New AppleScript Progress Support - FYI

[ctwise]

Just noticed this after installing Yosemite:

 

Progress Reporting

AppleScript now has built-in support for reporting progress in a script. The global AppleScript object has four new properties:

• progress total steps (an integer)

• progress completed steps (an integer)

• progress description (text)

• progress additional description (text)

A script may set any of these properties at any time during the script to update the progress display. progress completed steps divided by progress total steps provides the fraction completed; if completed or total is -1, progress is considered indeterminate. progress description and progress additional description provide a message about what the script is doing.

Exactly how the progress is displayed depends on how the script is run: in Script Editor, it appears in the script window’s status bar; in script applications (applets), it appears as a progress dialog; and for scripts run from Script Menu, it appears in the Script Monitor menu. (Script Monitor appeared in previous system releases, but was only used for Automator workflows; it now displays any script run using NSUserScriptTask, which includes anything run from Script Menu.)

 

 

[Carlos-Sz]

Code sample: link

[dfay]

As far as I can tell, the only way to get this to display is by including an app bundle in a workflow, right?  I tried an Applescript object and a Script -> osascript object and neither produced a progress window or anything in the Alfred workflow log.

[ctwise]

As far as I can tell, the only way to get this to display is by including an app bundle in a workflow, right?  I tried an Applescript object and a Script -> osascript object and neither produced a progress window or anything in the Alfred workflow log.

 

I think you're right. I let my enthusiasm take me away. :-) I'm not sure if it's possible for Alfred to serve as the progress display "handler". I notice that the script editor displays the progress with a pie chart and logging messages in the bottom of the script window, so at some level it should be possible.

[iandol]

Does anyone have any updated info on whether there is a way to get this built-in applescript progress indicator to work for scripts in workflows? Is the only other alternative cocoaDialog?

 

Thanks for any pointers...

[deanishe]

You can create a progress bar in Alfred itself, using a Script Filter, rerun and variables.

 

 

[iandol]

Thanks deanishe, very neat idea, however my applescript can run for 3-5 minutes in the background so blocking Alfred for this time wouldn't be much use.

 

I found this tool:

 

https://github.com/tsntsumi/ProgressDialog

 

However it uses "tell application" and I can't see how that would work if it is stored in the workflow bundle. So annoying Apple never made Applescript progress work for scripts...

[deanishe]

3 hours ago, iandol said:

blocking Alfred for this time wouldn't be much use.

 

It doesn't block Alfred. Your long-running script should write its progress to a file, and a separate Script Filter then reads the file and shows the progress bar. You can open and close it as you please. 

[iandol]

1 hour ago, deanishe said:

 

It doesn't block Alfred. Your long-running script should write its progress to a file, and a separate Script Filter then reads the file and shows the progress bar. You can open and close it as you please. 

 

Woah, that is super cool. Will give it a go thanks!!!