AppleScript user interaction
05/17/2016
RagTime supports extensive possibilities that can be controlled remotely, via AppleScript. These scripts also allow notifications to or requests from the user.
Up to OS X 10.10 a script like this can easily be used:
tell application "RagTime 6.6"
activate
set dlgResult to button returned of (display dialog "Run script?" buttons {"Yes", "No"} default button 2)
set cell "A1" of table 1 of document 1 to dlgResult
end tell
As from OS X 10.11 this does not work anymore because RagTime performs calculations in the background, even when scripts are running.
In this case a syslog is written:
2016-05-03 16:16:51 asl fungus RagTime[31784]: This application is modifying the autolayout engine from a background thread, which can lead to engine corruption and weird crashes. This will cause an exception in a future release. …
which leads, in the following, to a “hanging” RagTime process.
The solution for this problem is using the “system events” for all user interactions:
- choose application
- choose color
- choose file
- choose file name
- choose folder
- choose from list
- choose remote application
- choose URL
- display alert
- display dialog
Here are two examples that simply modify the cell A1 in the first spreadsheet of the document:
display dialog
tell application "RagTime 6.6"
activate
set dlgResult to "foo"
tell application "System Events"
activate
set dlgResult to button returned of (display dialog "Run script?" buttons {"Yes", "No"} default button 2)
end tell
activate
set cell "A1" of table 1 of document 1 to dlgResult
end tell
choose from list
tell application "RagTime 6.6"
activate
set dlgResult to "foo"
tell application "System Events"
activate
set dlgResult to (choose from list {"Banana", "Pear", "Quince"} with title "a List" with prompt "Select an item" default items {"Quince"})
end tell
activate
if dlgResult = false then
set dlgResult to "" -- canceled
else
set dlgResult to item 1 of dlgResult
end if
set cell "A1" of table 1 of document 1 to dlgResult
end tell
These examples show how the “System Events” can be used to successfully communicate with the user via AppleScript.
