Another newbie question

[pepintheshort]

How do you take a variable and copy it to a text file? I’m sure this is very simple, but I haven’t got the hang of the syntax.

For example, I’ve created a bunch of variables from within Photoshop 7. The height, the width, etc. I want to put each of these values into a TextEdit document.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

tell application “TextEdit”
activate
open (file as alias) --using Applescript in a Nutshell example
write (theWidth & tab & theHeight & tab & theRes & return as string)
end tell

theWidth, theHeight, theRes are all variables defined as integers from Photoshop 7. They are global at the top of my script, so that hopefully, they will pass out to this handler for TextEdit. (I’ve left off the “on handler()…end handler” lines.)

So, anybody have a suggestion for the syntax for TextEdit (not Photoshop 7 - I think I’ve got that covered)?

Thanks,

-Derek :?

[Shai1]

Do you have to use the text editor? I ask because many newbies (including myself) are unaware that you can create a text file using the standard additions. Meaning that you don’t even need to use the text editor.

You can see how to do this if you open the dictionary for the standard additions.

[Camelot]

indeed, it’s far easier to just write your data directly to the file in question:

set outputFile to open for access file "path:to:filename" with write permission
write "your data here" to outputFile
close access outputFile

There are things you might need to check if you’re overwriting an existing file, such as setting the EOF (end of file) marker appropriately so that you overwrite the existing data instead of appending)

[pepintheshort]

Hi -
Thank you for the advice on the scripting additions. Until this point, I hadn’t really run into using them, so this was a great step for me.

I’m still having some trouble with this script. Here’s what I’ve got:

repeat with thisFile in fileList
              set filePath to sourcefolder & thisFile as string
              tell application "Photoshop 7.0"
                     activate
                     open thisFile
                     try
                          set theWidth to the width of current document as integer
                          set theHeight to the height of current document as integer
                          set realWidth to theWidth as alias
                          set outputFile to open for access file "disk1:Desktop:filename" with write permission
                          write (realWidth & return) to outputFile
                          close access outputFile
                          close current document
                    end try
              end tell
end repeat

When I open the resulting file in TextEdit, I only see one line with the items “list long %TEXT”. I’m confused about the line “write “your data here” to output file” in Camelot’s post.

Can anybody explain this to me, and how to better generate a list of values from the above script?

Thanks again,

-Derek

[jonn8]

Try this:

set string_to_write to "File Width Height
"
– you’ll see much better performance moving the PS tell block outside of the repeat block
tell application “Adobe Photoshop 7.0”
activate
–assumes you’ve set sourcefolder & fileList previously
repeat with thisFile in fileList
set filePath to sourcefolder & thisFile as string
open filePath as alias
tell document 1
copy {width as integer, height as integer} to {theWidth, theHeight}
close saving no
end tell
– set the string to write and then write it all at once below
set string_to_write to string_to_write & (thisFile & tab & theWidth & tab & theHeight & return)
end repeat
end tell

set file_path to (path to desktop as string) & “Image Dimensions.txt”
try
set outputFile to open for access file file_path with write permission
– comment out the next line if you want to append to an existing document
set eof of outputFile to 0
write string_to_write to outputFile starting at eof
close access outputFile
on error
close access outputFile
end try

–this script was automatically tagged for
–color coded syntax by Script to Markup Code
–written by Jonathan Nathan

Jon

[pepintheshort]

Hi Jon -

Tried the code above, but I got a series of class errors. “Can’t make “image.tif”… into a list, record, or text.”

Any suggestions? I used your code verbatim, and defined my sourcefolder and fileList before the actual repeat block began.

-Derek

[Camelot]

Your problem is this part:

                      set theWidth to the width of current document as integer 
                      set realWidth to theWidth as alias
                      set outputFile to open for access file "disk1:Desktop:filename" with write permission
                      write (realWidth & return) to outputFile

Note that the variable ‘realWidth’ is an alias record (or, at least, I assume it is since 'theWidth would be an integer object, so I’m not sure how you’re coercing an integer to an alias, but I’ll skip that for now), so when you ‘write (realWidth & return)’ to the file, you’re writing the raw data that represents the alias object.

Instead, what I assume you’re trying to do is write the variable as a string/text object, in which case you need to tell AppleScript that:

 write ((realWidth & return) as string) to output file

this will coerce ‘realWidth’ to a string object and is what I’m guessing you’re really after.

[jonn8]

I suspect you were having problems with your file list. Here is a complete script that does what you want:

–add file types here to process more image types
set file_types to {“TIFF”, “JPEG”, “PICT”}
set sourcefolder to (choose folder with prompt “Locate a folder full of images to process”) as string

set fileList to {}
tell application “Finder”
set folder_list to every item of folder sourcefolder
repeat with new_file in folder_list
try
set temp_file_type to file type of new_file
on error
set temp_file_type to “fold”
end try
if file_types contains temp_file_type then set fileList to fileList & {name of new_file as string}
end repeat
end tell

set string_to_write to (“File” & tab & “Width” & tab & “Height” & return)
tell application “Adobe Photoshop 7.0”
activate
repeat with thisFile in fileList
set filePath to (sourcefolder & thisFile) as alias
open filePath
tell document 1
–could be as inches or any unit PS supports
copy {(width as pixels) as integer, (height as pixels) as integer} to {theWidth, theHeight}
close saving no
end tell
– set the string to write and then write it all at once below
set string_to_write to string_to_write & (thisFile & tab & theWidth & tab & theHeight & return)
end repeat
end tell

set file_path to (path to desktop as string) & “Image Dimensions.txt”
try
set outputFile to open for access file file_path with write permission
set eof of outputFile to 0
write string_to_write to outputFile starting at eof
close access outputFile
on error
close access outputFile
end try
display dialog ((current date) as string) & “: Finished.” buttons {“OK”} default button 1 with icon 1 giving up after 15

–this script was automatically tagged for
–color coded syntax by Script to Markup Code
–written by Jonathan Nathan

Jon

[pepintheshort]

Thank you Camelot and Jon -

Both your solutions started to work for me, and now I’m getting the data that I wanted. This is so cool…! I appreciate all the help.

-Derek 8)