Hello everyone! After making some applications on applescript i “upgraded” to Applescript Studio.
But i have a big problem. I want a program to start running after i push a button, and after that i want it to loop the effect, but when i add the “on idle” handler(?) it will start the “on idle” section right away.
Any thoughts?
I’d also like to make a request. How do i make a countdown timer appear in the main window, after the button is pressed and make a countdown of X seconds?
Thank you
This may not be the best advice but I have used this method to make a similar situation work. The “On Idle” handler goes to work right away because before you press the button the app is “idle”. What i did to get around this was to use a global variable and set it to true once the button click is completed. I set the global variable to false in the “on launched” or “on awake from nib” handlers to false so that the function doesn’t start before the button is clicked.
global clickedButton
on clicked theobject
set clickedButton to true
end on clicked
on idle
if clickedbutton is true then
do whatever
end if
end idle
this worked to an extent. Now i get the error “The variable clickedButton is not defined. (-2753)” :S
did you set it to false in a “On Launched” or “awake from nib handler”?
I should also note that to setup the “On Launched” hander go to exactly the same place as you did to setup the “On Idle” handler and check “On launched” as well.
something like this:
on awake from nib theObject
set clickedButton to false
end awake from nib
?
I am not sure where the problem is because this exact snippet works perfectly for me. I have one button on the main window and a “Awake form Nib” handler attached to the main window
global clickedButton
on awake from nib theObject
set clickedButton to false
end awake from nib
on idle theObject
if clickedButton is true then
display dialog "True"
end if
end idle
on clicked theObject
set clickedButton to true
end clicked
now its working 
thank you very much!
Just another approach. I have this in one of my apps to pause the on idle loop when I open the preferences window. You could change it so it loops through looking to see if a button is on or off. That way it wouldn’t go until the button is clicked on. As an added bonus, you could click the button off again at any time and stop the idle loop again:
on idle theObject
--If preferences window is open, loop until it closes to "pause" the tool.
repeat while visible of window "prefsWindow" is true --You would use something like repeat while button whatever is off
tell window "mainWindow" to set contents of text field "statusText" to "Paused while updating preferences..."
delay 1
end repeat
--the rest of your script
return 5
end idle
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I think ill stay with Dallasbr way, but thanks anyway.
I’m having another slight problem though. I added a second button to stop the script, thinking i could use the “set clickedButton to false” to stop the script. However it isn’t working, since i already have a button assigned to that script. On a different script it also doesn’t work 
Any ideas?
Hi,
“set clickedButton to false” will not do anything because you are just declaring the state of the button. You need to attach an action to that button.
Assuming that the name of your button is “Quit” try the handler below:
on clicked theObject
set objectName to the name of theObject as Unicode text
if objecName is "Quit" then
tell me to quit
continue quit
end if
end on clicked
Make sure to connect your button (named “Quit”) to your script before compiling.
Good luck.
archseed 
i thought since the idle script only started if the “set clickedButton” was true, it would stop the loop :S
I tried to add a new button to the (main) script, but since i already had the start button i couldnt compile.
“The «event coVScliI» handler is specified more than once. (-2752)”
My goal is only to stop the loop, not to quit the program (that is what i understand your script does)
Hi keytachi,
Sorry. I read it that you “added second button to stop the script” which I interpreted as quitting from the script, not the loop.
OK, let me get back to you later on for possible solution.
archseed
Hi Keytachi,
I tested the codes below and I know it works with two contrasting buttons in one window controlling actions within the idler handler.
The trick is to reset the boolean variables that control the activation of the two buttons (activateLoop and cancelLoop) within the idler hander. If you don’t reset, then the other button will not work and vice versa.
Below are the codes:
global activateLoop, cancelLoop
on awake from nib theObject
set activateLoop to false
set cancelLoop to false
end awake from nib
on idle theObject
if activateLoop is true then display dialog "Let's get going"
if cancelLoop is true then display dialog "Let's stop now"
set cancelLoop to false
set activateLoop to false
end idle
on clicked theObject
if name of theObject is "activateLoop" then set activateLoop to true
if name of theObject is "cancelLoop" then set cancelLoop to true
end clicked
I hope this answers your question.
Good luck!
archseed
it doesn’t seem to be working for me (i probably messed up somewhere).
I created a new applescript file to test this. I assigned both buttons to this script and pasted the code you so kindly came up with.
However i got this error when building: “4: Expected “end” but found unknown token. (-2741)”
line 4 is this: “set activateLoop to false”
Thank you so much for helping out someone that knows almost nothing about this I’m learning as i go (mainly through this site), so I probably don’t even know some basic stuff that could be what is causing this errors
Hi,
Some strange item must have come into your code - either some word is missing or something that Xcode does not accept was added. It is expected an “end” somewhere but you have something else there. Sorry, I cannot be of much help finding it unless you show your codes here. If you are not keen on doing that, you can send your code to my email address. I suggest that you check your codes carefully because I know that the one I posted works
Good luck.
archseed
the thing is, this error appears even when i make a new script and just paste the code you gave me in there :S (maybe that is the problem).
But i will send you the code i have anyway. Thank you for the help!
HI,
OK, please do.
I’d be glad to find out where the problem is.
archseed
I decided to change my script from “On Idle” to “Repeat”
and i found this script here:
on clicked theObject
set ChosenButton to the name of theObject
if ChosenButton is in {"Start"} then
repeat
beep
delay 2
end repeat
end if
if ChosenButton is in {"Stop"} then
--here is where I want the repeat loop to stop
end if
end clicked
(http://bbs.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=23905)
and this is what i came up with:
on clicked theObject
set ChosenButton to the name of theObject
if ChosenButton is {"Start"} then
repeat
tell window of theObject
tell application "System Events"
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
keystroke "a"
delay 10
end tell
end tell
end repeat
end if
if ChosenButton is {"Stop"} then
exit repeat
end if
end clicked
on should quit after last window closed theObject
return true
end should quit after last window closed
(for testing purposes i’m using TextEdit and “a”)
I assigned 2 buttons to this script (Start and Stop), but i get a -1708 error when i start the application
Any ideas?
Hi,
I am not sure what the error that your application generated means.
Just one wild guess at it here - did you enable the “assistive devices” in the System Preferences? The keystroke command in your application using the System Event works only if the “enable assistive devices” is active.
Good luck.
archseed
yes i have assistive devices, but is this script correct? theoretically should it work? or do i need to make some changes? i selected the both buttons to “object” instead of “global” but it did nothing :S
any ideas?