safari_Bookmarks.plist" it is most likely because no such file exists.

As I explained in my last post, "alias" must always refer to a file or folder that exists. If it doesn't exist, it will throw the error you pasted. That means "alias" should only be used on a file that MUST exist, unless you wrap in a conditional block or error trap.

In your last script, you ONLY set a variable to a string. Applescript doesn't care or know what the string means, it is ONLY a string.

"string" and "alias" are datatypes, and every datatype has a different set of properties and behaviors. A "string" datatype is ONLY a sequence of characters, but "alias" datatype must always be a path to an actual file. Datatypes is a very elementary programming concept that apply to all programming languages.

In your case, you can't even say:

set safariPlist to (path to home folder) & "Library:Safari:Safari_Bookmarks" as string

if not (exists alias safariPlist) then display dialog "No such file"

See how it errors, because no such file even exists to even test for existence. You would have to say something like this:

set safariPlist to (path to home folder) & "Library:Safari:Safari_Bookmarks" as string

tell application "Finder"

if not (exists file safariPlist) then display dialog "No such file"

end tell

In this case you need to wrap the word "file" in a Finder block, but I explained that before.

If you refer to an actual file that exists, it will skip over the dialog and do nothing. On my computer, it does that because I have the file "Bookmarks.plist". Not sure what you are trying to do. If you are scripting files that may or may not exist you should at least open the folder and see what's really there:

tell application "Finder" to opencontainer of filesafariPlist

Keep on plugging away and you'll learn something.