Is it possible to convert string from AppleScript to array in typescript?

user_4150758 0
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I execute AppleScript in typescript which returns string(but it actually contains array). Is it possible to convert this string to array of items in typescript?

This is the code that returns string of array from AppleScript

import { Detail } from "@raycast/api";
import {runAppleScript} from 'run-applescript';
import { spawnSync } from "child_process";


async function spacesArray(): Promise<String> {
  const out = spawnSync("defaults read com.pradeepb28.spacesfor myNewArray", { shell: true });
  return String(out.output[1]).trim();
}

result(in string format):

(
    abc,
    abcd,
    abcdef
)
typescript applescript arrays javascript string
3 Answers

return String(out.output[1]).trim().split(",");

user_175437730

The run-applescript module calls out to the command-line osascript, which, as you’ve discovered, is lousy for passing complex arguments and results.

If you wish to parse its output directly, you will need to add the -ss flag to the osascript command. That will format the output as AppleScript literals, which can be reliably parsed. The default output format is “human-readable”, which is ambiguous at best.

Another option would be for your AppleScript code to format the list of strings as a JSON string and return that, which you can trivially parse using JSON.parse(). AppleScript doesn’t have built-in JSON support, but you can call Cocoa’s NSJSONSerialization class via the AppleScript-ObjC bridge. It’s a bit more work, but it’s robust. This would be your safest route as it avoids introducing any additional dependencies and JSON data is well understood.

A third option would be to avoid osascript and call NSAppleScript from JS via the objc bridge. The objc bridge itself is a bit rough and unfinished (I have a PR on that but its author is busy with other work), but may be adequate for your needs. Unpacking the NSAppleEventDescriptors returned by -[NSAppleScript executeAndReturnError:] is tedious, but reliable.

The last option is to ditch AppleScript entirely and use nodeautomation to do your application scripting directly from JS. However, while nodeautomation works well (I use it in my own work) I provide no warranty or free support.

Sorry there’s no really good solutions, but given how thoroughly Apple wrecked Mac Automation it’s a miracle it’s still alive at all.

user_193728730

I was able to solve this by manual parser:

  • removed spaces, removed \n and removed open brackets
user_41507580
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