Availability: Macintosh.
The aetools module contains the basic functionality on which Python AppleScript client support is built. It also imports and re-exports the core functionality of the aetypes and aepack modules. The stub packages generated by gensuitemodule import the relevant portions of aetools, so usually you do not need to import it yourself. The exception to this is when you cannot use a generated suite package and need lower-level access to scripting.
The aetools module itself uses the AppleEvent support provided by the Carbon.AE module. This has one drawback: you need access to the window manager, see section 1.1.2 for details. This restriction may be lifted in future releases.
The aetools module defines the following functions:
ae, parameters, attributes) |
Carbon.AE.AEDesc
object. parameters
and attributes
are
dictionaries mapping 4-character OSA parameter keys to Python objects. The
objects are packed using aepack.pack()
.
ae[, formodulename]) |
Carbon.AE.AEDesc
event to Python objects.
The function returns the parameter dictionary and the attribute dictionary.
The formodulename
argument is used by generated stub packages to
control where AppleScript classes are looked up.
arguments, keydict) |
arguments
to
the format required by packevent
by replacing the keys,
which are Python identifiers, by the four-character OSA keys according
to the mapping specified in keydict
. Used by the generated suite
packages.
arguments, key, edict) |
arguments
dictionary contains an entry for key
convert the value for that entry according to dictionary edict
.
This converts human-readable Python enumeration names to the OSA 4-character
codes.
Used by the generated suite
packages.
The aetools module defines the following class:
[signature=None, start=0, timeout=0]) |
Base class for the proxy used to talk to an application. signature
overrides the class attribute _signature
(which is usually set by subclasses)
and is the 4-char creator code defining the application to talk to.
start
can be set to true to enable running the application on
class instantiation. timeout
can be specified to change the
default timeout used while waiting for an AppleEvent reply.
) |
code, subcode[, parameters, attributes]) |
Carbon.AE.AEDesc
for the verb with
the OSA designation code, subcode
(which are the usual 4-character
strings), pack the parameters
and attributes
into it, send it
to the target application, wait for the reply, unpack the reply with
unpackevent
and return the reply appleevent, the unpacked return values
as a dictionary and the return attributes.