Apple

On Mar 31, 2010, at 7:33 PM, hd wrote:

On 1 Apr 2010, at 00:59, Luther Fuller wrote:

I'm now confused, but suspect that System Events does not know what a property list file is.

On my 10.6.3 (and I suspect much earlier) it does if you feed it a POSIX path. To illustrate, try this on an existing plist file:

set plist_path to POSIX path of (choose file of type "plist")
tell application "System Events"
tell property list file plist_path to get text of contents
end tell

This returns the XML.

"get value of contents" returns the plist as a record.

Text and value are editable, according to the System Events dictionary. Not sure how to: this by Ben Waldie is old but may help:
http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.22/22.03/StoringandAccessingData/index.html

Many systems ago, I recall having to use posix path with System Events. Currently, in 10.5 and after, an alias as text seems to work. In the code I posted earlier, I had also tried using: an alias; a posix path; and a quoted posix path. None of these worked. I still suspect that System Events does not know a property list file from a trash icon.

References:
	>Re: (no subject) (From: Shane Stanley <email@hidden>)
	>Re: (no subject) (From: Luther Fuller <email@hidden>)
	>Re: Property lists and System Events (was: no subject) (From: hd <email@hidden>)