Progress Panel as sheet

I think you might be mis-reading the documentation – sheets are not deprecated. What is deprecated is showing them using NSApplication’s beginSheet:modalForWindow:modalDelegate:didEndSelector:contextInfo: – the recommended way is to use NSWindow’s beginSheet:completionHandler: method.

The problem for scripters, though, is that the latter uses blocks, which can’t be used in AppleScript.

There are two possible solutions. One is to keep using the old method. It’s a soft deprecation more about promoting the new approach, IMO, and I’d be very surprised if it went away anytime soon, or at least without considerable warning.

The other solution is to use my Myriad Helpers here:

https://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/apps/helpers.html

It has an Objective-C category called NSWindow+MyriadHelpers that wraps the new method in code that makes it suitable (and simple) to use from AppleScript:

theSheet's showOver:mainWindow

There’s also a similar NSAlert+MyriadHelpers category for alerts.

It’s just a matter of dragging the relevant .h and .m files into the Xcode project.

Better said; poor wording from my side or I may have taken the ASS->ASObjC conversion too literal. Anonymous C functions (known as blocks in Objective-C) are a no-go in ASObjC and will never be supported by technicality. The only way without help from 3rd party code is using the deprecated NSApp method.

Another difference is that the ASS sheet is application based, which means it can be queued. Only the NSApp’s deprecated method can be queued and is identical to ASS implementation, not the NSWindow method. They’re technically not the same even if they carry the same name (and behave differently).

There tons of UI libraries available with alternatives that are close or identical to the ASS solutions but a 1:1 conversion without 3rd party code is impossible. Therefore my statement “sheets are deprecated and shouldn’t be used any more.” is still valid for an out-of-the-box ASObjC solution.

p.s. I’ll edit my previous topic to make it more clearer.

Really, it’s not. If you want to show a window as a sheet, you can still use the block-based API, just passing missing value for the block:

        mainWindow's beginSheet:customWindow completionHandler:(missing value)

You don’t actually need the block; you can put any continuation code in the buttons’ action handlers.

For alerts it’s similar:

	on showAlertSheet:sender
		set theAlert to current application's NSAlert's alloc()'s init()
		tell theAlert
			its setMessageText:"An alert"
			its setInformativeText:"Blah blah blah"
			set okButton to its addButtonWithTitle:"OK"
			okButton's setAction:"doOK:"
			okButton's setTarget:me
			set cancelButton to its addButtonWithTitle:"Cancel"
			cancelButton's setAction:"doCancel:"
			cancelButton's setTarget:me
			its beginSheetModalForWindow:theWindow completionHandler:(missing value)
		end tell
	end showAlertSheet:
	
	on doOK:sender
		theWindow's endSheet:(sender's |window|())
		-- do whatever
	end doOK:
	
	on doCancel:sender
		theWindow's endSheet:(sender's |window|())
		-- do whatever
	end doCancel:

That said, Myriad Helpers makes the whole process so much simpler, I’m not sure why anyone would bother with the hard way.

It can’t be queued and completion handler was used in ASS so it’s not the same as ASS sheets.

For sure – the approach has to be quite different. And it’s made more complicated by the fact that these days there’s no simple way to force an update to the UI for the duration of a method that handles an event.

Download Myriad Helpers and add the NSWindow+MyriadHelpers files to your project.

Find the CustomSheetTest.applescript file and add a property like this:

	property textField : missing value

And change the showCustomSheet: handler to this:

	on showCustomSheet:sender -- triggered by button in window
		customWindow's showOver:mainWindow
		repeat with i from 1 to 10
			(textField's performSelectorOnMainThread:"setStringValue:" withObject:("Progress " & i) waitUntilDone:true)
			delay 1
		end repeat
        mainWindow's endSheet:customWindow
	end showCustomSheet:

Now in IB go to MainMenu.xib, control-click on the Custom Sheet Test object, and connect the textField outlet to the text field on the Custom Window, where it says “Custom sheet”.

Run, click Show More, then click Show custom sheet.

Hi,
I would like to know how to close a sheet Window after finishing a process, for example I am uploading a photo and a sheet Window is displayed saying “Wait for the photo to load” so when you finish loading the photo this sheet Window can close without the need to hit the “OK” button or any other.

I use this:

set alert to current application's NSAlert's alloc's init()
        tell alert
            its setMessageText:""
            its setInformativeText: ""
            its setAlertStyle:2
            its setShowsSuppressionButton:false
            its beginSheetModalForWindow:theWindow modalDelegate:me didEndSelector:(missing value) contextInfo:(missing value)
end tell

You call -endSheet:. It the window showing the sheet is mainWindow, then:

mainWindow's endSheet:(mainWindow's attachedSheet())

Thanks @Shane Stanley, working like a charm!
one more question:
Is there any way to insert a progress bar or an indeterminate progress indicator, if so how would it be done?

Either use a window instead of an alert as the sheet, or add it as the alert’s accessoryView.

I never used alert’s accessoryView but I will try, thanks!:slight_smile:

If not asking too much could you give me an example?

If the view you want to appear in the alert is called someView, it’s:

alert's setAccessoryView:someView

Thanks for the answer,
Honestly I could not, alias I did not quite understand how would add a Progress Indicator there a Panel Sheet.

Is there any way to launch the App with a certain window and after a few seconds this window will close automatically and open a second window? if so how could i do?
I know I can use

orderOut_ (me)

to hide and

makeKeyAndOrderFront_ (me)

to show another window.
but how can i close the first automatically after a few seconds?

You can use an NSTimer.

thanks for the help Shane.

Is there any way to display a sheet window without the app icon?

You can display any window as a sheet, so it’s just a matter of building your own window.

@shane,
Would it be too much to ask you for an example?