ADC Home > Reference Library > Reference > Mac OS X > Mac OS X Man Pages

 

This document is a Mac OS X manual page. Manual pages are a command-line technology for providing documentation. You can view these manual pages locally using the man(1) command. These manual pages come from many different sources, and thus, have a variety of writing styles.

For more information about the manual page format, see the manual page for manpages(5).



Simple(3)                            User Contributed Perl Documentation                           Simple(3)



NAME
       Mac::OSA::Simple - Simple access to Mac::OSA

SYNOPSIS
           #!perl -wl
           use Mac::OSA::Simple;
           osa_script('LAND', <<'EOS');
             dialog.getInt ("Duration?",@examples.duration);
             dialog.getInt ("Amplitude?",@examples.amplitude);
             dialog.getInt ("Frequency?",@examples.frequency);
             speaker.sound (examples.duration, examples.amplitude,
                 examples.frequency)
           EOS

           print frontier('clock.now()');

           applescript('beep 3');

DESCRIPTION
       You can access scripting components via the tied hash %ScriptComponents which is automatically
       exported.  Components are only opened if they have not been already, and are closed when the program
       exits.  It is normally not necessary to use this hash, as it is accessed internally when needed.

       Also usually not necessary, but possibly useful, are all the functions and constants from Mac::OSA,
       available with the EXPORT_TAG "all".

       NOTE: Examples below show use of $^E.  On Mac OS, this will return the signed Mac OS error number in
       numeric context, and the Mac OS error message in string context.  But on Mac OS X, $^E support is
       unimplemented.  $! and $^E will both return the unsigned error number.  You can get the correct error
       number by adding 0 (such as "$! + 0"), and you can use Mac::Errors to get the error text (this will
       also work under Mac OS):

               use Mac::Errors '$MacError';
               my $res = FSpOpenResFile($file, 0) or die $MacError;

       See Mac::Errors on the CPAN for more information.

       Functions

       The following functions are automatically exported.

       osa_script(SCRIPTCOMPONENT, SCRIPTTEXT)
           Compiles and executes SCRIPTTEXT, using four-char SCRIPTCOMPONENT.  Component is opened and
           closed behind the scenes, and SCRIPTTEXT is compiled, executed, and disposed of behind the
           scenes.  If the script returns data, the function returns the data, else it returns 1 or undef on
           failure.

       applescript(SCRIPTTEXT)
       frontier(SCRIPTTEXT)
           Same thing as "osa_script" with SCRIPTCOMPONENT already set ('ascr' for AppleScript, 'LAND' for
           Frontier).

       compile_osa_script(SCRIPTCOMPONENT, SCRIPTTEXT)
           Compiles script as "osa_script" above, but does not execute it.  Returns Mac::OSA::Simple object.
           See "Methods" for more information.

       compile_applescript(SCRIPTTEXT)
       compile_frontier(SCRIPTTEXT)
           Same thing as "compile_osa_script" with SCRIPTCOMPONENT already set.

       load_osa_script(HANDLE)
       load_osa_script(FILE [, RESOURCEID])
           In the first form, load compiled OSA script using data in Handle (same data as returned by
           "compiled" method; see Mac::Memory).  In the second form, gets script from FILE using RESOURCEID
           (which is 128 by default).  Returns Mac::OSA::Simple object.

           NOTE: Because of a change in the parameters for this function, a RESOURCEID value of 1 will not
           be recognized as a resource ID (the old parameter list had a value of 1 mean "load from file").
           If you need to use a resource ID of 1, pass it in as both the second and third parameter.  Sorry.
           Why would you use 1 for a resource ID, anyway??

           Example:

               use Mac::OSA::Simple qw(:all);
               use Mac::Resources;
               $res = FSpOpenResFile($file, 0) or die $^E;
               $scpt = Get1Resource(kOSAScriptResourceType, 128)
                   or die $^E;
               $osa = load_osa_script($scpt);
               $osa->execute;
               CloseResFile($res);

           Same thing:

               use Mac::OSA::Simple;
               $osa = load_osa_script($file);
               $osa->execute;

           Another example:

               use Mac::OSA::Simple;
               $osa1 = compile_applescript('return "foo"');
               print $osa1->execute;

               # make copy of script in $osa1 and execute it
               $osa2 = load_osa_script($osa1->compiled);
               print $osa2->execute;

           See "Methods" for more information.

       Methods

       This section describes methods for use on objects returned by "compile_osa_script" and its related
       functions and "load_osa_script".

       compiled
           Returns a Handle containing the raw compiled form of the script (see Mac::Memory).

       dispose
           Disposes of OSA script.  Done automatically if not called explicitly.

       execute
           Executes script.  Can be executed more than once.

       call(CLASS, EVENT, ARGS, MODE)
           Calls a handler in the script, identified by CLASS and EVENT IDs.  Can be executed more than
           once.

           ARGS can be either a scalar or an arrayref.  MODE can be any combination of modes from Mac::OSA
           listed under the "Mode flags" constants.

           Here is an example script:

                   on \xC7event abcd1234E\xC8 (filename)
                       tell app "Finder"
                          return [URL of file filename, creator type of file filename]
                       end
                   end

           "abcd" is the CLASS ID, and "1234" is the EVENT ID.  They can be anything, as long as they don't
           conflict with something else.  The characters \xC7 and \xC8 can be literal if in the Mac Roman
           charset, otherwise just use the values like above.

           Parameters are passed to handlers as named values, like "(filename)".  Multiple parameters can be
           passed as an arrayref in ARGS, and a list of values is returned:

                   my $script = load_osa_script($path_to_script);
                   my($url, $creator) = $script->call(qw[abcd 1234], "my file");

           You must pass in the same number of variables in ARGS that are expected by the handler.

       save(FILE [, ID [, NAME]])
           Saves script in FILE with ID and NAME.  ID defaults to 128, NAME defaults to "MacPerl Script".
           DANGEROUS!  Will overwrite existing resource or file!

           Saves to the data fork instead on Mac OS X, unless an ID is provided.

           The context used to load a script from disk (resource fork vs. data fork, resource file vs. data
           file) will be used to save the script back, if applicable, so the file's format will be
           preserved.

       source
           Returns text of script source, if available.

       Script Context

       Scripts compiled by this module now compile scripts as script contexts, which, in part, means they
       can maintain state information.  For example:

               use Mac::OSA::Simple;
               my $script = compile_applescript(<<'SCRIPT') or die $^E;
               property foo: 20
               set foo to foo + 1
               SCRIPT
               print $script->execute, "\n" for 0..2;

       Returns:      21      22      23

       Whereas in previous versions of this module, it would have returned:      21      21      21

       For a script that on disk, to maintain state information in the saved version, remember to call
       "$script-"save(LIST)>.

TODO
       Work on error handling.  We don't want to die when a toolbox function fails.  We'd rather return
       undef and have the user check $^E.

       Should "frontier" and/or "osa_script('LAND', $script)" launch Frontier if it is not running?

       Add "run_osa_script", which could take script data in a Handle or a path to a script (as with
       "load_osa_script".

       Should "save" have optional parameter for overwriting resource?

       Should "run_osa_script" and "execute" take arguments?  If so, how?

AUTHOR
       Chris Nandor <pudge@pobox.com>, http://pudge.net/

       Copyright (c) 1998-2003 Chris Nandor.  All rights reserved.  This program is free software; you can
       redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
       Mac::OSA, Mac::AppleEvents, Mac::AppleEvents::Simple, macperlcat.



perl v5.8.8                                      2005-06-01                                        Simple(3)

Did this document help you?
Yes: Tell us what works for you.
It’s good, but: Report typos, inaccuracies, and so forth.
It wasn’t helpful: Tell us what would have helped.