AppleScript : Trying to write in a TextEdit file - applescript

I'm trying to write in a TextEdit file already created.
The file is in rwxrwxrwx mode so no permission problem.
But when I execute my code, here is the error :
error "Network file permission error." number -5000 from file "/Users/me/Desktop/A directory/file.txt" to «class fsrf»
My code here :
-- Writing in the TextEdit file
set file_URLs_content to "HEEEELLOOOOOO"
tell application "TextEdit"
set theFile to "/Users/me/Desktop/A directory/file.txt"
set file_ref to (open for access file theFile with write permission)
set eof file_ref to 0
write file_URLs_content to file_ref
close access file_ref
end tell
And my file.txt is still empty, how can I avoid this error ?

The way you can avoid errors when writing text with TextEdit is to remember that it is a text editor. It already knows how to create and save text documents without generating errors. You don’t have to use (error-prone) open for access. You don’t have to use (error-prone) shell scripting. All you have to do is ask TextEdit to make you a text document with whatever contents you like and and save it wherever you like. TextEdit knows how to do that without generating file access errors (like open for access) or accidentally overwriting folders (like shell scripting.)
tell application "TextEdit"
activate
set theDesktopPath to the path to the desktop folder as text
set file_URLs_content to "HEEEELLOOOOOO"
make new document with properties {text:file_URLs_content}
save document 1 in file (theDesktopPath & "file.txt")
close document 1
end tell
The advantage of this method is it is faster and easier to write, it is less error-prone, the text file that you get as output has the same properties as text files that you create manually with TextEdit, and your script can now be easily expanded to include other apps. For example, the text content could come from another app or the clipboard, and the text file could be opened in another app or emailed after it is saved.
The most fundamental feature of AppleScript is sending messages to Mac apps in this way. If you want to convert a PNG to a JPEG, you don’t write a PNG decoder and JPEG encoder in AppleScript and open the PNG file for access and read it byte by byte and then encode a JPEG byte by byte. You simply tell Photoshop to open the PNG image and export it as a JPEG to a particular file location. The “open for access” command is a last resort for reading and writing files that you simply don’t have an app to read or write. The “do shell script” command is for incorporating command-line apps when you simply don’t have a Mac app to do the job, for example, you can do regex stuff with Perl. If all you are doing is working with text files, you not only have TextEdit, but you can also get the free TextWrangler from Mac App Store and it has a giant AppleScript dictionary for reading, writing, and editing text files.

You don't need TextEdit for that. Try this:
set the logFile to ((path to desktop) as text) & "log.txt"
set the logText to "This is a text that should be written into the file"
try
open for access file the logFile with write permission
write (logText & return) to file the logFile starting at eof
close access file the logFile
on error
try
close access file the logFile
end try
end try

Try:
set file_URLs_content to "HEEEELLOOOOOO"
set filePath to POSIX path of (path to desktop as text) & "file.txt"
do shell script "echo " & quoted form of file_URLs_content & " > " & quoted form of filePath

Related

Open file in Preview

I struggle with a basic file operation in Apple Script. A pdf is (successfully) written in the script like this:
theDocument's writeToURL:targetFile
Now I want to open the file in Preview like this:
tell application "Preview"
activate
open targetFile
end tell
I also tried this:
tell application "Preview"
activate
open POSIX path of targetFile
end tell
to no avail. I somehow seem to lack an understanding how to get the path to a given file.
What am I missing?
Your code doesn’t show what targetFile is, but assuming from the first line it’s an NSURL you need to convert it to an AppleScript file type before passing it to Preview’s open command:
set targetFile to targetFile's |path|() as string as POSIX file
AppleScript’s Apple event bridge doesn’t accept ObjC classes, only native AS types.

How to debug droplets using AppleScript

Just 3 lines of script to be able to test a droplet application without leaving applescript editor
set fich to POSIX file "/Appli/conv2spct.app" as string
tell application "Finder" to open POSIX file "/Users/yourusername/Desktop/somefile" using application file fich
If there are errors in your droplet a display dialog will be opened by the script editor applescript
The same script with choose file for the 2 elements
set fileappli to POSIX path choose file of type {"APPL"} with prompt "Choose a Droplet application to debug"--the droplet for debug
set fileargument to POSIX path choose file --the file argument to pass at droplet
tell application "Finder" to open fileargument using application file fileappli
If there are errors in your droplet a display dialog will be opened by the script editor applescript
Here's a pragmatic alternative using do shell script, which potentially allows you to specify multiple file arguments:
do shell script "open -a /Appli/conv2spct.app ~/Desktop/somefile1 ~/Desktop/somefile2"
The above paths happen not to need quoting (escaping) for the shell, but when using variables to specify the file paths, it's best to use quoted form of (to pass multiple arguments, apply quoted form of to each):
do shell script "open -a " & quoted form of fileappli & " " & quoted form of fileargument
Looks like this has become simpler since the question was first asked. According to this documentation you can write:
open {choose file}
on open theDroppedItems
...
end open
Run this from within the AppleScript editor and the file you choose will be opened as if it had been dropped onto the compiled script.

How to delete the preview icon of a PNG file with AppleScript or the Terminal?

I am trying to automatically delete the preview icon of a PNG file (or many files) that I have generated with Photoshop.
I know how to manually do this: I can select the files, hit command+shift+i, select the icon on that window and hit the delete key to delete the files; but I would prefer to do this automatically with an AppleScript (or a Terminal command that I will then embed in my AppleScript with a do shell command)... I have searched the web for days but I have found nothing that helps me.
So, does anyone know of an AppleScript or Terminal command that could be used to delete the preview icon of a PNG (or JPEG) file?
You can use the setIcon method from the NSWorkspace class to delete icon of the file. https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Reference/ApplicationKit/Classes/NSWorkspace_Class/
A Cocoa-AppleScript Applet
use framework "AppKit"
use scripting additions
set myFiles to choose file with prompt "Select PNG files" with multiple selections allowed
set sharedWk to current application's NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace()
repeat with tFile in myFiles
(sharedWk's setIcon:(missing value) forFile:(POSIX path of tFile) options:0)
end repeat
Or an AppleScript using a do shell script
set pyScript to quoted form of "from AppKit import NSWorkspace; import sys; NSWorkspace.sharedWorkspace().setIcon_forFile_options_(None, sys.argv[1].decode('utf-8'), 0)"
set myFiles to choose file with prompt "Select PNG files" with multiple selections allowed
repeat with tFile in myFiles
do shell script "/usr/bin/python -c " & pyScript & " " & (quoted form of POSIX path of tFile)
end repeat
Here's some links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_(API)
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/releasenotes/ScriptingAutomation/RN-AppleScriptObjC/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PyObjC
JavaScript with Objective-C Bridge --> https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/releasenotes/InterapplicationCommunication/RN-JavaScriptForAutomation/Articles/OSX10-10.html

Applescript to prepend and append text to existing textedit document

I am new to using applescript. I would like to write a script to add text to an existing file. Specifically, I would like to prepend/append a given document, e.g., prepend "Hello" [existing text in document] append "Goodbye." I found this example:
tell application "TextEdit"
activate
set theDesktopPath to the path to the desktop folder as text
set file_URLs_content to "HEEEELLOOOOOO"
make new document with properties {text:file_URLs_content}
save document 1 in file (theDesktopPath & "file.txt")
close document 1
end tell
But, this is not quite right because I do not need a new document, and I want to specify the location of the text (at the beginning of the file, or at the end).
I am open to other solutions, as well. Ultimately, I want to use the dictation command feature to run the script, perhaps via automator. Many thanks for your time!
TextEdit is not needed to write plain text to disk.
writeToDisk from theText into thePath given append:append writes plain text to disk
Parameters:
• theFile: a HFS path
• theText the text to be written
• with append: append the text - without append: overwrite from the beginning of the text
set theFile to (path to desktop as text) & "file.txt"
set file_URLs_content to "HEEEELLOOOOOO"
writeToDisk from file_URLs_content into theFile with append
on writeToDisk from theText into thePath given append:append
try
set fileDescriptor to open for access file thePath with write permission
if not append then set eof of fileDescriptor to 0
write theText to fileDescriptor
close access fileDescriptor
on error
try
close access file thePath
end try
end try
end writeToDisk
If you prefer to write UTF-8 encoded text change the write line into
write theText to fileDescriptor as «class utf8»

Remove multiple PDF passwords with workflow or applescript in a folder

How do I remove passwords from multiple PDF files using Applescript or by creating a Workflow in OS X?
My scenario is that I have multiple password protected PDF files in a folder. I know the passwords for all, which is same. I want to be able to run a Workflow on this folder so that all PDFs inside it are unlocked by the workflow.
OR run an Applescript shell code on all these files at once
I also preferably want to be able to create a way where putting / moving / pasting any PDF in the folder automatically unlocks it :)
Help appreciated !!
Update:
I have tried pdftk. The following code works awesome in Terminal, once pdftk is installed
pdftk secured.pdf input_pw foopass output unsecured.pdf
Now I want to be able to create a workflow that runs this command on selected files or on all the files in a folder
The AppleScript command to execute a shell script is do shell script...
So something like this:
do shell script "pdftk secured.pdf input_pw foopass output unsecured.pdf"
should work.
At this point I see 2 options:
write an AppleScript script that ask the user for the folder or get it from the Finder selection and then execute the command for each file in the folder;
write an Automator workflow that get the files from the folder using already available actions and then attach a new action that execute the AppleScript script.
For option 2 you can set an Automator workflow as in the following image.
Have you heard of "Folder Actions"? It's a way to attach an applescript to a folder so that whenever a new file is added to the folder the applescript is run. A quick google search turned up this which will give you directions on how to set it up. You can do more google searching if you still have questions.
Here's an applescript you can use with folder actions. I didn't test it but it should work (it's basic code). This will do its stuff on only pdf files. Other files you add to the folder will be left alone. NOTE: you have to put in your values for the first 4 variables of the script.
Good luck.
on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theItems
-- enter your values here
set pdftkPosixPath to "/usr/bin/pdftk"
set pWord to "foopass"
set appendedName to "_unlocked" -- text to append to the file name
set shouldTrash to true -- true or false, move the locked file to the trash after unlocking?
set fContainer to theFolder as text
repeat with anItem in theItems
try
tell application "System Events"
set fName to name of anItem
set fExt to name extension of anItem
end tell
if fExt is "pdf" and fName does not contain appendedName then
set baseName to (text 1 thru -5 of fName) & appendedName & ".pdf"
set newPath to fContainer & baseName
do shell script (quoted form of pdftkPosixPath & space & quoted form of POSIX path of anItem & " input_pw " & quoted form of pWord & " output " & quoted form of POSIX path of newPath)
if shouldTrash then
tell application "Finder" to move anItem to trash
end if
end if
end try
end repeat
end adding folder items to
EDIT: here's how you can ask for a password. Note that if you want to see the text then remove "with hidden answer".
display dialog "Enter a password:" default answer "" with icon note with hidden answer
set theAnswer to text returned of the result
if theAnswer is not "" then set pWord to theAnswer

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