AppleScript class name displayed in AppleScript Editor

Question

I wrote an application that can be scriptable using AppleScript. Now I can write the next thing in AppleScript editor:

tell application "My Magazines"
    current magazine
end tell

It returns the following response:

«class » "The NY Times" of application "My Magazines"

The response is okay. I can extract properties of it and use methods defined in the magazine class. The only thing that bothers me is «class », which is not quite human readable. I tried to find the method I need to override to provide users with better description of the method, but couldn't find one.

Is there a method I can override to replace «class » "The NY Times" with something like Magazine "The NY Times"?

magazine is defined as following in my sdef-file:

<class name="magazine" code="sMAG" description="A particular magazine">
        <cocoa class="MyMagazine" />

        <property name="name" code="pnam" type="text" access="r" description="Title of it">
            <cocoa key="name" />
        </property>
</class>

The class itself is defined as:

@interface MyMagazine : NSObject
{
    NSString *name;
}

@property (nonatomic, readonly) NSString *name;

@end

And implemented like:

@implementation MyMagazine
@synthesize name;

- (NSScriptObjectSpecifier *)objectSpecifier
{
    MyMagazinesList *list = [MyMagazinesList sharedList];

    return [[[NSNameSpecifier alloc] initWithContainerClassDescription:(NSScriptClassDescription *)[[list objectSpecifier] keyClassDescription]
                                               containerSpecifier:[list objectSpecifier]
                                                              key:@"magazines"
                                                             name:name] autorelease];

}

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 15 '14 at 03:50

0

You have to create an Applescript Dictionary for the apple events which provides the terminology for the events. Lots of resources out there on creating the sdef file.

answered Jun 15 '14 at 03:50

jweaks

3,674
1
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Of course I have the `sdef` file created. The part of it you can see in my question. What are you particularly talking about? – Daniel O'Hara Jun 15 '14 at 09:29
Daniel, sorry, I can't defend my comment. Maybe I posted from my phone and most of your question showing the sdef was below the fold. *shrug* Looks to me like it should be an NSString returned from the command, so not sure why it's a «class » – jweaks Jun 16 '14 at 04:20

Ron Reuter · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-25T04:41:37.473

Your sdef snippet doesn't show how you define the "current magazine" term. It is crucial to get that part right. It should look something like this:

<suite name=...>
  <class name="magazine" code="sMAG" ...>
    <cocoa class="MyMagazine" />
      <property name="name" code="pnam" type="text" access="r" ...>
         <cocoa key="name" />
      </property>
  </class>  

  <class name="application" ...>
    <cocoa class="MyApplication"/>
      <property name="current magazine" code="cMAG" type="magazine" access="r">
        <cocoa key="currentMagazine"/>
      </property>

MyApplication.h should have a

@property MyMagazine *currentMagazine;

Finally, MyMagazine.m needs an -objectSpecifier that converts the MyMagazine* (which will be self when it gets to that method) into a NSScriptObjectSpecifier to that magazine, whose container is the application object (not the internal list the current magazine might be in). For example:

- (NSScriptObjectSpecifier *)objectSpecifier
{

  NSScriptClassDescription *containerClassDesc = (NSScriptClassDescription *)
      [NSScriptClassDescription classDescriptionForClass:[NSApp class]];

  return [[[NSNameSpecifier alloc]
      initWithContainerClassDescription:containerClassDesc
                     containerSpecifier:nil 
                                    key:@"magazine"
                                   name:self.name]];
}

When accessed in AppleScript, you should then see, for example,

tell application "My Magazines" to get current magazine
--> magazine "New York Times" of application "My Magazines"

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 07 '22 at 20:12

I had this same problem.

When I asked Script Editor for page 1 of my document 1 it came back with:

«class » 1 of «class » 1 of application "My App"

but:

class of page 1 of document 1

returned

page

as expected.

the solution

I'd based my .sdef on Based /System/Library/ScriptingDefinitions/CocoaStandard.sdef, adding my own suite.

but when I checked my .sdef I saw that I had inherited my document from the standard document. I should have used class-extension in my suite in my sdef file.

actual code:

  <suite name="SimpleComic Suite" code="Acmx"
          description="SimpleComic specific classes.">
        <class-extension name="document" code="docu" description="A document." extends="document">
            <cocoa class="TSSTSessionWindowController"/>
            <element type="page"/>
      <property name="current page" code="ppag" type="integer" description="The document's current page number." >
                <cocoa key="pageSelectionIndex"/>
            </property>
    </class-extension>
    <class name="page" code="cpag" description="A page.">
            <cocoa class="TSSTPage"/>
    </class>
  </suite>

AppleScript class name displayed in AppleScript Editor

3 Answers3

I had this same problem.

the solution

actual code:

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