Develop Reference

Permissions error when running another JS AppleScript from another JSAppleScript

I am trying to separate out my .applescript files into different ones to tidy things up.
I have a JS AppleScript file called Test.applescript that tries to run the JS AppleScript file Group Tracks Dependency.applescript and what I want to do is pass in a parameter into the dependency script and get a return value out of it. (It creates an array of arrays of iTunes tracks).
Test.applescript
(function() {
var app = Application('iTunes');
app.includeStandardAdditions = true;
app.doShellScript('Group Tracks Dependency.applescript');
return "Done";
})();
// For quick logging
function log(obj) {
this.console.log(obj);
}
Group Tracks Dependency.applescript
(function(selection) {
return getGroupsOfTracks(selection);
function getGroupsOfTracks(originalTracksArray) {
if (originalTracksArray == null || originalTracksArray.length == 0)
return null;
var tracks = originalTracksArray.slice();
var groups = [];
while (true) {
var group = [];
group.push(tracks[0]);
tracks = tracks.slice(1);
while (true) {
if (!tracks[0]) break;
if (tracks[0].album() != group[0].album())
break;
if (tracks[0].artist() != group[0].artist())
break;
if (tracks[0].discNumber() != group[0].discNumber())
break;
group.push(tracks[0]);
tracks = tracks.slice(1);
}
groups.push(group);
if (!tracks[0]) break;
}
return groups;
}
})();
When I try to run the Test script I get this error (line 5 is the app.doShellScript line):
Error on line 5: Error: A privilege violation occurred.
Is there any way to get around this? I should also note that I want other people to be able to download these scripts and run them on their own iTunes libraries in the future (currently it's not user-friendly though).
If there's no way to get around this then would importing another JS AppleScript file work?

I think you may be fighting a battle that you can’t win using .doShellScript.
The Apple way is to use a Script Library as defined on https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/releasenotes/InterapplicationCommunication/RN-JavaScriptForAutomation/Articles/OSX10-11.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014508-CH110-SW1
Unfortunately a script library has constraints where you can only pass simple variables.
Another way is to use require, which can be defined with code like https://github.com/dtinth/JXA-Cookbook/wiki/Importing-Scripts

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish, but this works for me using Script Editor 2.8.1 (183.1) on OSX 10.11.4:
Create a main JXA Script file
Create a JXA Script Library file
BOTH of these MUST be saved as compiled script files (.scpt)
It is INCORRECT that "Unfortunately a script library has constraints where you can only pass simple variables."
You can call any of the functions in the Script Library file from any JXA script.
In your MAIN script file, which I will call "Get iTunes Group Selection.scpt":
var app = Application('iTunes');
app.includeStandardAdditions = true;
var myLib = Library("My JXA Lib")
var selectionArr = app.selection() // ### Change as needed ###
var groupArr = myLib.getGroupsOfTracks(selectionArr)
groupArr
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And then in a separate script file, saved as:
~/Library/Script Libraries/My JXA Lib.scpt
function getGroupsOfTracks(originalTracksArray) {
if (originalTracksArray == null || originalTracksArray.length == 0)
return null;
var tracks = originalTracksArray.slice();
var groups = [];
while (true) {
var group = [];
group.push(tracks[0]);
tracks = tracks.slice(1);
while (true) {
if (!tracks[0]) break;
if (tracks[0].album() != group[0].album())
break;
if (tracks[0].artist() != group[0].artist())
break;
if (tracks[0].discNumber() != group[0].discNumber())
break;
group.push(tracks[0]);
tracks = tracks.slice(1);
}
groups.push(group);
if (!tracks[0]) break;
}
return groups;
}

Well, it's been a few years...
I ran into errors with JXA and doShellScript when I tried to run with Application("Finder"). These errors went away when I instead ran the script from Application.currentApplication(). So for my script, I used const finder = Application("Finder") for Finder specific stuff, then const app = Application.currentApplication() for running the script.
For example:
//test1.scpt
function run() {
const app = Application.currentApplication()
app.includeStandardAdditions = true
app.doShellScript("osascript ~/Desktop/test2.scpt")
}
//test2.scpt
function run() {
const app = Application.currentApplication()
app.includeStandardAdditions = true
app.displayDialog("foo")
app.doShellScript("osascript -e 'display dialog \"bar\"'")
}
As expected, running test1.scpt gives me two dialogs: foo and `bar.

Chrome App: Cannot retrieve file load status

My Chrome app has a function that asks for a file to be loaded by another function, checks that the function has set a flag signifying success (External.curFile.lodd), then attempts to process it. My problem is that the flags are not set the first time I call the function, but when I call it a second time the flags are already set.
I had a feeling this has to do with Chrome file functions being asynchronous, so I had the first function idle for a bit while the file loads. The first load never succeeds, no matter how long I wait, but the second load always does!
Calling Function:
function load_by_lines_from_cur_dir( fileName, context ){ // determine the 'meaning' of a file line by line, return last 'meaning', otherwise 'null'
var curLineMeaning = null;
var lastLineValid = true;
External.read_file_in_load_path(fileName); // 'External' load 'fileName' and reads lines, REPLacement does not see this file
// This is a dirty workaround that accounts for the fact that 'DirectoryEntry.getFile' is asynchronous, thus pre-parsing checks fail intil loaded
var counter = 0, maxLoops = 10;
nuClock();
do{
sleep(500);
counter++;
preDebug.innerText += '\r\nLoop:' + counter + " , " + time_since_last();
}while( !External.curFile.lodd && (counter < maxLoops) ); //idle and check if file loaded, 5000ms max
preDebug.innerText += '\r\nLoaded?:' + External.curFile.lodd;
preDebug.innerText += '\r\nLines?:' + External.curFile.lins;
if( External.curFile.lodd ){ // The last load operating was successful, attempt to parse and interpret each line
// parse and interpret lines, storing each meaning in 'curLineMeaning', until last line is reached
while(!External.curFile.rEOF){
curLineMeaning = meaning( s( External.readln_from_current_file() ), context);
preDebug.innerText += '\r\nNext Line?: ' + External.curFile.lnnm;
preDebug.innerText += '\r\nEOF?: ' + External.curFile.rEOF;
}
} // else, return 'null'
return curLineMeaning; // return the result of the last form
}
which calls the following:
External.read_file_in_load_path = function(nameStr){ // Read the lines of 'nameStr' into 'External.curFile.lins'
External.curPath.objt.getFile( // call 'DirectoryEntry.getFile' to fetch a file in that directory
nameStr,
{create: false},
function(fileEntry){ // action to perform on the fetched file, success
External.curFile.name = nameStr; // store the file name for later use
External.curFile.objt = fileEntry; // store the 'FileEntry' for later use
External.curFile.objt.file( function(file){ // Returns 'File' object associated with selected file. Use this to read the file's content.
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(e){
External.curFile.lodd = true; // File load success
};
reader.onloadend = function(e){
//var contents = e.target.result;
// URL, split string into lines: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12371970/read-text-file-using-filereader
External.curFile.lins = e.target.result.split('\n'); // split the string result into individual lines
};
reader.readAsText(file);
External.curFile.lnnm = 0; // Set current line to 0 for the newly-loaded file
External.curFile.rEOF = false; // Reset EOF flag
// let's try a message instead of a flag ...
/*chrome.runtime.sendMessage({greeting: "hello"}, function(response) {
console.log(response.farewell);
});*/
} );
},
function(e){ External.curFile.lodd = false; } // There was an error
);
};
This app is a dialect of Scheme. It's important that the app knows that the source file has been loaded or not.

I didn't read through all of your code, but you can't kick off an asynchronous activity and then busy-wait for it to complete, because JavaScript is single threaded. No matter what's happened, the asynchronous function won't be executed until the script completes its current processing. In other words, asynchronous does not imply concurrent.
Generally speaking, if task A is to be performed after asynchronous task B completes, you should execute A from the completion callback for B. That's the straightforward, safe way to do it. Any shortcut, to achieve better responsiveness or to simplify the code, is going to have dependency or race-condition problems, and will require lots of horsing around to get right. Even then, it will be hard to prove that the code operates correctly on all platforms in all circumstances.

How can I detect that new content has been loaded in response to a scroll trigger?

I'm running a script on Facebook that requires me to get the IDs of people in my "friends" window (this might not be the most efficient way to accomplish this specific task, but since I'd like to know how to do this in general it's a good example).
This means that if I have more than a small number of friends I have to scroll down for Facebook to add them to the page.
I've added logic that scrolls the page down to the footer, but I don't know how to force my function that grabs the IDs to run after the content loads.
For now, I've resorted to using setTimeout for a few seconds - obviously, this isn't guaranteed to at the appropriate time, so I'd like to know how to do this properly:
var k;
function doit(){
k = document.getElementsByClassName("_698");
var g= Array.prototype.slice.call(k);
confirm(g.length);
// the confirm is just to make sure it's working
// (if i don't use setTimeout it'll return a smaller number
// since not all the friends were included)
}
window.addEventListener("load", function(){
document.getElementById( "pageFooter" )
.scrollIntoView();setTimeout(doit,3000);
});

Crayon Violent details how to accomplish this in his answer to JavaScript detect an AJAX event. The trick is to hook the underlying XMLHttpRequest object in order to detect when a request is sent.
I've re-written the logic there a bit to make it more suitable for your needs:
//
// Hooks XMLHttpRequest to log all AJAX requests.
// Override ajaxHook.requestCompleted() to do something specific
// in response to a given request.
//
var ajaxHook = (function()
{
// we're using a self-executing function here to avoid polluting the global
// namespace. The hook object is returned to expose just the properties
// needed by client code.
var hook = {
// by default, just logs all requests to the console.
// Can be overridden to do something more interesting.
requestCompleted: function(xmlHttp, url, method) { console.log(url); }
};
// hook open() to store URL and method
var oldOpen = XMLHttpRequest.prototype.open;
XMLHttpRequest.prototype.open = function(method, url)
{
this.hook_method = method;
this.hook_url = url;
oldOpen.apply(this, arguments);
}
// hook send() to allow hooking onreadystatechange
var oldSend = XMLHttpRequest.prototype.send;
XMLHttpRequest.prototype.send = function()
{
var xmlhttp = this;
//hook onreadystatechange event to allow processing results
var oldReadyStateChange = xmlhttp.onreadystatechange;
xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function()
{
oldReadyStateChange.apply(xmlhttp, arguments);
if ( this.readyState === 4 ) // completed
{
hook.requestCompleted(xmlhttp,
xmlhttp.hook_url, xmlhttp.hook_method);
}
};
oldSend.apply(this, arguments);
};
return hook;
})();
With this bit of code loaded in your userscript, you can then implement your logic as follows:
var k;
function doit()
{
k = document.getElementsByClassName("_698");
var g= Array.prototype.slice.call(k);
confirm(g.length);
}
window.addEventListener("load", function()
{
ajaxHook.requestCompleted = function(xmlhttp, url, method)
{
// is this the request we're interested in?
// (Facebook appears to load friends from a URL that contains this string)
if ( /AllFriendsAppCollectionPagelet/.test(url) )
{
// Facebook defers rendering the results here,
// so we just queue up scraping them until afterwards
setTimeout(doit, 0);
}
};
// trigger loading of more friends by scrolling the bottom into view
document.getElementById( "pageFooter" )
.scrollIntoView();
});

Javascript Variable Sometimes Undefined

I know this question has been asked several times, but I couldn't seem to find a solution that worked for me in any of the previous questions. I have a variable that gets set when my HTML page is done loading, but sometimes when my code tries to access that variable, it says that it is undefined. I'm not sure why, since I believe I am waiting for everything to load properly. This exception seems to happen randomly, as most of the time all the code runs fine. Here's a simplified version of my code:
var globalVar;
function initStuff(filePath) {
// I wait till the HTML page is fully loaded before doing anything
$(document).ready(function(){
var video = document.getElementById("videoElementID");
// My parseFile() function seems to run smoothly
var arrayOfStuff = parseFile(filePath);
if (arrayOfStuff == null) {
console.error("Unable to properly parse the file.");
} else {
setGlobalVariable(arrayOfStuff);
video.addEventListener("play", updateVideoFrame, false);
}
});
}
function setGlobalVariable(arrayOfStuff) {
window.globalVar = arrayOfStuff;
}
function updateVideoFrame() {
// A bunch of other code happens first
// This is the line that fails occasionally, saying
// "window.globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray[0] is undefined"
var test = window.globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray[0].aProperty;
}
The only thing that I can think of that might be causing this problem is some sort of synchronicity issue. I don't see why that would be the case, though. Help please!
Edit:
In case the asynchronicity issue is coming from my parseFile(xmlFile) method, here is what I'm doing there. I thought it couldn't possibly be causing the issue, since I force the method to happen synchronously, but in case I'm wrong, here it is:
function parseKML(xmlFile) {
var arrayOfStuff = new Array();
// Turn the AJAX asynchronicity off for the following GET command
$.ajaxSetup( { async : false } );
// Open the XML file
$.get(xmlFile, {}, function(xml) {
var doc = $("Document", xml);
// Code for parsing the XML file is here
// arrayOfStuff() gets populated here
});
// Once I'm done processing the XML file, I turn asynchronicity back on, since that is AJAX's default state
$.ajaxSetup( { async : true } );
return arrayOfStuff;
}

The first thing you should do in your code is figure out which part of:
window.globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray[0]
is undefined.
Since you have multiple chained property references and array references, it could be many different places in the chain. I'd suggest either set a breakpoint right before your reference it examine what's in it or use several console.log() statement sto output each nested piece of the structure in order to find out where your problem is.
console.log("globalVar = " + globalVar);
console.log("globalVar[0] = " + globalVar[0]);
console.log("globalVar[0].aProperty = " + globalVar[0].aProperty);
console.log("globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray = " + globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray);
console.log("globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray[0] = " + globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray[0]);
If the problem is that globalVar isn't yet set, then you have a timing problem or an initialization problem.
If the problem is that one of the other properties isn't set, then you aren't initializing globalVar with what you think you are.
You may also want to write your code more defensibly so it fails gracefully if some of your data isn't set properly.

You need to use defensive programming.
http://www.javascriptref.com/pdf/ch23_ed2.pdf
Example:
var video = document.getElementById("videoElementID") || 0;
-
if( video && video.addEventListener ){
video.addEventListener("play", updateVideoFrame, false);
}
Here's another version of your code.
window.globalVar = globalVar || [];
function setGlobalVariable(arrayOfStuff) {
window.globalVar = arrayOfStuff;
}
function updateVideoFrame() {
// A bunch of other code happens first
// This is the line that fails occasionally, saying
// "window.globalVar[0].aProperty.anArray[0] is undefined"
if( window.globalVar ){
var g = window.globalVar || [];
var d = (g[0] || {})["aProperty"];
// etc...
}else{
console.error( "test error." );
}
}
function initStuff(filePath) {
// I wait till the HTML page is fully loaded before doing anything
$(document).ready(function () {
var video = $("#videoElementID");
// My parseFile() function seems to run smoothly
var arrayOfStuff = parseFile(filePath) || [];
if (arrayOfStuff == null || video == null ) {
console.error("Unable to properly parse the file.");
} else {
setGlobalVariable(arrayOfStuff);
video.bind("play", updateVideoFrame);
}
});
}

Setting a preference at startup in firefox

Thanks to everyone in advance -
I need to load a preference before any windows are loaded at startup. Below is some /component code I have been working with. The SetPreference method seems to fail when it is called (nothing executes afterwords either) - I am assuming because the resources that it needs are not available at the time of execution...or I am doing something wrong. Any suggestions with this code or another approach to setting a preference at startup?
Thanks again,
Sam
For some reason the code formatting for SO is not working properly - here is a link to the code as well - http://samingrassia.com/_FILES/startup.js
Components.utils.import('resource://gre/modules/XPCOMUtils.jsm');
const Cc = Components.classes;
const Ci = Components.interfaces;
const ObserverService = Cc['#mozilla.org/observer-service;1'].getService(Ci.nsIObserverService);
function MyStartupService() {};
MyStartupService.prototype = {
observe : function(aSubject, aTopic, aData) {
switch (aTopic) {
case 'xpcom-startup':
this.SetPreference("my.extension.is_running", "false");
break;
case 'app-startup':
this.SetPreference("my.extension.is_running", "false");
ObserverService.addObserver(this, 'final-ui-startup', false);
break;
case 'final-ui-startup':
//make sure is_running is set to false
this.SetPreference("my.extension.is_running", "false");
ObserverService.removeObserver(this, 'final-ui-startup');
const WindowWatcher = Cc['#mozilla.org/embedcomp/window-watcher;1'].getService(Ci.nsIWindowWatcher);
WindowWatcher.registerNotification(this);
break;
case 'domwindowopened':
this.initWindow(aSubject);
break;
}
},
SetPreference : function(Token, Value) {
var prefs = Components.classes["#mozilla.org/preferences-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrefService);
var str = Components.classes["#mozilla.org/supports-string;1"].createInstance(Components.interfaces.nsISupportsString);
str.data = Value;
prefs.setComplexValue(Token, Components.interfaces.nsISupportsString, str);
//save preferences
var prefService = Components.classes["#mozilla.org/preferences-service;1"].getService(Components.interfaces.nsIPrefService);
prefService.savePrefFile(null);
},
initWindow : function(aWindow) {
if (aWindow != '[object ChromeWindow]') return;
aWindow.addEventListener('load', function() {
aWindow.removeEventListener('load', arguments.callee, false);
aWindow.document.title = 'domwindowopened!';
// for browser windows
var root = aWindow.document.documentElement;
root.setAttribute('title', aWindow.document.title);
root.setAttribute('titlemodifier', aWindow.document.title);
}, false);
},
classDescription : 'My Startup Service',
contractID : '#mystartupservice.com/startup;1',
classID : Components.ID('{770825e7-b39c-4654-94bc-008e5d6d57b7}'),
QueryInterface : XPCOMUtils.generateQI([Ci.nsIObserver]),
_xpcom_categories : [{ category : 'app-startup', service : true }]
};
function NSGetModule(aCompMgr, aFileSpec) {
return XPCOMUtils.generateModule([MyStartupService]);
}

To answer your real question, which is
I have code that loads on every window load and I need to make sure that only gets executed once every time firefox starts up.
..you should just use a module, in the load handler that you wish to execute once, check a flag on the object exported from (i.e. "living in") the module, then after running the code you need, set the flag.
Since the module is shared across all windows, the flag will remain set until you close Firefox.
As for your intermediate problem, I'd suggest wrapping the code inside observe() in a try { ... } catch(e) {dump(e)} (you'll need to set a pref and run Firefox in a special way in order to see the output) and check the error returned.
I guess xpcom-startup and app-startup is too early to mess with preferences (I think you need a profile for that), note that you don't register to get xpcom-startup notification anyway. You probably want to register for profile-after-change instead.