AppleScript workflows failing [Fixed 2.2 b239]

[timcnicholls]

I recently upgraded to Mavericks and am experiencing problems with Applescript-based workflows that were working fine previously. In attempting to debug the workflows, it seems that even basic RunNSAppleScript actions fail for scripts that work just fine in Script Editor.

 

For instance, I tried a toy Keyword to Applescript workflow, with or without keyword arguments:

on alfred_script(q)
   tell application “iTerm”
      activate
   end tell
end alfred_script

fails with the following output in Console:

13/12/2013 11:37:25.761 Alfred 2[381]: [ERROR] AppleScript Error: {
    NSAppleScriptErrorBriefMessage = "Expected expression, property or key form, etc. but found unknown token.";
    NSAppleScriptErrorMessage = "Expected expression, property or key form, etc. but found unknown token.";
    NSAppleScriptErrorNumber = "-2741";
    NSAppleScriptErrorRange = "NSRange: {38, 1}";
}

Other workflows, e.g. passing calendar sentences to Fantastical, continue to work fine.

 

I'm running Alfred v2.1.1 (227) on Mac OSX Mavericks 10.9 build 13A603.

 

Any suggestions on how to investigate this further?

 

Thanks

 

Tim

 

 

Edited December 13, 2013 by timcnicholls

[Andrew]

 

I recently upgraded to Mavericks and am experiencing problems with Applescript-based workflows that were working fine previously. In attempting to debug the workflows, it seems that even basic RunNSAppleScript actions fail for scripts that work just fine in Script Editor.

 

For instance, I tried a toy Keyword to Applescript workflow, with or without keyword arguments:

on alfred_script(q)
   tell application “iTerm”
      activate
   end tell
end alfred_script

fails with the following output in Console:

13/12/2013 11:37:25.761 Alfred 2[381]: [ERROR] AppleScript Error: {
    NSAppleScriptErrorBriefMessage = "Expected expression, property or key form, etc. but found unknown token.";
    NSAppleScriptErrorMessage = "Expected expression, property or key form, etc. but found unknown token.";
    NSAppleScriptErrorNumber = "-2741";
    NSAppleScriptErrorRange = "NSRange: {38, 1}";
}

Other workflows, e.g. passing calendar sentences to Fantastical, continue to work fine.

 

I'm running Alfred v2.1.1 (227) on Mac OSX Mavericks 10.9 build 13A603.

 

Any suggestions on how to investigate this further?

 

Thanks

 

Tim

 

 

 

Hi Tim,

 

It looks like Mavericks "Smart Quotes" is changing the quotation marks to unicode quotes instead of the straight up quotes. I had turned this auto substitution off automatically in almost every other place, but it looks like Alfred's AppleScript editor was overlooked.

 

I'll get this fixed in the next release, but for now, if you right click in the text area where the AppleScript is being edited, select 'substitutions' and turn off "Smart Quotes", then you'll be able to get the AppleScript working with "iTerm".

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[timcnicholls]

Hi Andrew

 

Great - that's fixed the problem, and the more complex scripts (e.g for creating Evernote notes) are now working again too having fixed the smart quote mangling. I also noticed it was substituting dashes in commented out lines of scripts.

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

Cheers

 

Tim

[wwvuillemot]

Just adding my 2 cents that I ran into the same issue.  And just to be clear and complete, indeed you must:

1. turn off "smart quotes" from the right-click context menu for each impacted script
2. re-do the quotes ("") anywhere in the script where smart quotes have been substituted 

Thanks for fixing!

[jiku]

Was wondering why some of my workflows were failing. Great to have a tentative fix. Thanks!

[Andrew]

This should now be fixed in the Alfred 2.2 b239 pre-release