Re: [MacPerl] Photoshop AE construction

["Quentin Smith" <macmania@bit-net.com>]

Take a look below for my reply.
HTH,
--Quentin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lloyd, James" <James.Lloyd@nike.com>
To: <macperl@macperl.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 4:44 PM
Subject: [MacPerl] Photoshop AE construction


> Howdy,
>
> I've got a little snag in a program I'm porting to MacPerl (from
> Applescript) and was hoping that someone in the group might be able to
offer
> a suggestion.  I've been able to rewrite (and improve) all aspects of the
AS
> app with the exception of a call to Photoshop.  All I need to do is call a
> PS action; the action knows what and where to do things, so there aren't
any
> variable parameters.  I'm currently getting by with a DoAppleScript call
> (which happens in a foreach loop), but this often generates some warnings.
> I can hide the errors from the users and the actual output doesn't seem to
> be affected at all, but for consistency and overall improvement in the
> process, I'd much rather have an AppleEvent call to drive the PS action.
>
> As has been noted on this list in posts of yore, Photoshop is one of the
> least scriptable apps, at least on its own.  However, all that's needed is
> the PS action, which is something that can be scripted without outside
> intervention.  Looking at the aete suite for PS leads me to think that
> constructing an AppleEvent call to launch the action should be possible,
but
> I'm at a loss for some of the parameters needed.  Here's the relevant aete
> information:
>
> @SUITE "Photoshop Suite", "", 'misc'
> @EVENT "do script", "Play the specified Action.", 'misc', 'dosc'
> @REPLY 'null', "", REQ, SINGLE, NOENUM
> @DIRECT 'TEXT', "name of Action", REQ, SINGLE, NOENUM, CHANGE
>
> Following the macperlcat example for constructing an AE hash for this,
we'd
> have something like:
> %hash = (
> target => '8BIM',
> class => 'misc',
> id => 'dosc'
> params => ["'----':obj {want:..., from:null(), form:...,
> seld:TEXT(\@)}", $script_name]
> );
>

This is almost right. You dont need an object reference for the hash though.

%hash = (
target => '8BIM',
class => 'misc',
id => 'dosc'
params => ["'----':TEXT(\@)", $script_name]
);

> I don't think it would be any more complex than that, but as I said, the
> parameters are where I get stuck.  The from and seld are probably correct,
> but I'm unclear as to the proper values for the want and form.  I've been
> experimenting as best I can, but haven't had any success.  (I don't have
my
> notes with me, but I think I receive a -1700 error.)  It's probably
> something quite obvious that I'm overlooking, and I'm be grateful for any
> assistance in working out this call.  (I'm afraid that references to
> Mac::Glue or AppleEvents::Simple won't be terribly helpful to me; I can't
> get those modules to operate on my machine.  That may have to be a post
for
> another time.)
>
> Thanks in advance for any responses.
>
> James Lloyd
> -- just a cog in some corporate machine --
>
>
>
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