is the application "whatever" exists then...help

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

is there a way to do this without it opening the application? when I do this follow:


if the application "Safari" exists then
	beep
end if

it will open safari, I want it to check if something exists without opening it, can this be done?

#2

How’s this?

tell application "Finder"
	set x to "Safari.app"
	set z to ((path to applications folder as text) & x)
	try
		set Ap to z as alias
		display dialog x & " does exist!"
		
		
		
	on error
		display dialog x & " does not exist"
	end try
end tell
#3

Hi,

I’m using this handler


check_Application_exists("com.apple.Safari")

on check_Application_exists(theApp)
	try
		tell application "Finder" to application file id theApp
		return true
	on error
		return false
	end try
end check_Application_exists
#4

This works well StefanK, however it only works with applications that are scriptable, what if I want to see if a game that didn’t come with the computer exists or not? Or it might work with things that can’t be scripted, and I just don’t know how to format it.

#5

It’s not required that the application is scriptable.
You need only the bundle identifier (in most of the cases the name of the preference file without the .plist extension)