I have written a little AppleScript which returns "missing value" and I have no idea why this happens. The script is doing what it should do, but the output is not nice in my application where I use it.
The principle of this script is just to take the argument and run the file (with "VLC Media Player") which is provided through the argument.
So for example a use would be osascript open_video.scpt ~/Path/To/File/File.mp3
on run argv
tell application "VLC"
activate
open argv
end tell
end run
This question is old but brought to the top of the questions by a new answer before I added this answer.
The recently posted answer suggests this issue might be caused if there isn't an ending newline character, and this is not at all true in this case as I've tested both with and without an ending newline character and get the exact same results, both with compiled and plain text AppleScript scripts.
You do not need to have an ending newline character and it has nothing to do with why your code is returning missing value.
Looking in the AppleScript Dictionary for the open command, it shows the following:
open v : Open an object.
open alias : The file(s) to be opened.
→ document
Where the → represents returns as in it returns info about the documents, e.g. its name.
In this case VLC is returning missing value instead, and probably because VLC does not integrate AppleScript as nice as e.g. Apple's own apps.
If you do not want to see missing value then add a return "" to the code and it will return a blank line. Or you could add e.g., return "VLC is now playing: & (argv as string); however, because VLC's AppleScript integration is not the best, I'd just go with return "" as VLC does not respond to standard AppleScript error handling well. Again, an observation by testing error handling code that works with other apps but not VLC.
Or just simply directly use the command line open command, e.g:
open "/Applications/VLC.app" "/path/to/media_file.ext"
Which will open the VLC app, start the media_file.ext file, and return the prompt.
In my testing, you have to coerce the passed variable to a string.
osascript open_video.scpt '~/Path/To/File/File.mp3'
with a script as such:
on run argv
tell application "VLC"
activate
open (argv as string)
end tell
end run
Did you make sure that you have a newline on the end of the last line? For me I got this error when I had a script that ended abruptly at the last character of the script, instead of having a newline at the end.
AFAIK this doesn't affect the functionality of your script, just what it returns. In my case I got some other output instead after I made this change, but the output appeared to be merely informational.
Related
I have a variable in Swift code that runs in iOS simulator and contains an existing fileURL. I want to have the file opened in macOS (not the iOS Simulator) when I hit a breakpoint.
I added an action "Shell Command" to the breakpoint to open the file. The file exists because if I copy-paste the file's path to Terminal, it opens in Preview.
However, the Xcode console says the contrary:
The file /"/Users/tomkraina/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/FBA16E00-9450-40E8-9650-1489A67E344C/data/Containers/Data/Application/BB97DB72-FF2A-4087-BD42-2934C63D3323/tmp/7E2303B8-0629-475A-862A-2550351FB448/OutlineExport.pdf" does not exist.
First Question: How do I tell Xcode to open a file with provided fileURL in a variable on breakpoint?
Next thing I tried was to open the file using LLDB, but I cannot find out how to evaluate a command parameter in LLDB, because backticks is only for scalars:
(lldb) shell open `temporaryFile.fileURL.path`
The file /105553157711856 does not exist.
Second Question: How to I evaluate argument parameter to get a string in LLDB?
I don't have a good answer for the first question. It would be interesting to check whether the path that is in the Xcode error message is correct - maybe it's getting it from the value incorrectly. If you copy the path from the error message, go to Terminal and try to open it, does that work? Anyway, this sounds to me like a bug in Xcode. It got some kind of path out of your variable and tried to open it, which should have worked. If you want to follow up, it's probably best to file a bug report with the Apple Feedback.
For the second question, you have to know a little about how variables work in lldb. Some variables have obvious values, for instance, in C a pointer has the pointer value, an integer the integer value, etc. Other variables (any kind of Struct being the obvious example) are actually containers of other values and don't really have a "value" themselves.
lldb can show you what a swift string really is using the --raw option:
(lldb) v --raw str1
(Swift.String) str1 = {
_guts = {
_object = {
_countAndFlagsBits = {
_value = -3458764513820540912
}
_object = 0x8000000100003f50 (0x0000000100003f50) strings`symbol stub for: Swift.print(_: Any..., separator: Swift.String, terminator: Swift.String) -> () + 4
}
}
}
That's probably really interesting to people working on the Swift Standard Library and has the virtue of being the truth. But for most purposes, it's not a terribly useful representation.
lldb handles that problem by adding a notion of "Summary Formatters" that generate a string representation for objects based on their type. There's one for "Swift.string" that digs around in the object, finds where the actual string is, and returns that text. If you don't pass --raw and there's a summary formatter, then lldb will show you the summary:
(lldb) v str1
(String) str1 = "some string here"
That is also the value that you want to try and open.
The backtick syntax in lldb gets the value of the entity, not its summary, which is why that didn't work for a swift string. However, you can fetch and act on the summaries for local variables using lldb's Python interpreter and the SB API. So for instance:
(lldb) script
Python Interactive Interpreter. To exit, type 'quit()', 'exit()' or Ctrl-D.
>>> var = lldb.frame.FindVariable("str1")
>>> var.GetSummary()
'"some string here"'
So then if that was a file path you wanted to open, you can use Python to do that, like:
>>> os.system("open {0}".format(var.GetSummary()))
The file /private/tmp/some string here does not exist.
256
except of course your var has to hold the path to a real file...
If you want to learn more about the lldb Python API's the API docs are here:
https://lldb.llvm.org/python_api.html
and a general tutorial for using Python in lldb is here:
https://lldb.llvm.org/use/python-reference.html
And more information on variable formatting is here:
https://lldb.llvm.org/use/variable.html
PreNote: I am open and hungry for any information, advice, tip etc.
Hello Everyone!
I am trying to create automation with applescript. This is my first personal applescript task but I have some valuable questions. Basically I am trying to catch live notifications from a website and display them in mac os notification.
I am trying to build process for a few days but I don't want to give a mess to you :) so I have roughly explained my process below.
(* Variables used in whole process
set $webToCheck > This is Safari webpage which I want to run my script on it. It won't be front window, script should be run with its name or other property.
set $theClass > This is class name of DOM element to check if it is exist or not. This class is not always exist on DOM of $webpage. It comes with notifications so when use it in "do Javascript" I got error "variable is not defined"
set $num > number of class to use in "do Javascript"
set $input > variable to assign HTML text
set $modifiedInput > Text of input seperated from HTML tags
*)
-- Step 1
tell application "Safari"
work on $webToCheck
-- Step 2
repeat until $input is not empty
set input do Javascript
document.getElementsByClassName > $theClass, $num of $webToCheck
end repeat
-- Step 3
modify text of $input to seperate from RAW HTML -- For example: <a class="" value=""> TEXT to be seperated </a>
Display notification $modifiedInput
-- Step 4
Go back to step 1 or 2 to check and display notification again
First of all, here are some general tips though:
Applescript won't accept $ at the start of variable names.
The variable assignment you are looking for is set {variable} to {value}. You can optionally at the end of it clarify the variable's class using as {class} at the end of the assignment.
Focusing a certain website does not happen with work on {URL} but as with most object oriented things in Applescript with the tell-statement. It will be shown in the full solution.
Text concatenation in Applescript happens with &. So something like "Hello " & "World" is the standard way to do it.
Modification of most things in Applescript happens with set.
It is easier to use innerText instead of innerHTML as splitting text in Applescript is a bit of a pain.
There is no goto but you could wrap the first few steps into a function, which are declared with on or to in Applescript.
Here is the full code with some documentation sprinkled in there:
global webToCheck, theClass, num, input --This says that all variables can be used even in functions.
set webToCheck to "youtube.com" --Strings can only use double quotes.
set theClass to "style-scope yt-alert-with-actions-renderer" --I will use an actual demo to prove that it is working
set num to 0 as integer -- This is the type declaration I was talking about. For numbers we have integer, real(float) and number.
set input to "" -- You don't have define everything at the top, but I will do so for this.
on displayNotification()
tell application "Safari"
tell window 1 -- This will target only the first window. For multiple windows you would have to write a repeat with-loop(for-loop), which I'm not going to do, for the sake of simplicity.
tell (first tab whose URL contains webToCheck) -- This targets just the first tab which contains the webToCheck variable.
set input to do JavaScript "document.getElementsByClassName('" & theClass & "')[" & num & "].innerText" -- This is the way I would go about writing the Javascript. I think you had something different in mind, but this works for my example.
display notification (paragraph 1 of input) with title webToCheck -- This displays the first line of my input since that is the relevant part. I also set a title so I doesn't just say "Script Editor"
end tell
end tell
end tell
end displayNotification
repeat 4 times -- I think this is quite obvious. Adjust this to your needs.
displayNotification()
delay 4
end repeat
Running this while having not used youtube on Safari in a while it displays this:
Note that this isn't the most elegant solution, but I think it is readable and it (hopefully) works for your needs.
First of all, I admit that I'm starting with a new project with JXA (Javascript automation for mac os) without having much understanding about AppleScript.
Currently, I'm trying to run following command using JXA:
Application("System Events").processes.windows.name()
First, I used Script Editor to run it. It worked fine and I got the output quickly enough.
However, according to my use case, since I want to get the output of this code frequently from one of my bash script, I tried to execute it using osascript as follows
osascript -l JavaScript -e 'Application("System Events").processes.windows.name()'
But this time, it took few seconds to print the result in the console.
Now my question is why it takes too much time to execute the same script in osascript compare to Script Editor? Is there any way to optimize the performance of it?
Here's the JXA solution:
var winList = Application("System Events").processes.whose({backgroundOnly: {'=': false} }).windows.name();
var winList2 = winList.reduce(
function(accumulator, currentValue) {
return accumulator.concat(currentValue);
},
[]
);
winList2 = winList2.filter(e => (e !== ""));
winList2.join(',')
There may be a better JavaScript from those JavaScript masters.
This is not exactly the answer to your question, but one issue your JXA script has is that it is pulling in ALL processes (which can be a huge number), when all you probably need is those processes which are visible apps. So, let's start with that.
Here's the AppleScript to get a list of all non-empty window names, in a CSV list on one line, of all visible apps:
tell application "System Events"
set appList to (every application process whose background only is false)
set winList2 to {}
repeat with oApp in appList
set winList to (name of every window in oApp whose name is not "")
set winList2 to winList2 & (items of winList)
end repeat
end tell
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ","
set winListText to winList2 as text
return winListText
-->All Notes,Keyboard Maestro Editor,macos - osascript is very slower than Script Editor - Stack Overflow - Google Chrome - JMichael,Untitled 2.scpt,Untitled 2
This should not be that hard to convert to JXA, but if you are going to just run it as is in a shell script using osascript, I see no advantage to converting to JXA.
I don't know the nature of your workflow, but if it were me I'd run this as a compiled script file (.scpt), and execute your bash script using the AppleScript do script (or JXA doScript()) command.
It would also be faster if you used a .scpt file with the osascript command.
I will continue to work on this script and convert it to JXA, for my own benefit if not yours.
I hope you find this useful. If not, maybe someone else will.
Questions?
i have written a program in vbscript for which i have used md5.exe to generate hash. since there are many files to which the hash has to be generated, the md5 hash repeatedly generates hash for each file one after the other. but while this process is in progress, i can see it popping out on the screen as it generates the hashes ( it does not pop out the hashes, the tool itself pops out on the screen repeatedly). i want to do something such that it stops popping out yet generate the hash for all the files. please help guys!
Generally, when running a command, youj can supress its output by directing it to a file, then deleting the file
md5.exe blahblah >null the >null being the critical part. Note however, that null doesn't directly it to a magical blackhole. It creates a file named null and prints the output there
This would supress the output. IF you posted some code, I could have told you how to do that there. but if you are running it as a shell exec, this should work
You can use the run method to supress the window.
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
cmd= "C:\Users\Administrator\desktop\experimenting\md5.exe"
'OR whatvere your whole command is
cmdRun = WshShell.Run(cmd,0,true);
Answer from here
Want to hide command prompt window in using WshShell.Exec method
(Upvote the guy if you find it useful)
Please note that you have tro use the output file to read. You cannot read the output from the shell anymore.
I usually get this new window open up suddenly while I am editing a Ruby file in VIM. This is getting irritating because, i cant type in anything while its processing. And it usually happens arbitarily. Does any one here know which plugin could be doing this? Or is this somekind of VIM's process?
This is happening when you hit K in normal mode.
K Run a program to lookup the keyword under the
cursor. The name of the program is given with the
'keywordprg' (kp) option (default is "man"). The
keyword is formed of letters, numbers and the
characters in 'iskeyword'. The keyword under or
right of the cursor is used. The same can be done
with the command >
:!{program} {keyword}
There is an example of a program to use in the tools
directory of Vim. It is called 'ref' and does a
simple spelling check.
Special cases:
- If 'keywordprg' is empty, the ":help" command is
used. It's a good idea to include more characters
in 'iskeyword' then, to be able to find more help.
- When 'keywordprg' is equal to "man", a count before
"K" is inserted after the "man" command and before
the keyword. For example, using "2K" while the
cursor is on "mkdir", results in: >
!man 2 mkdir
- When 'keywordprg' is equal to "man -s", a count
before "K" is inserted after the "-s". If there is
no count, the "-s" is removed.
{not in Vi}
If you notice, it's running ri in the open window, which is the ruby documentation app.
In Unixy environments, the help program normally runs inline, just displacing the vim output for a minute.
Is this using gvim, or command-line vim?
In either case, you can try monkeying with 'keywordprg' to fix the popup
Or, if you can't train yourself not to type it, you can just use :nnoremap K k to change what K does (in this case, just treat it as normal k command and go up one line).
I have this same issue on my work desktop, but not my home machine. The setups are near identical.
While stalking down a possible cause, I noticed that when I leave my cursor over a Ruby symbol such as File, Vim would popup a short description of the File class. After comparing all the various vim scripts and ri-related files that I could find, I finally settled on the only solution that worked...
Open $HOME/_vimrc and add the following line:
autocmd FileType ruby,eruby set noballooneval
Previously, I commented out a block in $VIMRUNTIME/ftplugin/ruby.vim, but Brian Carper suggested a better solution of :set noballooneval. I added the autocmd line so it is only executed with Ruby files.
If anyone figures out a true solution, please contact me. :(