Technical Q&A QA1885

Testing an Automator Action Xcode Project

Q:  I’ve built an Automator action project in Xcode. How do I test my action in Automator?

A: To test an Automator action Xcode project, you first set Automator as the run executable for the project, and then provide an argument that tells Automator where to find your action.

Figure 1  
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Figure 2  
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Listing 1  

-action "$(BUILT_PRODUCTS_DIR)/$(FULL_PRODUCT_NAME)"
Figure 3  
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After you’ve configured your Xcode project as described above, choose Product > Run or press Command-R. An instance of Automator should launch and load your action. Search Automator’s action library to find it. Now, you can test your action. After you’ve stopped testing, return to Xcode and resume development.



Document Revision History


DateNotes
2015-01-30

New document that explains how to enable testing of an Automator action project in Xcode.