Running an application with arguments through applescript...

You don't find the path as such, you refer to it by its bundle identifier.

In Applescript, first use

get id of application "name"

where you replace name with the app's common name. In the results of the editor you'll get something like

"com.something.name"

(you may get asked to locate the app visually first through a Finder-like window). That's the bundle identifier. You then use that with 'id' in your commands instead of a path, like

tell application id "com.something.name" to activate

Can you give me an example of what you mean by 'incorporate arguments'?

You can actually just say:

tellapplication "Sublime Text 2" toactivate

as long as the app has been launched once

To pass arguments to a script you need have an explicit run handler that looks like this:

on runarguments

-- main part of script goes in here

end run

the arguments variable will contain anything you pass to the app as parameters.

I'll point out that you can also call script app handlers directly. for instance, if your script has a handler called myHandler(myParameter) , you call it externally from applescript by using

tell application "Sublime Text 2.app"

myHandler(someData)

end tell

Is this app Sublime Text 2 the text editor? If it is while you can run it form an Applescript to interact with it form Applescript the app developer would have had to have added those hooks into the app.

To see if the developer did this open Applescript and do File->Open Dictionary and look to see if Sublime Text 2 is listed. If it is then you can find the calls you can make to the app to have it do things. If it is not listed while it is still possible to script the app it will be a lot more difficult.

twtwtw wrote:

You can actually just say:

tellapplication "Sublime Text 2" toactivate

as long as the app has been launched once

Absolutely. Using the bundle identifier is good practice if you're scripting a lot, passing scripts to others, or want to be sure your scripts are as future proof as possible, i.e., it's good commercial practice. But if you're just knocking up a utility for your own personal use, any way that works is good. 🙂

If you are trying to open the editor on a file the program comes with a command line tool subl which you could use.

Somehting like

do shell script "/path to subl/subl [aguments] files"

in your Applescript will start Sublime Text 2 with the arguments on the given file(s). See the man page for subl for more information.

1. Sublime Text 2 is not in the AppleScript Dictionary
2. There is no man page for subl. It is a soft link from within the app package
3. Sublime Text 3 is in development. Beta now open to registered users.
4. Kennethreitz post on Sublime Text 2.
5. Free online Sublime Text 2 training videos by Nuttuts. Good stuff in these.

VikingOSX wrote:

2. There is no man page for subl. It is a soft link from within the app package

Sublime Text 2 Documentation

OS X Command Line

Sublime Text 2 includes a command line tool, subl, to work with files on the command line

Setup

The first task is to make a symlink to subl. Assuming you've placed Sublime Text 2 in the Applications folder, and that you have a ~/bin directory in your path, you can run:

ln -s "/Applications/Sublime Text 2.app/Contents/SharedSupport/bin/subl" ~/bin/subl

Usage

Run subl --help

If you're going to use an application you should at least read the documentation

Frank,

A veteran UNIX user understands that “man” pages are installed on the user's machine and accessible via the terminal man(1) command, or purpose built GUI. These pages are written in troff syntax. Documentation on the other hand, and in particular, the Sublime Text 2 documentation that you link too, is not man pages. That was my point.

I am very familiar with Sublime Text 2 and the documentation that you link too. One of the first things that I did upon installation, and after installing Package Control, was to do the very same symlink as you point out.

Oh, by the way, I have very thoroughly read the Sublime Text 2 documentation, and took the effort to learn a good deal more about it.

Technically, you can't really argue with Viking. There is no man page. Doing

man subl

produces an error. As you note yourself, the usage is

subl --help

But either way, I'd just like to thank you for arguing about it. I've been using Tincta and recently Tincta Pro as my code editor and had never heard of subl till this thread. After seeing the passion here, I downloaded it to see what all the fuss was about.

Guess I won't be needing Tincta anymore! Thanks for the tip guys. 🙂

Glad it helped.

I don't use Sublime Text myself so I'm not familiar with it and why one whould choose it but if you're looking for an editor that is Applescript capable take a look at TextWrangler a free and very nice multi-purpose editor.

regards

Hello Frank,

All that you said is really helpful and i'll listen to your tips. ✅