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johneday
johneday Calculating status...
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Waiting for action to complete

Aug 10, 2012 12:28 PM

Tags: #action_help

I have a series of actions that are called from AppleScript. However, the next action in the AppleScript is being called before the first previous one completes. Is there a function, property, status (or anything else) that will indicate that an action is still running?

657 Views   6 Replies   Latest reply: johneday, Aug 11, 2012 6:48 AM
 
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  • CarlosCanto
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    1. CarlosCanto,
    Aug 10, 2012 12:42 PM   in reply to johneday
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    this is vb, there should be a similar one for AS

     

     

    Application properties

    Property                Value type           What it is

    ActionIsRunning      Boolean                Read-only. If true, an action is still running.

     
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  • Larry G. Schneider
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    2. Larry G. Schneider,
    Aug 10, 2012 12:46 PM   in reply to johneday
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    You might try something like this placing a delay after each action and varying it as required. The number is seconds.

     

    --get a sourceFolder that holds the files to print
set sourceFolder to (choose folder with prompt "Choose a folder with files to process:") as text

-- get a list of files of the files to be printed in the sourceFolder
tell application "Finder" to set workingFiles to (every file of folder sourceFolder) as alias list


repeat with workingFile in workingFiles
    tell application "Adobe Illustrator"
        open workingFile
        
        tell current document
            
            do script "export" from "Default Actions" without dialogs
            delay 1
            
        end tell
        
        
        close current document without saving
        
        
    end tell
end repeat
     
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  • johneday
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    3. johneday,
    Aug 10, 2012 2:29 PM   in reply to CarlosCanto
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    The ActionIsRunning is exactly what I am looking for. Is there any way of calling VB from AppleScript or Javascript?

     
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  • CarlosCanto
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    4. CarlosCanto,
    Aug 10, 2012 5:02 PM   in reply to johneday
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    I don't think you can run VB in a mac.

     

    you didn't find the property in applescript? maybe it is called something else?....hmm, then as a workaround, maybe you can have your action do one additional step at the end of it, like for example change the color of a path, or select the top most object, then you could check if such last step is done then you'll know your action is done, if is not, sleep, check again later.

     
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  • johneday
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    5. johneday,
    Aug 10, 2012 5:15 PM   in reply to CarlosCanto
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    Neither AppleScript nor Javascript have that property.  I checked the guides here: https://www.adobe.com/devnet/illustrator/scripting.html

     

    I ended up creating an object at the end of each Action and assigning an attribute to it. The AppleScript goes into a repeat loop after executing each action and breaks out once the object exists. It then deletes the object and executes the next action. Not ideal, but it seems to work.

     

     

    on waitAction()

        tell application "Adobe Illustrator" to tell document 1

            repeat

                set xxx to (every page item of layer 2 whose note = "Trigger")

                if xxx ≠ {} then

                    delete xxx

                    exit repeat

                end if

                delay 1

            end repeat

        end tell

    end waitAction

     
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  • johneday
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    6. johneday,
    Aug 11, 2012 6:48 AM   in reply to CarlosCanto
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    maybe you can have your action do one additional step at the end of it, like for example change the color of a path, or select the top most object, then you could check if such last step is done then you'll know your action is done

    The last step of my action selects similar objects based on stroke color. My script then needs to evaluate the count of selected path items.  When I create a new object with a specific attribute to signal the action is complete, the  selected items from the previous step de-select. Can anyone recommend an action that will not  de-select the current selection but will signal my Script that the action has completed?

     
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