How to convert the output of Applescript which is in object format to text or string format??

Hi,

What you ask in this thread is identical to your another thread, you can continue the other thread, just give more details like this post..

I give a solution inthis thread, but maybe that you don't want the raw code in the text?

Here is another solution:

set allButtons to "-e 'tell application \"System Events\"' "
tell application "System Events"
      tell process "Install Adobe Reader"
            with timeout of 0 seconds
                  set tElements to entire contents of window 1
            end timeout
            repeat with i in tElements
                  if class of i is button then try
                        i as string
                  on error err
                        set allButtons to allButtons & "-e " & quoted form of my cleanUpErr(err) & " "
                  end try
            end repeat
      end tell
end tell
set allButtons to allButtons & " -e 'end tell'"
set tfile to quoted form of POSIX path of ((path to temporary items as text) & "_temp_Script.scpt")
do shell script "tfile=" & tfile & ";/usr/bin/osacompile " & allButtons & " -o \"$tfile\" && /usr/bin/osadecompile \"$tfile\" | /usr/bin/sed '1d;$d';/bin/rm \"$tfile\" > /dev/null 2>&1 &"


on cleanUpErr(t)
      set oTID to text item delimiters
      try
            set text item delimiters to "«" -- remove the description of the error at beginning of the text
            set t to "«" & (text items 2 thru -1 of t) as text
            set text item delimiters to " of application \"System Events\"" -- remove ' of application "System Events"'
            set r to text 1 thru text item -2 of t
            set text item delimiters to oTID
            return r -- return object in text format
      end try
      set text item delimiters to oTID
      return ""
end cleanUpErr

the result will be text (an object per line), like this :

button 1 of window "Player Installer" of application process "Install Player" of application process "Install Player"

button 2 of window "Player Installer" of application process "Install Player" of application process "Install Player"

button 3 of window "Player Installer" of application process "Install Player" of application process "Install Player"

button "Finish" of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window "Player Installer" of application process "Install Player"

Maybe the “objectToText” handler given below could help you.

tell application "System Events"

get button 2 of window 1 of process "TextEdit"

my objectToText(result) --> "button \"2\" of window \"Untitled\" of application process \"TextEdit\" of application \"System Events\""

end tell

on objectToText(UI_element)

set theText to ""

tell application "System Events"

repeat

if exists attribute "AXParent" of UI_element then

set theParent to value of attribute "AXParent" of UI_element

set theClass to class of UI_element

if name of UI_elementexists then

set theName to name of UI_element

else

set k to 0

get UI elements of theParent whose class is theClass

repeat with thisItem in result

set k to k + 1

if contents of thisItem is UI_element then exit repeat

end repeat

set theName to k

end if

set theText to theText & (theClass as text) & " \"" & theName & "\" of "

set UI_element to theParent

else

set theClass to class of UI_element

set theName to name of UI_element

set theText to theText & (theClass as text) & " \"" & theName & "\" of application \"System Events\""

exit repeat

end if

end repeat

end tell

return theText

end objectToText

Here's an improved version of the previous script, where the handler now returns "button 2 of window \"Untitled\" of application process \"TextEdit\" of application \"System Events\"" instead of "button \"2\" of window \"Untitled\" of application process \"TextEdit\" of application \"System Events\"":

tell application "System Events"

get button 2 of window 1 of process "TextEdit"

my objectToText(result) --> "button 2 of window \"Untitled\" of application process \"TextEdit\" of application \"System Events\""

end tell

on objectToText(UI_element)

set theText to ""

tell application "System Events"

repeat

if exists attribute "AXParent" of UI_element then

set theParent to value of attribute "AXParent" of UI_element

set theClass to class of UI_element

if name of UI_elementexists then

set theName to name of UI_element

set theText to theText & (theClass as text) & " \"" & theName & "\" of "

else

set k to 0

get UI elements of theParent whose class is theClass

repeat with thisItem in result

set k to k + 1

if contents of thisItem is UI_element then exit repeat

end repeat

set theIndex to k

set theText to theText & (theClass as text) & " " & theIndex & " of "

end if

set UI_element to theParent

else

set theClass to class of UI_element

set theName to name of UI_element

set theText to theText & (theClass as text) & " \"" & theName & "\" of application \"System Events\""

exit repeat

end if

end repeat

end tell

return theText

end objectToText

Message was edited by: Pierre L.

Hi,

If you don't want the newline character, replace the do shell script by this :

do shell script "tfile=" & tfile & ";/usr/bin/osacompile " & allButtons & " -o \"$tfile\" && /usr/bin/osadecompile \"$tfile\" |/usr/bin/perl -ne 'if(m/^\\t/){s:(^.|\\n)::g; if($.==2){print} else {print \", $_\"}}'; /bin/rm \"$tfile\" > /dev/null 2>&1 &"

The separator in this example is a comma with a space.

it's the characters before $_

--

If you want to keep newlines, replace the do shell script by this :

do shell script "tfile=" & tfile & ";/usr/bin/osacompile " & allButtons & " -o \"$tfile\" && /usr/bin/osadecompile \"$tfile\" |/usr/bin/perl -ne 'if(m/^\\t/){s:(^.|\\n)::g; if($.==2){print} else {print \",\\n$_\"}}'; /bin/rm \"$tfile\" > /dev/null 2>&1 &"

The separator in this example is a comma.

it's the character before \\n$_

If you want to use the $ sign as separator, escape it like this \\$.

madhusudhanjr wrote:

Hi Jacques,

I have struck with one prob here.. currently from your script the output returned will be a single string which will be printed in new lines,

if you prefer to have a real list, maybe it's better in Java.

Add this line after the do shell script "...." line in my first script :

returnparagraphsoftheresult