Re: Accessing Child Elements of Property List Records or Lists

Subject: Re: Accessing Child Elements of Property List Records or Lists
From: red_menace <email@hidden>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:51:52 -0600

Hello

Each property list item can also contain other property list items. In your example,

you are using the value of one property list item (a record) as the key for getting

another property list item. You just need to break down each key/subitem - I use

a list of items to build a reference to the desired property list element:

to GetPlistElement from PlistItems

get the specified element from a simple Plist structure by name or index

note that the indexes are not necessarily the order shown in the XML file (?!)

the number of items is not fixed, but must be at least 2 (the Plist file and a Plist element)

parameters: PlistItems [list] -

item 1 [mixed]: the Plist file path (Finder or POSIX)

item 2 [mixed]: the Plist element name or index (names are case sensitive)

item(s) 3+ [mixed]: additional sub item(s)

returns [mixed]: value of the element - null if not found or error

try

tell application "System Events"

set thePlistElement to property list file ((get the first item of PlistItems) as text) -- start at the root element

repeat with AnItem in rest of PlistItems -- add on the sub items

set AnItem to the contents of AnItem

try

set AnItem to AnItem as integer -- index number?

end try

set thePlistElement to (property list item AnItem of thePlistElement)

end repeat

return value of thePlistElement

end tell

on error ErrorMessage number ErrorNumber

log ErrorMessage

return null -- error "GetPlistElement handler: element not found (" & ErrorNumber & ")"

end try

end GetPlistElement

For your example, the usage would be my (GetPlistElement from {thePlist, "Bounds", "Height"})

Dave

On Aug 15, 2009, at 1:00 PM, Grant Erickson wrote:

I am attempting to use the Property List Suite of the System Events
dictionary to customize window views using a property list of attributes for
those customizations (bounds, view style, view options, etc.).

I seem to be able to successfully access all the top-level items from the
property list using:

   on GetObjectForKeyInFile(inFile, inKey)
       tell application "System Events"
           tell property list file inFile
               tell contents
                   return value of property list item inKey
               end tell
           end tell
       end tell
   end GetObjectForKeyInFile

with examples such as:

   set theBoolean to my GetObjectForKeyInFile(thePlist, "Tool Bar")

   if theBoolean is not {} then
           set toolbar visible to theBoolean
   end if

However, when retrieve a dictionary (record) and then get a child of them
it:

   on GetObjectForKeyInRecord(inRecord, inKey)
       tell application "System Events"
           tell property list item inRecord
               return value of property list item inKey
           end tell
       end tell
   end GetObjectForKeyInRecord

with an example such as:

   set theBounds to my GetObjectForKeyInFile(thePlist, "Bounds")
   set theHeight to my GetObjectForKeyInRecord(theBounds, "Height")

I get an error of:

   System Events got an error: Can¹t get property list item {|X|:10,
|Y|:10, |Width|:480, |Height|:320}. Invalid index. (-1719)

Any insights? I am certain there is some "of..." or "as..." syntax I am
missing here; however, various combinations of "as record", etc. have proved
fruitless.

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