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Chapter 8 - Apple Event Terminology Resources

Creating an Apple Event Terminology Extension Resource

Scriptable applications must include an Apple event terminology extension ('aete') resource. You use an 'aete' resource to inform scripting components about the extent of your application's support for the standard Apple event suites, any custom Apple events or Apple event objects defined by your application, and the corresponding human-language terms for use in scripts that control your application.

The format of the 'aete' resource is identical to that of the 'aeut' resource, although it serves a different purpose. The 'aeut' resource maps human-language names to IDs, keywords, and other codes used in the Apple events described by the current edition of the Apple Event Registry: Standard Suites. The 'aete' resource for an application uses the same format to accomplish the following:

• Indicate when a set of definitions for a particular suite included in the 'aeut' resource is supported in its entirety by the application. For example, an application can indicate that it supports all of the 'aeut' resource definitions for the Required and Core suites simply by identifying the suite as a whole in its 'aete' resource; the detailed information for each standard suite does not need to be repeated.
• Describe extensions, if any, to the definitions included in the 'aeut' resource, such as additional parameters for standard Apple events, additional properties and element classes for standard object classes, and additional key forms for each element class. For example, an application can indicate that it supports all of the definitions for the Required and Core suites included in the 'aeut' resource, an additional parameter for one of the core events defined in the 'aeut' resource, and an additional property for one of the core object classes defined in the 'aeut' resource.
• Describe the standard Apple events and object classes that belong to suites the application does not support in their entirety.
• Describe the application's custom suite--that is, the application's custom Apple events and object classes, if any.

By specifying a suite ID, suite level, and suite version, your application can indicate that it supports an entire suite. Because the 'aeut' resource provided by each scripting component lists the human-language terms for all the standard suites, you do not have to repeat this information if you support a suite in its entirety. If you support a subset of a standard suite, you must list all the Apple events, Apple event parameters, object classes, and so on and equivalent human-language terms for the parts of the suite your application does support.

You can include at most one 'aete' resource per application or per module. The language code for this resource must match the language code of the language for which you are developing your application. Applications that support additional modules with their own 'aete' resources must provide an 'scsz' resource and handle the Get AETE event as described in "Handling the Get AETE Event," which begins on page 8-28.

IMPORTANT

Each human-language term supported by an application should correspond to a unique Apple event ID, keyword, or other code in either the application's 'aete' resource or the 'aeut' resource. For example, since the 'aeut' resource defines "size" as the human-language equivalent for the property identified by the four-character code 'ptsz' (the pPointSize property of text objects), an application's 'aete' resource must not define "size" as the human-language equivalent for some other part of an Apple event or object class. However, more than one human-language term can correspond to the same Apple event ID or code. For example, an application's 'aete' resource can define a second human-language term, "point size," that corresponds to the Apple event identifier 'ptsz'.

The AppleScript Software Developers' Kit (available from APDA) includes a tool that allows you to specify your application's support for Apple events and creates the equivalent 'aete' resource. The previous section, "Structure of Apple Event Terminology Resources," describes the basic format used by both the 'aeut' and 'aete' resources.

The sections that follow provide examples of 'aete' resources that can be generated with the tools in the AppleScript Software Developers' Kit.

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Subtopics

Supporting Standard Suites Without Extensions

Extending the Standard Suites

Supporting Subsets of Suites

Supporting New Suites