how to use `NSScriptCommandDescription initWithSuiteName:commandName:dictionary:` - cocoa

Question

I want to know how to use
NSScriptCommandDescription initWithSuiteName:commandName:dictionary:, esp. how the dictionary is supposed to look like.
It would be nice to see a simple example for a command with a single parameter of type NSString and a return value of type NSString.
I think the documentation about how the dictionary should look like can be found here, esp in "Table B-8, Command dictionary".
However, I am trying with this example and it doesn't work (returns nil):
cmdDesc = NSScriptCommandDescription.alloc().initWithSuiteName_commandName_dictionary_(
"Standard Suite",
"execPython",
{
"CommandClass": "NSScriptCommand", # default behavior
"AppleEventCode": "expy", # 4-char code
"Type": "text", # return-type
"ResultAppleEventCode": "NSString", # return-type
"Arguments": [{
"Type": "NSString",
"AppleEventCode": "data"
}]
}
)
(Note: I really want to know exactly that here; I don't want to know how to register scripting definitions or do other stuff with this question.)

Answer 1

I know this is a VERY old questions but I have stumble upon this and it seems that the this statckoverflow question is the most common result when doing a google search on how to use the NSScriptCommandDescription with arguments.
The code from the accepted answer is correct EXCEPT on how the arguments value is created. The arguments value must be a dictionary that maps argument names with argument descriptions. Using the accepted answer code as an example, in order to pass arguments, our dictionary should look as follows:
cmdDesc = NSScriptCommandDescription.alloc().initWithSuiteName_commandName_dictionary_(
"Chromium Suite",
"exec Python",
{
"Name": "exec Python",
"CommandClass": "NSScriptCommand", # default behavior
"AppleEventCode": "ExPy", # 4-char code
"AppleEventClassCode": "CrSu",
"Type": "NSString", # return-type
"ResultAppleEventCode": "ctxt", # return-type
"Arguments": {
"firstArg": {
"Type": "NSString",
"AppleEventCode": "comm"
}
}
}
)
The above dictionary works on ObjectC (I don't know if the python code does work).

Answer 2

The only thing I can see there that disagrees with the documentation is your value for "Type"; while the documentation doesn't show an example for "Type" in the context of a command, its value in the documentation's examples for other contexts is "NSString", not "text". So, try the Cocoa class name instead of the AppleScript class name.

Answer 3

The "Arguments" section still doesn't really work correct for me (I got strange crashs) but I can also just omit that and still get an argument passed at runtime.
This is the code:
import objc
NSObject = objc.lookUpClass("NSObject")
sharedScriptSuiteReg = objc.lookUpClass("NSScriptSuiteRegistry").sharedScriptSuiteRegistry()
NSScriptCommandDescription = objc.lookUpClass("NSScriptCommandDescription")
sharedAppleEventMgr = objc.lookUpClass("NSAppleEventManager").sharedAppleEventManager()
NSAppleEventDescriptor = objc.lookUpClass("NSAppleEventDescriptor")
from PyObjCTools.TestSupport import fourcc
def register_scripting():
cmdDesc = NSScriptCommandDescription.alloc().initWithSuiteName_commandName_dictionary_(
"Chromium Suite",
"exec Python",
{
"Name": "exec Python",
"CommandClass": "NSScriptCommand", # default behavior
"AppleEventCode": "ExPy", # 4-char code
"AppleEventClassCode": "CrSu",
"Type": "NSString", # return-type
"ResultAppleEventCode": "ctxt", # return-type
"Arguments": {
#"----": {
# "Type": "NSString",
# "AppleEventCode": "comm"
#}
}
}
)
assert cmdDesc is not None
sharedScriptSuiteReg.registerCommandDescription_(cmdDesc)
sharedAppleEventMgr.setEventHandler_andSelector_forEventClass_andEventID_(
appScriptHandler, appScriptHandler.handleExecPy,
fourcc("CrSu"), fourcc("ExPy"))
def handleExecPy(self, ev, replyEv):
print "execPython called,",
cmd = ev.descriptorForKeyword_(fourcc("comm")).stringValue()
print "cmd:", repr(cmd)
res = eval(cmd)
res = unicode(res)
replyEv.setDescriptor_forKeyword_(NSAppleEventDescriptor.descriptorWithString_(res), fourcc("----"))
return True
try:
class AppScriptHandler(NSObject):
def handleExecPy(self, ev, replyEv):
try: return handleExecPy(self, ev, replyEv)
except: traceback.print_exc()
return
except:
AppScriptHandler = objc.lookUpClass("AppScriptHandler")
appScriptHandler = AppScriptHandler.alloc().init()
This works together with this simple client demo:
#!/usr/bin/python
import aem
fullpath = aem.findapp.byname("Google Chrome")
app = aem.Application(fullpath)
def execPy(cmd):
return app.event("CrSuExPy", {"comm": cmd}).send()
print execPy("app.bundle()")
def simple_shell():
import sys
try: import readline
except: pass # ignore
while True:
try:
s = raw_input("> ")
except:
print "breaked debug shell:", sys.exc_info()[0].__name__
break
s = s.strip()
if s: print execPy(s)
simple_shell()
The full code can be seen here and in action here.