Retrieve string from NSTextView

Scripting Forums AppleScriptObjC and Xcode
#1

I’m trying to figure out how to retrieve the text from a NSTextView and use it as a string. I’m using a text view because I need to have the vertical scroll bar to enter more text than what can be displayed for the room I have.
I’m can put text into the text view with setString_(“This is texts”) however when I use string(sender) as string to retrieve what’s in the text view I get “Can’t make string («class ocid» id «data kptr00000000808E560002000000») of «class ocid» id «data kptr000000006085550002000000» into type string. (error -1700)” Obviously I can’t turn this class into a string directly… How do I retrieve text from a text view and be able to use it as a string??

#2

Hi,

the element containing the text is a NSTextStorage object which is a subClass of NSMutableAttributedString
In Objective-C you can get the string value with

[[textView textStorage] string]

textView represents the NSTextView outlet

#3

I don’t know Obj-C yet… I did find out before your post that I was able to log to the console with the textStorage(sender). I have a simple window with a text view and a button. textView is the outlet for the text view and the Clicked_(sender) is connected to the button.

on Clicked_(sender)
textView’s setString_(“This is texts”) --this places text into the text view
set x to textView’s textStorage(sender)
log x – this will log the text from the text view

display dialog (x as string) – this will error
end Clicked_

#4

I don’t know ASOC, but try something like

set x to textView's textStorage's string()

Edit: after doing some research, this should do it

set textStorage to textView's textStorage() set theText to textStorage's |string|()

#5

This works…

on Clicked_(sender)
textView’s setString_(“This is text”)
set textStorage to textView’s textStorage()
set theText to textStorage’s |string|()
display dialog (theText as string)
end Clicked_

What does the pipes around |string| indicate? That it is an AS keyword?

Thanks,

#6

Indeed it is

#7

Is there anyway to do the same thing with bindings. I’ve tried things similar to this code but can figure it out. I have the textView property bound to the Text View Bindings > Attributed String.
Thanks,

script Info_from_text_viewAppDelegate
property parent : class “NSObject”
property textView : missing value --bound property

on btnClicked_(sender)
	set textStorage to (my textView's textStorage())
	set theText to textStorage's |string|()
	display dialog (theText as string)
end btnClicked_

end script

#8

FYI, a multi-line text field will also scroll, although without scroll bars.

You can get the length of the bound attributed string.