One of the more curious aspects of AppleScript that inexperienced scripters are not aware of (and even more experienced scripters often overlook) is the fact that you can use the greater than[>]operator and the less than[<]operator with dates to determine, for instance, which of two given dates occurs first in the calendar year.
This, of course, contradicts everything that we did in math class at school, but it actually is a bullt-in capability of the AppleScript language.
If you run this first script in Script Editor you can see that AppleScript can understand the use of greater than and less than. This script coerces default or entered text to date format with the time appended and returns a result reflecting which time of the entered date occurs logically before the other:
set targetDate to date string of (current date)
set targetDate to text returned of (display dialog "Enter a date:" default answer targetDate buttons {"OK"} default button 1)
set dateTime1 to date (targetDate & " 1:00:00 PM")
set dateTime2 to date (targetDate & ":" & " 7:00:00 AM")
set datetext to date string of dateTime1
set time1 to time string of dateTime1
set time2 to time string of dateTime2
set dateTimeString1 to dateTime1 as string
set dateTimeString2 to dateTime2 as string
if (dateTime1 > dateTime2) then
display dialog (datetext & return & return & time1 & " occurs after " & time2 & ".")
else if (dateTime1 < dateTime2) then
display dialog (datetext & return & return & time2 & " occurs after " & time1 & ".")
end if
And then this example that uses just a little bit of FileMaker scripting at the beginning. It uses the ‘exists’ keyword to determine if the date can be found before proceeding and therefore is faster than if you tried this by using a repeat loop. Also, since the conditional pre-qualifies the show statement, there is no need for an error handler, although I include one here, because it is always a good practice, since there can always be some circumstance that you may have not anticipated. (FileMaker is in bold):
Freeze Window
Perform AppleScript [tell application "FileMaker Pro"
activate
tell database 1
show every record
sort layout 0 by {field "sortDate"} in order ascending
--'sortDate' is a field defined as type date
set targetRecord to (get ID of current record)
try
set targetCalcDate to (current date)
set targetFound to true
set searchDate to date string of (targetCalcDate)
if exists (some record where searchDate is in ¬
cell "AppointmentsDate") then
--'AppointmentsDate' is a text field that
--contains the long date of each record
show (every record where searchDate is in ¬
cell "AppointmentsDate")
else
set targetFound to false
end if
if targetFound = false then display dialog ¬
"The date \"" & searchDate & ¬
"\" was not found!" with icon 0 buttons {"OK"} ¬
default button 1 giving up after 10
on error errorMsg
display dialog errorMsg
show every record
sort layout 0 by {field "sortDate"} in order ascending
set targetRecord to (get ID of current record)
end try
set targetRecord to (get ID of current record)
show every record
sort layout 0 by {field "sortDate"} in order ascending
go to record ID targetRecord
end tell
end tell]
If you are more of a techy kind of person and are comfortable with using Terminal, here is a script you can use to easily create multiple folders:
First, for a single folder, type in: mkdir "Folder 1"
--or whatever you want to name your folder, this creates a new directory, which, in effect is a new folder.
To place multiple items in the 'Documents' folder:cd/Users/Administrator/Documents
mkdir "Folder 1" "Folder 2" "Folder 3"To quickly create multiple folders, create a text file with the desired folder names (as many as you want) and name it something like 'folderList.txt'. Next type this in Terminal:cat folderList.txt |xargs mkdirOr you could create folders with the same prefix by entering:mkdir "Invoices " {"Corporate", "Individual", "Pro-Bono"}
Digg This!!
An AppleScript to Verify a Date
Run this in the Script Editor:
set dateRecord to (current date)
set defaultDate to (date string of dateRecord)
try
set apptDate to text returned of (display dialog "Enter appointment date:" default answer defaultDate buttons {"Set"} default button {"Set"})
set datetext to apptDate as text
date apptDate --if an invalid date is entered, the next dialog is aborted and it triggers the error alert below.
display dialog datetext & " is a valid date." with icon note buttons {"OK"} default button {"OK"}
on error
set alertText to "An error has occurred!"
set messageText to quote & datetext & quote & " is an invalid date."
display alert alertText message messageText as warning buttons {"OK"} default button "OK" giving up after 15
return
end try
Concept Drawing for iMac prior to Production
Fun HTML
Use this to add interest to your pages, but be careful, if you overdo it, it can make your page look gaudy, if not ridiculous!
Here's is the code as it appears above:
<p align="center" style="padding: 5px; background-color: #FFCE9C; border: dotted 5px #FFCE9C;"><marquee width=20% behavior=scroll direction=left loop=infinite> Latest Headlines... </marquee><blink>Read All About It</blink>/p>
Copy and paste this into the Script Editor and try it out:
set defaultVolume to "3"
set volumeLevel to text returned of ¬
(display dialog ¬
"Set the system volume to (7 is the highest):"¬
default answer defaultVolume with icon note¬
buttons {"OK"} default button "OK") as integer
set volumeValues to {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7} ¬
as list
if volumeLevel is not in volumeValues then ¬
set volumeLevel to defaultVolume
tell application "Finder"
try
set volume volumeLevel
beep 2
on error errDlog
display dialog errDlog with icon stop ¬
buttons {"Abort"} default button ¬
"Abort" giving up after 15
end try
end tell
Six-figure Yaro Starak Teaches You How To Set Up And Profit From A Successful Blog. Start Making Money From Blogs By Following This Step-by-step, Weekly Coaching Program
Heres an AppleScript for backing up a selected group of HyperCard files. this was used in one of my HyperCard stacks, but could be adapted for use in OSX programs with little or no modification:
send "suiteBkp(true)" to bg btn "BackupSuite"
--Use this line to call the handler below (true displays a notification dialog when the process is complete, you must have a button named bg btn "BackupSuite"):
on suiteBkp(theBoolean)
copy line 1 of field "selectedFolder" to theHFFolderPath --You'll need a hidden field named "selectedFolder" that a script (prior to the call) will place the path to the desired folder in.
tell application "Finder"
activate
set todaysDate to (current date)
set bkpYear to (year of todaysDate)
set monthlyBkp to ("Monthly Reports_" & bkpYear) as string
if exists (folder "HyperCard Backup") then
select folder "HyperCard Backup"
delete selection
end if
if exists (folder "HyperCard Backup" of folder theHFFolderPath) then
select folder "HyperCard Backup" of folder theHFFolderPath
delete selection
end if
make new folder at folder theHFFolderPath with properties {name:"HyperCard Backup"}
select {file "Appointments" of folder theHFFolderPath, ¬ file "HyperFile" of folder theHFFolderPath, ¬ file "Outstanding Invoices" of folder theHFFolderPath, ¬ file "Year" of folder theHFFolderPath, ¬ file monthlyBkp of folder theHFFolderPath, ¬
copy selection to folder "HyperCard Backup" of folder theHFFolderPath
select folder "HyperCard Backup" of folder theHFFolderPath
select file "Appointments" of folder ¬ "HyperFile Suite Backup" of folder theHFFolderPath
set name of selection to "Appointments.bkp"
select file "HyperFile" of folder "HyperCard Backup" of ¬ folder theHFFolderPath
set name of selection to "HyperFile.bkp"
select file "Outstanding Invoices" of ¬ folder "HyperFile Suite Backup" of folder theHFFolderPath
set name of selection to "Outstanding Invoices.bkp"
select file "Year" of folder "HyperFile Suite Backup" of ¬ folder theHFFolderPath
set name of selection to "Year.bkp"
set prefMonthlyBkp to (monthlyBkp & ".bkp") as string
select file monthlyBkp of folder "HyperFile Suite Backup" of ¬ folder theHFFolderPath
set name of selection to prefMonthlyBkp
select folder "HyperFile Suite Backup" of folder "The HyperFile Folder"
move selection to desktop
end tell
if theBoolean = "true" then
tell application "HyperCard"
activate
display dialog ¬ "Your backup has been saved to desktop." buttons {"Done"} default button {"Done"} with icon 129 giving up after 10
end tell
end if
end suiteBkp
Here's a simple, but very useful little HyperTalk script for verifying the validity of a date entered by a user, assuming that you have a menu item "flag date..." (or whatever you choose to name it) or it could be altered slightly and placed within a mouseUp statement:
if menuItem = "Flag Date..." then
global tryDate
ask "Enter a date for your new appointment:" with the long date
if it ≠ "" and the result ≠ "Cancel" then
put it into tryDate
else
put "" into tryDate
exit doMenu
end if
if invalidDate() then
answer "The date entered is not valid!"
put "" into tryDate
exit doMenu
end if
--Here you would put the statements to execute if the entered date proves to be valid
put "" into tryDate
end if
function invalidDate
global tryDate
convert tryDate to short date
if the result = "invalid date" then
return true
else
return false
end if
end invalidDate
Mac SE (circa 1987), was a more advanced version of the Mac Plus and had an internal hard drive.
YouTube Video Search Script:
tell application "Finder"
try
set webSearch to text returned of (display dialog "Enter YouTube Video
Search" default answer "" buttons {"Search", "Cancel"} default button 1)
open location "http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=" & webSearch
on error theError
display dialog theError
end try
end tell
Recent Comments