Inside Macintosh: Interapplication Communication /

Chapter 9 - Recording Apple Events

This chapter describes the general characteristics of a recordable application and provides some examples of how to factor your application for recording. It also provides guidelines to help you decide which user actions to record and how to record them.

Before you read this chapter, you should read the chapter "Introduction to Scripting" in this book. To factor your application, you must know how to respond to Apple events, create and send Apple events, and resolve and create object specifier records. For comprehensive information about implementing Apple events, see the chapters "Introduction to Apple Events," "Responding to Apple Events," "Creating and Sending Apple Events," and "Resolving and Creating Object Specifier Records" in this book.

The first three sections in this chapter provide

• a description of the basic requirements for recordable applications
• examples of how to begin factoring your application
• guidelines for what to record

The fourth section describes how Apple event recording works. You need to read it only if you are developing a script editor, an application that can initiate recording, or a scripting component.

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Chapter Contents

About Recordable Applications

Factoring Your Application for Recording

Factoring the Quit Command and the New Command

Sending Apple Events Without Executing Them

What to Record

Recording User Actions

Recording the Selection of Text Objects

Recording Insertion Points

Recording Typing

Recording the Selection of Nontext Objects

Identifying Objects

Moving the Selection During Recording

Recording Interactions With Dialog Boxes

How Apple Event Recording Works