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On 13/03/2015 23:10, Shane Stanley
wrote:
On 14 Mar 2015, at 1:24 am, has <email@hidden>
wrote:
if anyone's got any other suggestions
You could always bite your tongue and do it in ASObjC. The Dialog
Toolkit script I posted here a while back is a pretty decent
example of hacking NSAlert by adding an accessory view containing
whatever you want, and it can be run from ID's Scripts Panel and
AI's lame Scripts submenu without any of the panel disappearing
business. You can download a more recent version from the bottom
of this page: <http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/apps/>.
You can also load your own NIBs and do it that way.
<snip nice looking example>
Hi Shane,
Cheers for the suggestion and the link for your Dialog Toolkit
library. Alas, Dialog Toolkit won't help me on this occasion as I
require a data-driven approach (c.f. Dialog Director osax), not a
code-driven approach. The goal is to allow a Manta Toolkit user to
pick a random rule, then auto-generate a nice GUI input form where
the user can enter the values for that rule instead of having to
type the entire command into a CLI (which isn't hard, but Terminal's
a bit scary for new users). For example, if the user tells Manta
Toolkit to do a `run tutorial` job [1][2], MT goes off and looks up
the rule's interface description:
run tutorial (use rows, spreadsheet name)
use rows : list of whole number of 2 or more [optional] —
the spreadsheet row(s) to run; if omitted, all rows are processed
spreadsheet name : text [default: "tutorial.packcopy.xlsx"]
— the pack copy to use (this is the spreadsheet file's name)
Based on that information, it generates a JSON form [3] description
containing input controls for each value, plus the standard OK and
Cancel buttons:
{
"title": "run tutorial",
"schema": {
"1": {"type": "string", "title": "use rows"},
"2": {"type": "string", "title": "spreadsheet name"}
},
"form": [
{"key": "1", "description": "the spreadsheet row(s) to run
[...]"},
{"key": "2", "description": "[...]", "placeholder":
"tutorial.packcopy.xlsx"},
{"type": "submit", "title": "OK"},
{"type": "button", "title": "Cancel", "onClick": "user
canceled"}
]
}
Once the form description's done it displays the form in a WebView,
allowing the user to enter their values into the form. On clicking
OK, the entered values are extracted from the returned form data,
and the finished rule command constructed; e.g. if the user
specifies row 4 of the "foo.xlsx" spreadsheet, the following
ready-to-use rule command is produced:
run tutorial (4, foo.xlsx)
Currently it only does basic text fields but eventually it'll choose
different types of controls depending on the type of value required
(e.g. an enum might appear as radio buttons, a date as a date
chooser, etc) and include tooltip descriptions and any validation
requirements as well (e.g. value must be an integer ≥2). The JSON
form library's not ideal but it should do for now; it's the focus
stealing that's the biggest annoyance.
FWIW, I did wonder if your suggestion could be adapted so that an
attached AppleScript would create an empty NSPanel within AI, then
add controls according to the requirements supplied by MT. The
problem there is that MT also sometimes needs to display further
dialogs while it's running [4], which means that not only would the
AI-attached Applescript need to run MT, but MT would need to send
messages to attached AppleScript as well. But as you say, AI's
attachability is weak (it's no Smile), and I don't think it's
possible to run an attached script via AppleScript, only by clicking
it in the Scripts palette; plus AS is not great for
non-blocking/asynchronous.
Packaging the NSPanel as an ObjC++ plugin might be a possibility as
AI provides more extensive APIs for that. OTOH AI's crashy enough
already without my C* code destabilizing it too, so will need to
think about that. Anyway, it's given us something to chew on
further.
Thanks,
has
[1] http://mantasystems.co.uk/documentation/rule-descriptions/templating_tutorial/rules/run_tutorial.html
[2] Configuring and running `run tutorial` job via an auto-generated
form: http://mantasystems.co.uk/runtutorial-720.mov (4MB, no audio)
[3] JSON form library docs:
https://github.com/joshfire/jsonform/wiki
[4] Inserting pack copy (plus tags) to create lead artwork, then
auto-generating child artworks from that [5]:
http://mantasystems.co.uk/placepackcopy-720.mov (22MB, no audio)
[5] The assisted pack copy placement's another Shane suggestion; the
automagic "replay" is one of mine.;)
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