What a quick response, I think I understand what you are doing here.
Besides, everything you stated worked fine in my tests, thanks a lot!

There is one issue though that I couldn´t catch with for example a try statement. If in the choose folder dialog I select folders all the rest runs fine. If I don´t select anything AppleScript throws an error and quits, do you have any thoughts on how to keep the program running?

And one last question on your return remark. In my tests I could use variables defined in a particular script only in that script. So I assume that returning the variables makes them reusable again in any other script that attempts to use them? That would be a great advantage, I just did not have any time yet to test that. It would make the variables accessible on a global level.

Sorry for the delay. I had to do a little research on passing values between subroutines and during runtime. Now I think I got the hang of it So that should be clear.

I did some other stuff and then came back to testing the Choose dialog functionality again, if you still remember. Your solution to catching the error number is great, but it means that the standard Cancel button would no longer work the way it is intended to.

So I would rather leave it as it is: Clicking Cancel should mean quit and not continue. I was not able to catch any error number when clicking Choose without selecting anything, so I could not use your method in that way.

But I would want it to be like that - clicking the standard Choose button without selecting anything should mean continue anyway and not raise an error by default. A third button would of course be an option as well, so Cancel and Choose could remain standard buttons and unchanged. But I was not able to create a third button in this standard dialog, I do not think that this would be possible.

What I did notice while testing was that maybe something does get passed on as a value anyway if no selection was made and before the error is issued. So I tried to program around that and surprisingly enough the standard error did not show up anymore. It was replaced by my dialog that way. Unfortunately, if something does get selected it does not get recognised by my test coding either. But it may lead to an alternative way, any suggestions on that?

Applescript:

property OldDefault : path to desktop as alias

property OldFolders : {}

-- Calling Subroutines

DelOldBck(OldDefault)

EmptyTrash()

-- Subroutines

on DelOldBck(OldDefault)
   
   set OldFolders to (choose folder with prompt "Choose Folders to delete:" default location OldDefault with multiple selections allowed)
   
   set OldFoldCount to count of items of OldFolders
   
   if (OldFoldCount > 1) then
       
       repeat with _folder in OldFolders
           
           tell application "Finder" to delete _folder
           
       end repeat
       
   else
       
       display dialog "No folders in selection!"
       
   end if
   
end DelOldBck


on EmptyTrash()
   
   tell application "Finder"
       
       open the trash
       
       set TrashCount to count of items of the trash
       
       if (TrashCount > 0) then
           
           display dialog "Empty the trash?" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} with icon caution
           
           empty the trash
           
       else
           
           display dialog "The trash is empty!" buttons {"Cancel", "OK"} default button 2 with icon caution
           
       end if
       
       delay 3
       
   end tell
   
end EmptyTrash

One important conclusion follows from Yvan Koenig's observations: it is better to always indicate the Cancel button explicitly. For universality of raising error -128.

Last edited by KniazidisR (2020-04-04 03:35:48 pm)

Hey people, I see you started a discussion about adding Cancel buttons explicitly.. This may be important in views of localisation, etc. - in my case I do not think it is. This is for private use only, and there will be no major adaptions to this localised version of mac os. Anyways, for other people it may be important.

Still, you focused too much on the empty trash part in my opinion. My question was about the choose folder dialog process, the empty trash part was just so that something useful might happen in the coding example.

Speaking of explicitly, that is why I had done this part:

Applescript:

if (OldFoldCount > 1) then

That is because doing it like this:

Applescript:

if (OldFoldCount > 0) then

will create the error that I am trying to avoid. With Count > 1 it works sort of, but not really when you select anything. Any thoughts on that? I also believe you will agree that placing a third custom button in this standard dialog will not be possible.

Hello again, thank you very much for looking into the matter so thoroughly.

We are getting close… I have noticed and understood what you are doing with the dialog and three buttons involved. Still, this is not the right type of dialog, but the right way of displaying buttons. I was asking if the standard choose folder dialog could display more than the standard buttons in the way your dialog does. Anyway, this problem is solved for me, I just assume that this is not possible to merge.

Regarding the Choose folder dialog, this is the code that works for me:

Applescript:

set OldDefault to path to desktop

set maybe to my DelOldBck(OldDefault)

if maybe then my EmptyTrash()

-- Subroutines

on DelOldBck(OldDefault)
   
   try
       
       set OldFolders to choose folder with prompt "Choose Folders to delete:" default location OldDefault with multiple selections allowed
       
       set OldFoldCount to count of items of OldFolders
       
       repeat with _folder in OldFolders
           
           tell application "Finder" to delete _folder
           
       end repeat
       
       return true
       
   on error errMsg number errNbr
       
       try
           
           -- display dialog "No folders in selection!" & linefeed & errMsg & linefeed & "number #" & errNbr buttons {"OK"} default button 1 -- Too much information ;-)
           
           display dialog "No folders in selection!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
           
       end try
       
       return true — This change means dialog and further processing
       
   end try
   
end DelOldBck


on EmptyTrash()
   
   tell application "Finder"
       
       open the trash
       
       set TrashCount to count of items of the trash
       
       if TrashCount > 0 then
           
           try
               
               display dialog "Empty the trash?" with icon caution
               
               empty the trash
               
           on error
               
           end try
           
       else
           
           display dialog "The trash is empty!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon caution
           
       end if
       
       delay 3
       
   end tell
   
end EmptyTrash

I have made only one relevant change to your coding, and that was setting the return to true when getting the error of clicking Cancel when not choosing anything in the first dialog. That means that a dialog is displayed and the program will resume, no matter what. In the next dialog you still have the chance to escape it all again or continue to empty the trash. I sometimes start this program and delete items, only to quit the program afterwards, do something else and start it all over again, and then there is nothing to delete anymore, that is what this part is for actually. Just a means of having the program continue, when nothing gets selected.

Funny enough, when you click Choose you still get the error that I was not able to catch. After displaying the error, AppleScript keeps running in the background and after a while continues by itself and enters the empty trash part. This would help and must be some kind of feature, not bad, but the delay until the program resumes automatically is just too long, so this is not an alternative.

Instead, your way of catching the error and continue earlier is the way to go for me. So this topic is solved and closed as far as I am concerned.

Thanks again for your reliable expertise everyone, much appreciated.