Command-Line Tool?

Scripting Forums AppleScript Studio & Xcode
#1

Ok, I think this is kinda an odd question. I posted it in the Applescript Studio board because I think it requires Xcode. I would like to take a normal applescript that I have written, and run it from the command line, but it requires user interaction, so I can’t use osascript. Is there a way to compile an applescript so that it runs in the terminal, like you can do with C++ if you select “File>New Project>Command Line Utility>C++ Tool”?
Thanks,
Cody

#2

Try saving the script as a run-only application (no startup screen) and use this code either in Terminal, or as a do shell script:

open ~/Desktop/SCRIPTname.app

If you use the do shell script, I think you need to send the full path of the script, and not use the tilde.

#3

So is that the only way to do it? I was hoping there would be a way to interact with it from the command line itself. :expressionless: Thanks for the suggestion, though. :slight_smile:

#4

What do you mean by interacting with it from the command line? What sort of interaction does the script require?

#5

I’m fairly certain it’s not possible, but I was hoping it could, for example, accept some text, manipulate it, and output the result (which I already have working with "display dialog"s). I wanted to be able to do it so that the script could be used from other platforms via SSH/Telnet. I know that sounds stupid. But thanks for the tips.

#6

How would you “accept some text” if you are calling the script from the shell?

#7

Umm… that’s sorta the question.

Don’t worry about it though, I’ve pretty much given up. Thanks for the help.

#8

By “accept some text” I think he means that the terminal would issue a prompt for user input.
I think what he wants to do is have a utility that can be accessed by SSH. Upon connection and running the app, the user, viewing a terminal screen on their local machine, but connected to this app on a remote machine would be presented with a prompt to enter a username, or the name of a task to preform, or a parameter needed to preform a function… etc…

-sD-
Dr. Scotty Delicious, Scientist.

#9

EXACTLY! Thank you for clarifying that so articulately. I definitely couldn’t have said it better ;). As I don’t think that’s possible, though, if somebody has any suggestions for controlling a script running on my mac from another computer running a non-mac OS, that would be wonderful, and greatly appreciated.

#10

So the script would prompt you? Could you also pass some text as a parameter? (Text could also be read from a file or stdin, but it’s sounds like you’re not looking for that.)

#11

Here’s an osascript example.

test.scpt:

on run {userInput}
    return "AppleScript result: " & userInput
end run

Using osascript:

/usr/bin/osascript /path/to/test.scpt "Hello World"

Result:

#12

OK; thanks Bruce, that’s great. I guess there’s not anyway to give the user prompts to enter information during execution (i mean like in the middle of the script) though, is there?

#13

You can try playing with ash (an AppleScript shell written in Perl). If you’re running it on an Intel machine, check out the end of this article: http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2007/01/ash_an_applescript_shell.html

#14

OK thanks. Ash looks like it could be pretty good. I have a few major assignments to work on now, but I’ll be sure to test it on the weekend.