Question

How to open PDF file with Applescript

Asked by: SatelliteCreative

Hi, I am trying to open a PDF on a CD with an Applescript saved in the same directory as the script.

The attached code doesn't work, and I suspect I'm not giving enough of a path to the 'open' function.

Any pointers? I want to be able to do this without buying/installing any custom scripts/components/apps.

Thanks!

tell application "Finder"
 
activate
 
open document file "test.pdf"
 
end tell

                                  
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Asked On
2008-10-24 at 04:44:42ID23844177
Tags

AppleScript

Topic

Apple Programming

Participating Experts
1
Points
500
Comments
5

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Answers

 

by: dsclPosted on 2008-10-24 at 06:17:31ID: 22795845

Okay assuming I am following you correctly.  You want a applescript that will open a pdf located in the same folder as the script on a CD right?

If so give this a try.


set myPath to path to me as Unicode text
set {tid, text item delimiters} to {text item delimiters, ":"}
set vol to text items 1 thru -2 of myPath as string
set text item delimiters to tid
tell application "Finder" to open file (vol & ":test.pdf")

                                              
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by: SatelliteCreativePosted on 2008-10-24 at 06:41:01ID: 22796041

Ok thanks, can you tell me whether I should be able to test that from a folder NOT on the CD? I've tried to run it and I get the error:

Finder got an error: Cant get file \"Macintosh HD:Users:Monolith:Desktop:Script Editor.app:test.pdf\"."

so I imagine its looking for the pdf IN the script editor?

 

by: dsclPosted on 2008-10-24 at 06:48:48ID: 22796111

Ahh, script editor!  Script editor has a long standing bug that causes path to me to refer to Script Editor rather than the script itself.  When you deploy your script are you going to be doing so as a AppleScript Application (self-running) or thru a script that actually needs to be ran thru the editor.

If you are doing an application (File > Save As > Application) then everything will work.  If you intend to run the script thru the editor then we need to work up another solution.  If you always know the CD name this would be trivial to do.

About the bug though.  If you do a lot of AppleScripting I would recommend you take a look at a product called Script Debugger.  It's not free, but it's a godsend for AppleScripters and doesn't contain many of the bugs (including this one) that Script Debugger does.

 

by: SatelliteCreativePosted on 2008-10-24 at 07:50:57ID: 22796857

Hi, it's fine to work standalone as an application, so now I've saved as you suggest it works perfectly.

Unfortunately now I can't get flash's fscommand to run the script from a 'projector' file! Anyway, I'll probably post another question about this.

Thanks very much for your help!


 

by: dsclPosted on 2008-10-24 at 07:55:16ID: 22796916

you might try running it as a script thru the fscommand.  I'm honestly not sure what would happen in that case, but it might, and hopefully would, work as we want/expect it too.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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