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55 | <H1><A NAME="SECTION005000000000000000000"></A><A NAME="scripting"></A> | |
56 | <BR> | |
57 | 3. MacPython OSA Modules | |
58 | </H1> | |
59 | ||
60 | <P> | |
61 | This chapter describes the current implementation of the Open Scripting | |
62 | Architecure (OSA, also commonly referred to as AppleScript) for Python, allowing | |
63 | you to control scriptable applications from your Python program, | |
64 | and with a fairly pythonic interface. Development on this set of modules | |
65 | has stopped, and a replacement is expected for Python 2.5. | |
66 | ||
67 | <P> | |
68 | For a description of the various components of AppleScript and OSA, and | |
69 | to get an understanding of the architecture and terminology, you should | |
70 | read Apple's documentation. The "Applescript Language Guide" explains | |
71 | the conceptual model and the terminology, and documents the standard | |
72 | suite. The "Open Scripting Architecture" document explains how to use | |
73 | OSA from an application programmers point of view. In the Apple Help | |
74 | Viewer these book sare located in the Developer Documentation, Core | |
75 | Technologies section. | |
76 | ||
77 | <P> | |
78 | As an example of scripting an application, the following piece of | |
79 | AppleScript will get the name of the frontmost <b class="program">Finder</b> window | |
80 | and print it: | |
81 | ||
82 | <P> | |
83 | <div class="verbatim"><pre> | |
84 | tell application "Finder" | |
85 | get name of window 1 | |
86 | end tell | |
87 | </pre></div> | |
88 | ||
89 | <P> | |
90 | In Python, the following code fragment will do the same: | |
91 | ||
92 | <P> | |
93 | <div class="verbatim"><pre> | |
94 | import Finder | |
95 | ||
96 | f = Finder.Finder() | |
97 | print f.get(f.window(1).name) | |
98 | </pre></div> | |
99 | ||
100 | <P> | |
101 | As distributed the Python library includes packages that implement the | |
102 | standard suites, plus packages that interface to a small number of | |
103 | common applications. | |
104 | ||
105 | <P> | |
106 | To send AppleEvents to an application you must first create the Python | |
107 | package interfacing to the terminology of the application (what | |
108 | <b class="program">Script Editor</b> calls the "Dictionary"). This can be done from | |
109 | within the <b class="program">PythonIDE</b> or by running the | |
110 | <span class="file">gensuitemodule.py</span> module as a standalone program from the command | |
111 | line. | |
112 | ||
113 | <P> | |
114 | The generated output is a package with a number of modules, one for | |
115 | every suite used in the program plus an <tt class="module">__init__</tt> module to glue | |
116 | it all together. The Python inheritance graph follows the AppleScript | |
117 | inheritance graph, so if a programs dictionary specifies that it | |
118 | includes support for the Standard Suite, but extends one or two verbs | |
119 | with extra arguments then the output suite will contain a module | |
120 | <tt class="module">Standard_Suite</tt> that imports and re-exports everything from | |
121 | <tt class="module">StdSuites.Standard_Suite</tt> but overrides the methods that have | |
122 | extra functionality. The output of <tt class="module">gensuitemodule</tt> is pretty | |
123 | readable, and contains the documentation that was in the original | |
124 | AppleScript dictionary in Python docstrings, so reading it is a good | |
125 | source of documentation. | |
126 | ||
127 | <P> | |
128 | The output package implements a main class with the same name as the | |
129 | package which contains all the AppleScript verbs as methods, with the | |
130 | direct object as the first argument and all optional parameters as | |
131 | keyword arguments. AppleScript classes are also implemented as Python | |
132 | classes, as are comparisons and all the other thingies. | |
133 | ||
134 | <P> | |
135 | The main | |
136 | Python class implementing the verbs also allows access to the properties | |
137 | and elements declared in the AppleScript class "application". In the | |
138 | current release that is as far as the object orientation goes, so | |
139 | in the example above we need to use | |
140 | <code>f.get(f.window(1).name)</code> instead of the more Pythonic | |
141 | <code>f.window(1).name.get()</code>. | |
142 | ||
143 | <P> | |
144 | If an AppleScript identifier is not a Python identifier the name is | |
145 | mangled according to a small number of rules: | |
146 | ||
147 | <UL> | |
148 | <LI>spaces are replaced with underscores | |
149 | </LI> | |
150 | <LI>other non-alphanumeric characters are replaced with | |
151 | <code>_xx_</code> where <code>xx</code> is the hexadecimal character value | |
152 | </LI> | |
153 | <LI>any Python reserved word gets an underscore appended | |
154 | </LI> | |
155 | </UL> | |
156 | ||
157 | <P> | |
158 | Python also has support for creating scriptable applications | |
159 | in Python, but | |
160 | The following modules are relevant to MacPython AppleScript support: | |
161 | ||
162 | <P> | |
163 | <table class='synopsistable' valign='baseline'> | |
164 | <tr class='oddrow'> | |
165 | <td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-gensuitemodule.html'>gensuitemodule</a></tt></b></td> | |
166 | <td> </td> | |
167 | <td class='synopsis'>Create a stub package from an OSA dictionary</td></tr> | |
168 | <tr><td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-aetools.html'>aetools</a></tt></b></td> | |
169 | <td> </td> | |
170 | <td class='synopsis'>Basic support for sending Apple Events</td></tr> | |
171 | <tr class='oddrow'> | |
172 | <td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-aepack.html'>aepack</a></tt></b></td> | |
173 | <td> </td> | |
174 | <td class='synopsis'>Conversion between Python variables and AppleEvent | |
175 | data containers.</td></tr> | |
176 | <tr><td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-aetypes.html'>aetypes</a></tt></b></td> | |
177 | <td> </td> | |
178 | <td class='synopsis'>Python representation of the Apple Event Object Model.</td></tr> | |
179 | <tr class='oddrow'> | |
180 | <td><b><tt class='module'><a href='module-MiniAEFrame.html'>MiniAEFrame</a></tt></b></td> | |
181 | <td> </td> | |
182 | <td class='synopsis'>Support to act as an Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) server | |
183 | (``Apple Events'').</td></tr> | |
184 | </table> | |
185 | ||
186 | <BR> | |
187 | <P> | |
188 | In addition, support modules have been pre-generated for | |
189 | <tt class="module">Finder</tt>, <tt class="module">Terminal</tt>, <tt class="module">Explorer</tt>, | |
190 | <tt class="module">Netscape</tt>, <tt class="module">CodeWarrior</tt>, <tt class="module">SystemEvents</tt> and | |
191 | <tt class="module">StdSuites</tt>. | |
192 | ||
193 | <P> | |
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229 | <span class="release-info">Release 2.4.2, documentation updated on 28 September 2005.</span> | |
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