{"id":169,"date":"2006-08-06T12:43:11","date_gmt":"2006-08-06T19:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.red-sweater.com\/blog\/169\/flextime-scripted-cues"},"modified":"2006-08-06T14:21:21","modified_gmt":"2006-08-06T21:21:21","slug":"flextime-scripted-cues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/169\/flextime-scripted-cues","title":{"rendered":"FlexTime Scripted Cues"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve posted FlexTime 1.0b8<\/a>, which contains a great number of minor fixes, as well as my first stab at built-in Help documentation. While you’re waiting for the excitement of WWDC to commence, why not spend a few minutes optimizing your favorite timed activities? <\/p>\n

\nAppleScript got a great deal of enhancement on this round. I finally implemented a scripting interface for setting cue parameters, and fixed a few little bugs that were preventing FlexTime’s Sofa Control Plugin<\/a> from working as well as it could.\n<\/p>\n

\nA scripting feature I didn’t really go into detail about last time is an enhancement I’ve added to the “Run Script” functionality. If FlexTime finds an AppleScript handler called “HandleFlexTimeCue,” it will attempt to call it directly instead of running the script as a whole. This mechanism gives your scripted cues access to information about the activity and routine they are being asked to cue on behalf of. For instance, a simple scripted cue that displays the name of the activity and routine document might look like this:\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n\n-- If somebody runs us directly, set them straight\ndisplay dialog \"This is a FlexTime cue script! \" & ¬\n\t\"Don't run me like that!\"\n\non HandleFlexTimeCue(myDocument, myRoutine)\n\t\n\t-- Just beep for fun\n\tbeep\n\t\n\t-- And ask FlexTime to show a message \n\tset routineName to name of myDocument\n\tset activityName to name of myRoutine\n\tset myText to \"Time to do \" & activityName & ¬\n\t\t\" for \" & routineName\n\ttell application \"FlexTime\"\n\t\tdisplay message myText ¬\n\t\t\tat screen position bottom left ¬\n\t\t\tdismissing after delay 5\n\tend tell\n\t\nend HandleFlexTimeCue\n\n<\/pre>\n<\/div>\n
\nThis script also demonstrates how you might use a “Run Script” cue handler to overcome some of the shortcomings in FlexTime’s built-in cues. For instance, the text message displayed by the above script is configured to automatically dismiss after 5 seconds, and is positioned at the lower-left hand of the screen.\n<\/p>\n
\nAs FlexTime evolves the UI will get more powerful, but it will probably always lag somewhat behind the power exposed by the scripted interface. The Run Script cue is a good option for FlexTime routines that need to push the envelope of possible actions.\n<\/p>\n
\nOh, and one more not-so-obvious feature of the “Run Script” cue is that it will launch\/run\/open practically anything you can think of. It’s using the same mechanism as FastScripts<\/a>, which is very liberal in its willingness to call something a “script.” It will run shell scripts, launch\/activate applications, run Automator workflows – you can even ask it to open a document file for you.\n<\/p>\n
\nStay tuned for more on FlexTime’s secret powers :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve posted FlexTime 1.0b8, which contains a great number of minor fixes, as well as my first stab at built-in Help documentation. While you’re waiting for the excitement of WWDC to commence, why not spend a few minutes optimizing your favorite timed activities? AppleScript got a great deal of enhancement on this round. I finally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flextime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redsweater.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}