TextFactory and then AppleScript works; AppleScript in TextFactory doesn't

[Francisco Hirsch]

I have a TextFactory and an AppleScript.

I do the following:

Open pdf in Acrobat

Select all, copy, paste in a new BBEdit Window, process with the TextFactory, run the AppleScript clicking in BBEdit Scripts,

And everything works.

But if I include the AppleScript as the last line in the TextFactory:

It saves the original text copied from the pdf with it’s first line as it’s name.

In other words, it’s as if the script (up to AppleScript line) did not work or the text was substituted in the AppleScript.

I’m baffled.

The AppleScript:

tell application "BBEdit"

activate

set firstLine to line 1 of document of text window 1

copy firstLine

set FileName to the clipboard

set FileName to FileName & ".txt"

set FileName to "iMac HD:Users:MyUser:Dropbox:Salta 2021 candidatos:" & FileName

save text document 1 to file FileName without saving as stationery

close project window 1 saving no

make new text document

end tell

Regards,,
Francisco
--
Lic. Francisco A. Hirsch
https://www.fiscaldemesa.com.ar
Twitter: https://twitter.com/fiscaldemesa
 

[Rich Siegel]

On 5 Jul 2021, at 17:13, Francisco Hirsch wrote:

> I have a TextFactory and an AppleScript.
> I do the following:
> Open pdf in Acrobat
> Select all, copy, paste in a new BBEdit Window, process with the
> TextFactory, run the AppleScript clicking in BBEdit Scripts,
> And everything works.
> But if I include the AppleScript as the last line in the TextFactory:
> It saves the original text copied from the pdf with it’s first line
> as it’s name.
> In other words, it’s as if the script (up to AppleScript line) did
> not work or the text was substituted in the AppleScript.
> I’m baffled.

Each step in a text factory is intended to process the text that
resulted from the previous step (or the file's contents, if it's the
first step).
The user manual says:

===

• When you use the Run AppleScript Filter operation, your script
should be written with an entry point named “ApplyTextTransform”.
The input parameter to this entry point is a Unicode string containing
the file’s contents. This entry point should return the file’s
contents as a Unicode string (or something which can be directly coerced
to one):

on ApplyTextTransform (fileData)
-- do something to fileData
return fileData -- or some reasonable facsimile thereof

====

Thus, text factories are not a way to chain together the execution of
arbitrary AppleScripts, *unless* the scripts you're running explicitly
process text provided as input to the text factory.

R.

--
Rich Siegel Bare Bones Software, Inc.
<sie...@barebones.com> <https://www.barebones.com/>

Someday I'll look back on all this and laugh... until they sedate me.

[Francisco Hirsch]

Thanks!, Rich

[Christopher Stone]

On Jul 05, 2021, at 16:13, Francisco Hirsch <listas...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a TextFactory and an AppleScript.

I do the following:

Open pdf in Acrobat

Select all, copy, paste in a new BBEdit Window, process with the TextFactory, run the AppleScript clicking in BBEdit Scripts, and everything works.

But if I include the AppleScript as the last line in the TextFactory:

It saves the original text copied from the pdf with it’s first line as it’s name.

In other words, it’s as if the script (up to AppleScript line) did not work or the text was substituted in the AppleScript.

---

Hey Francisco,

This issue can be confusing, but as Rich says Text Factory are not designed to run AppleScripts per se – they're designed to run AppleScripts (and other tools) that transform text.

This means the last line of the handler must always return text.  Like so:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

property LF : linefeed

on ApplyTextTransform(bbeditData)

    

    return "Returned Data Start" & LF & bbeditData & LF & "Returned Data End"

    

end ApplyTextTransform

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that means the AppleScript cannot process the front document, beyond its purview.

To do what you want you'll need to run your AppleScript from the BBEdit script menu (or FastScripts, Keyboard Maestro, or another AppleScript runner app.)

Something like this:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# Auth: Christopher Stone <script...@thestoneforge.com>

# dCre: 2021/07/06 00:26

# dMod: 2021/07/06 00:51

# Appl: BBEdit, System Events

# Task: Run a BBEdit Text Factory on the Front Document from an AppleScript.

#     : Save front document to a file name based on its own line 1's text.

# Libs: None

# Osax: None

# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @BBEdit, @System_Events, @Text_Factory, @Save

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

# NOTE – ALWAYS use relative paths whenever possible.

# Hard-coded paths are a recipe for headaches in the future.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

set myHomePath to path to downloads folder as text

# The way I generally use relative-paths when working with aliases.

# set textFactory to alias ((path to application support from user domain as text) & "BBEdit:Text Filters:Text Factories:TEST ⇢ Change Case to UpperCase.textfactory")

# How to use a relative POSIX Path with System Events.

# In this use-case the file must already exist.

set textFactory to "~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Text Filters/Text Factories/TEST ⇢ Change Case to UpperCase.textfactory"

tell application "System Events" to set textFactory to POSIX path of disk item textFactory

tell application "BBEdit"

    

    set theDoc to front text document

    

    apply text factory textFactory to theDoc

    

    set textOfLine1 to contents of line 1 of theDoc

    

    if textOfLine1 ≠ "" then

        

        set newFileName to textOfLine1 & ".txt"

        set newFilePath to myHomePath & newFileName

        save theDoc to file newFilePath

        close front window

        

        make new text document

        

    else

        error "Line 1 was blank – file was NOT saved!"

    end if

    

end tell

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Personally I would not copy and paste the PDF data.

I'd either use the command line utility `pdftotext` from Xpdf Tools or AppleScriptObjC to perform the extraction.

I like `pdftotext`, because it has a `-layout` switch that does a very respectable job of preserving the original PDF's format – unlike copy/paste from Preview.app and extract text with AppleScriptObjC.  This can be monumentally useful when parsing the text.

--

Best Regards,

Chris