I have an applescript xcode app, and I would like to incorporate a preferences window where I can have certain global variables affected-- Does anyone have any advice on how I can accomplish this so that the preference variables are written to the .plist file? Or is this beyond the scope of Applescript?
-patrick
It is quite possible to do this. In fact, I’ve been meaning to write an article on this. Also, if you have OS X 10.3 or later, you can use Binding to make this easier. For the time being, I would encourage you to read about the user-defaults class.
Thanks for the reply…
Ok, so I’m a little stuck–
I have created a preference window titled “preferences” with a checkbox button called “distributionbutton”
my code is this:
on will finish launching theObject
set visible of window "preferences" to false
global distribution
make new default entry at end of default entries of user defaults with properties {name:"distributionlist"}
set distribution to contents of default entry "distributionlist" of user defaults
if distribution = "" then
set distribution to "off"
call method "synchronize" of object user defaults
end if
end will finish launching
on clicked theObject
if (state of button "distributionbutton" of window "preferences" as boolean) then
set distribution to "on"
else
set distribution to "off"
end if
call method "synchronize" of object user defaults
end clicked
However, I get an error everytime saying that “variable distribution is undefined”… Which I don’t get…
what am I doing wrong here?
Try putting “global distribution” at the top of the script.
global distribution
on will finish launching theObject
You might want to look into:
/Developer/Examples/AppleScript Studio/Archive Maker/
And see how it does it’s preferences as well. Excellent example imo.
I figured out its because that property had no value-- Once I set it to something, then I no longer got that error.
Arg… No… That’s not true… I still get the error outside of my handlers… When I run the script the dialog window appears and shows that dist = “on” … which is correct… But, as soon as I click preferences it says “Variable Dist is not defined”!!! I tried putting the global outside of the handler, but it doesn’t work either… I even tried copying the whole ‘set dist to contents of default entry “distributionlist” of user defaults"’ into my choose menu handler, but then if I close my preferences window and reopen it I get “NSReceiverEvaluationScriptError: 4 (1)”
WHAT IS THE DEAL???
This is my actual code now:
on will finish launching theObject
global dist
set visible of window "preferences" to false
make new default entry at end of default entries of user defaults with properties {name:"distributionlist"}
--set contents of default entry "distributionlist" of user defaults to "on"
set dist to contents of default entry "distributionlist" of user defaults
display dialog dist
end will finish launching
on choose menu item theObject
if title of theObject is "Preferences" then
set visible of window "preferences" to true
if dist = "off" then
set (state of button "distributionlist" of window "preferences") to false
else if dist = "on" then
set (state of button "distributionlist" of window "preferences") to true
end if
end if
end choose menu item
on clicked theObject
if title of theObject is "distributionlist" then
set dist to contents of default entry "distributionlist" of user defaults
if (state of button "distributionlist" of window "preferences" as boolean) then
set dist to "on"
else
set dist to "off"
end if
call method "synchronize" of object user defaults
end if
end clicked
I have no idea how to use bindings but here’s how I do it:
property distribution : true
on will finish launching theObject
make new default entry at end of default entries of user defaults with properties {name:"distribution button", contents:distribution}
set distribution to contents of default entry "distribution button" of user defaults
set content of button "distributionbutton"of window "preferences" to distribution
end will finish launching
on clicked theObject
set distribution to content of theObject
end clicked
on will quit theObject
set contents of default entry "distribution button" of user defaults to distribution
end will quit
Reading the guidelines, this certainly does not look like the recommended way.
Instead of using the line set visible of window “preferences” to false just untick the box “Visible at launch time” in Interface Builder for that window.
Yeah global doesn’t work for me in Xcode. I have to use property.