AppleScript produces no output inside conditional statement - applescript

Question

I'm trying to write an AppleScript that tells if application has a specific menubar item. I've found this snippet on the internet, and tried to run, but it doesn't produce any effect. I've spliced into it some debug statements to check the control flow, and it seems not to enter the conditional 'if' at all.
No error message, no output, nothing!
on menuItemExists({appName, menuName1, menuItem1})
display notification "1"
tell application "System Events"
display notification "2"
tell application process appName
display notification "3"
if menu item menuItem1 of menu 1 of menu bar item menuName1 of menu bar 1 exists then
display notification "4"
return true
else
return false
end if
end tell
display notification "5"
end tell
end menuItemExists
if menuItemExists({"timeEdition", "Extras", "Start Recording"}) then
display dialog "hoda"
end if

Answer 1

If we assume that the AppleScript is functioning as it should, then this leads to one conclusion: at least one of those menu or menu item GUI objects does not exist, and therefore the script has nothing to return.
If that conditional statement passed—and only if it passed—then notification 4 would be displayed, and the function menuItemExists would return true. If this function returns true—and only if it returns true—then a dialog box would appear displaying the message "hoda".
However, no such dialog appeared, which implies that menuItemExists did not return true. If it did not return true, then it must have returned false. And if it returned false, this means the condition of some menu item’s existence failed, so no notification after number 3 would have been seen.
I believe you were expecting some output even in the event of failure. However, there is no error in the script, and the only statements that return values are all inside a function handler. That returns its value (which we’ve now deduced was the boolean value false) to the parent script that called it; and it’s only the parent script that would return any value—if it had a value to return—to the output window you were expecting to display a result.
Without having the application you’re using on my computer, it’s not possible for me to determine where in that conditional clause the assertion fails. My advice is to test each object individually, from menu bar 1 through to the menu item in question, and I’m confident the culprit will emerge.

Answer 2

The AppleScript code in your OP is only going to return true and trigger the display dialog "hoda" if and only if timeEdition is running and is not actively recording. When it's actively recording the menu shows Stop Recording. If timeEdition is not running, you can add tell application "timeEdition" to activate to the top of the script if you want the handler to result in true and display "hoda" in a dialog box when it's running and not actively recording.
display notification "5" will never trigger because of the use of return with both true and or false triggering prior to it.
I installed timeEdition and tested the AppleScript code in your OP and it does return false in Script Editor if it's not running. If running and not actively recording, it does trigger display dialog "hoda".
So, the AppleScript code in your OP actually works just as coded, although how it's coded is not of any practical use other then some testing, until its recoded for a real world use case scenario.