Simple applescript to pass on commands

AppleScript and the command line are two different things, but you can do something like:

set theChannel to (choose from list {"3", "4", "5", "enter"}) as text if theChannel is "false" then error number -128 -- cancel tell application "ZephIR"     fire zephir command theChannel of component "ComCast Cable DCT 7001" end tell

Hello

Are you looking for something like this? If so, see osascript(1) man page for details.

#!/bin/bash

/usr/bin/osascript <<'EOF' - 1 2 3
on run argv
    set {a, b, c} to argv
    tell application "System Events"
        activate
        display dialog (a & return & b & return & c) giving up after 2
    end tell
end run
EOF

Regards,

H

You should create a modified version of the website example script that looks like so:

on run argv

set componentName to item 1 of argv

tell application "ZephIR"

fire zephir command "3" of component componentName

fire zephir command "4" of component componentName

fire zephir command "5" of component componentName

fire zephir command "enter" of component componentName

end tell

end run

This adds a run block to catch arguments in the argv variable and extracts the component name from that variable. You can then call this script from the command line this way:

osascript /path/to/script.scpt 'ComCast Cable DCT 7001'

Should do the trick. if you want to handle multiple components in one call the script needs some minor adjustments.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

usage()
{
    echo ""
    echo "Usage:  ${0##*/}  nnn"
    echo ""
    echo "        Takes the up to 3 digit channel and passes it to ZephIR"
    echo ""
    exit
}

shopt -s extglob        # enable extended globs +(...), *(...), etc...
if [[ $1 != +([0-9]) || ${#1} -gt 3 ]]; then
    usage
    exit
fi

chan=$1
[[ ${#chan} -lt 3 ]] && chan=0${chan}
[[ ${#chan} -lt 3 ]] && chan=0${chan}

d1=${chan%??};  # remove last 2 digits
chan=${chan#?}; # remove first digit - chan now 2 digits
d2=${chan%?};   # remove last digit of remaining 2
d3=${chan#?};   # remove first digit of remaining 2

osascript -e "
    tell application \"ZephIR\"
        fire zephir command \"${d1}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"${d2}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"${d3}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"enter\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
    end tell
"

Hello

You mean it invokes the shell script a.sh with argument 123 by -

/bin/bash -c "$(cat a.sh)" 123

instead of -

./a.sh 123

?

If so, you need to change $1 to $0 in the given bash script because the first argument is assigned to $0, not $1, if -c option is used.

See bash(1) manpage for detalis. Extract follows -

OPTIONS

-c string If the -c option is present, then commands are read from

string. If there are arguments after the string, they are

assigned to the positional parameters, starting with $0.

Regards,

H

It turns out (this after writing an email to the authors of HDPVRCapture and asking their opinion of what the problem was), it doesn't simply call the script and then the channel, apparently it calls the script (I named your shell script "ZephIR.sh") *then* it uses the argument "-c" and then inputs the channel.

I'm guessing that they are invoking your script as follows:

ZephIR.sh -c 345

Where the '-c' is for 'channel'. Does this sound about right?

If that is the case, then I would modify my example as follows (NOTE: the script now requires -c 123 were as before it just took the channel):

#!/usr/bin/env bash

usage()
{
    echo ""
    echo "Usage:  ${0##*/}  -c nnn"
    echo ""
    echo "        -c nnn - passes channel nnn to ZephIR."
    echo "        -h     - display this usage message."
    echo ""
}

normalize_channel()
{
    typeset chan=$1
    [[ ${#chan} -lt 3 ]] && chan=0${chan}
    [[ ${#chan} -lt 3 ]] && chan=0${chan}

    echo ${chan}
}

shopt -s extglob        # enable extended globs +(...), *(...), etc...
if [[ $# = 0 ]]; then
    # no arguments passed, print usage
    usage
    exit 1
fi
# loop through all the arguments looking for -letter options
while [[ X$1 = X-* ]]
do
    if [[ X$1 = X-c ]]; then
        # -c so the next argument should be the channel number.
        shift # move channel number from $2 to $1
        if [[ $1 != +([0-9]) || ${#1} -gt 3 ]]; then
            # channel number is not all digits.
            usage
            exit 1
        fi
        chan=$(normalize_channel $1)
    elif [[ X$1 = X-h ]]; then
        # -h asks for help, so print the usage.
        usage
        exit
    else
        echo ""
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        usage
        exit 1
    fi
    shift       # shift all the arguments down one number position.
done

if [[ -z "${chan}" || $# != 0 ]]; then
    # make sure we have received a channel number.
    usage
    exit 1
fi

d1=${chan%??};  # remove last 2 digits
chan=${chan#?}; # remove first digit - chan now 2 digits
d2=${chan%?};   # remove last digit of remaining 2
d3=${chan#?};   # remove first digit of remaining 2

osascript -e "
    tell application \"ZephIR\"
        fire zephir command \"${d1}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"${d2}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"${d3}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"enter\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
    end tell
"

If I got the -c usage wrong, then maybe HDPVRCapture is confusing both of us 🙂

If I understand correctly you have a ZephIR IR Blaster that will change channels from your Mac. You are then trying to get HDPVRCapture to use the ZephIR to set the channel on your Comcast box. Then I assume HDPVRCapture will try to capture the video on the specified channel.

If my script is everything you need, Great!

If there is some other HDPVRCapture side effect that needs to be addressed, it would help if you could find the HDPVRCapture instructions that describe calling ZephIR, as it is possible they can pass other options besides -c. Such as telling the device to power on/power off using a different -letter option. Or tell the ZephIR to switch to a different device to be controlled.

I'm just guessing, but based on my experience, software developers do not add a -c option unless there are other options they want to pass that will do different things.

Hm. I misunderstood your statements about -c. Please disregard my previous message.

H

The following should accept -d and -f option, but will ignore them.

If there are Applescript commands to handle duration and output file, we could incorporate them into the osascript section.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

usage()
{
    echo ""
    echo "Usage:  ${0##*/}  -c nnn"
    echo ""
    echo "        -c nnn  - passes channel nnn to ZephIR."
    echo "        -h      - display this usage message."
    echo ""
    echo "        -d nnn  - Ignored (recording duration)"
    echo "        -f file - Ignored (output file)"
    echo ""
}

normalize_channel()
{
    typeset chan=$1
    [[ ${#chan} -lt 3 ]] && chan=0${chan}
    [[ ${#chan} -lt 3 ]] && chan=0${chan}

    echo ${chan}
}

shopt -s extglob        # enable extended globs +(...), *(...), etc...
if [[ $# = 0 ]]; then
    # no arguments passed, print usage
    usage
    exit 1
fi
# loop through all the arguments looking for -letter options
while [[ X$1 = X-* ]]
do
    if [[ X$1 = X-c ]]; then
        # -c so the next argument should be the channel number.
        shift # move channel number from $2 to $1
        if [[ $1 != +([0-9]) || ${#1} -gt 3 ]]; then
            # channel number is not all digits.
            usage
            exit 1
        fi
        chan=$(normalize_channel $1)
    elif [[ X$1 = X-h ]]; then
        # -h asks for help, so print the usage.
        usage
        exit
    elif [[ X$1 = X-d ]]; then
        # this script does not know how to handle "recording duration in
        # seconds", so it is ignored.
        shift
    elif [[ X$1 = X-f ]]; then
        # this script does not know how to handle "recording duration in
        # seconds", so it is ignored.
        shift
    else
        echo ""
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        echo "*** Unknown option: $1 ***"
        usage
        exit 1
    fi
    shift       # shift all the arguments down one number position.
done

if [[ -z "${chan}" || $# != 0 ]]; then
    # make sure we have received a channel number.
    usage
    exit 1
fi

d1=${chan%??};  # remove last 2 digits
chan=${chan#?}; # remove first digit - chan now 2 digits
d2=${chan%?};   # remove last digit of remaining 2
d3=${chan#?};   # remove first digit of remaining 2

osascript -e "
    tell application \"ZephIR\"
        fire zephir command \"${d1}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"${d2}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"${d3}\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
        fire zephir command \"enter\" of component \"ComCast Cable DCT 7001\"
    end tell
"