AppleScript: tell application "Alfred X"

[eusi]

Hey,

 

first of all: what I want to do, is to call a ScriptFilter via another. 

Lets say we do "workflow soccerclubs" that gives us a list of soccer clubs. After we clicked on one of em, Alfred updates to e.g. "workflow soccerclub Real Madrid", which lists every player of the team.

 

Currently I do this via a "Run NSApple Script":

on alfred_script(q)
   tell application "Alfred 2" to search "workflow soccerclub " & q
end alfred_script

Now, when Alfred 3 is released, this doesn't work for everyone.

 

My first solution is a workaround, that checks every time, if Alfred 3 is installed, then use Alfred 3, otherwise use Alfred 2. To use such call everytime, is a bad approach.

 

What I need is something like this_alfred in AppleScript or another possibility to call a ScriptFilter via another ScriptFilter (compatible in Alfred 2 + 3)

 

Best regards,

eusi

Edited May 22, 2016 by eusi

[deanishe]

Fundamentally, this is very tricky to do with AppleScript. At least as far as I can tell. And it's even more difficult from within Run NSAppleScript.

AppleScript has a really weird execution model. You can't get an application object based on a name in a variable, and you can't even mention an application that isn't installed, or a box will pop up asking the user to location the application, which is a huge issue in this particular case.

As a result, to keep using AppleScript, you're probably going to need to have separate scripts for Alfred 2 and Alfred 3. You should really switch to JavaScript.

Swap out your Run NSAppleScript Action for a normal Run Script action with "Language = /usr/bin/osascript (JS) with input as argv" and try this:

ObjC.import('stdlib');

function run(argv) {

    // Get major version number
    var v = $.getenv('alfred_version').split('.')[0];

    Application('Alfred ' + v).search('workflow soccerclub ' + argv[0]);
}

[eusi]

Oh, I missed thing here... Well better late than never ;-)

I works well, thank you very much! 

[deanishe]

I think someone smarter than me figured out how to do it with AppleScript. 

 

I can't remember exactly, but it involves asking System Events if there's a program named "Alfred X" running  

[eusi]

Doesn't matter. I just needed a way to get rid of "Alfred 2" in 

 tell application "Alfred 2" to search "workflow soccerclub " & q

AppleScript wasn't required. Another script also fine.

 

It was a simple issue: If a user uses Alfred 3, he cannot use the workflow, because of this line. In far future, there could be a Alfred 2- 3- and 4-user that is using the workflow. It would be crazy if everyone needs to modify this line to make the workflow work ;-)

 

So thanks again for fixing *beer ahoy*

Edited October 4, 2016 by eusi

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, eusi said:

In far future, there could be a Alfred 2- 3- and 4-user that is using the workflow

 

Heh, you're right. I'd forgotten what my solution was, and it is nicely forward compatible. (FWIW, I think Andrew is looking into just using "Alfred" as the app name in AppleScript.)

 

1 hour ago, eusi said:

*beer ahoy*

 

I started hours ago…