OSAXen Fixer for REALbasic

Download version 1.0 (17K)

OSAXen Fixer makes it possible for REALbasic applications to invoke AppleScript Scripting Additions directly (i.e. without using AppleScript) on MacOS X systems.  This document explains how to install and use the OSAXen Fixer plugin.

License

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS-IS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ANY DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE USE OR MISUSE OF THIS SOFTWARE.

THIS SOFTWARE IS COPYRIGHT (C) 2001 LATE NIGHT SOFTWARE LTD - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS SOFTWARE MAY BE DISTRIBUTED FREELY AND INCORPORATED INTO LARGER WORKS.

Scripting Additions and MacOS X

On classic MacOS systems it is possible to invoke a Scripting Addition by simply sending the addition's AppleEvent to yourself.  It is also possible to invoke Scripting Additions in other applications by sending the addition's AppleEvent to any other process.

However, under MacOS X the rules change dramatically.  It is still possible to invoke Scripting Additions within the current application with the aid of OSAXen Fixer.  It is no longer possible to invoke Scripting Additions within other applications.

Installation

Copy the OSAXen Fixer file to your REALbasic Plugins folder and restart the REALbasic IDE if it is already running.

Usage

When your REALbasic application starts, you must execute the following code to initialize the system's Scripting Additions AppleEvent handlers :

Sub InitializeScriptingAdditions()
    dim a as AppleEvent
    dim r as boolean

    ' Install the standard AppleEvent handlers for all installed
    ' Scripting Additions.  Strictly speaking, this only needs to
    ' be done once per application launch.

    InstallStandardAEHandlers ' from OSAXen Fixer plugin
    a = NewAppleEvent("ascr", "gdut", "")
    r = a.send
End Sub

The included example REALbasic project illustrates how to use this code.

NOTE: The REALbasic 3.1 IDE crashes when sending AppleEvents to itself.  To see the example in action, run it as a built application.