Creating a plist file in Applescript

Subject: Creating a plist file in Applescript
From: Jim Brandt <email@hidden>
Date: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 08:17:41 -0500

I have a question about initializing a plist file. Specifically, a plist file tahe is an array of arrays (list of lists).

I have read Luther Fuller's "Property List Tutorial". I have built plist files that have a single key that references a list of lists. What I want to do is eliminate the key and make a plist whose record structure is a list of lists with no key.

I can build this structure via Xcode. However, I can't figure out how to build it from Applescript.

Here is the example I put together. First the plist file, test.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<array>

<string>Array 1 String 1</string>

<string>Array 1 String 2</string>

<string>Array 1 String 3</string>

</array>

<array>

<string>Array 2 String 1</string>

<string>Array 2 String 2</string>

<string>Array 2 String 3</string>

<string>Array 2 String 4</string>

</array>

</plist>

Building this in Xcode, I can read it, extract the lists and do what I want with the data.

set DesktopPath to (path to desktop) as text

set TestPlist to DesktopPath & "Test.plist"

tell application "System Events" to set PlistRecord to value of property list file TestPlist

set List1 to item 1 of PlistRecord

set List2 to item 2 of PlistRecord

Following Luther's example, to make a new plist file I attempt to initialize it using a shell command. If I use the one in Luther's tutorial, it makes a plist file with a single key referencing a string. I can't replace the record with one that has no key.

So, I need to initialize a plist file that creates that structure. So I tried adding the following:

set PName to quoted form of ((POSIX path of DesktopPath) & "New Test.plist")

set cmd to "defaults write " & PName & " '{ { } }'"

do shell script cmd

tell application "System Events" to set value of property list file PName to PlistRecord

I get an error:

"2013-10-01 08:07:36.529 defaults[29904:f07] Could not parse: { { } }. Try single-quoting it." number 1

First off, it is single-quoted. If I type this command directly into Terminal, I get the same result.

So, my question is, is there a way to initialize, from Applescript, a plist file that is an array of arrays with no key?

TIA,

Jim Brandt

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