Mac Automation Scripting Guide: Prompting for a Choice from a List

Prompting for a Choice from a List

Use the Standard Additions scripting addition’s choose from list command to prompt the user to select from a list of strings. Listing 28-1 and Listing 28-2 ask the user to select a favorite fruit, as seen in Figure 28-1.

APPLESCRIPT

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Listing 28-1AppleScript: Prompting the user to choose from a list of items

set theFruitChoices to {"Apple", "Banana", "Orange"}
set theFavoriteFruit to choose from list theFruitChoices with prompt "Select your favorite fruit:" default items {"Apple"}
theFavoriteFruit
--> Result: {"Apple"}

JAVASCRIPT

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Listing 28-2JavaScript: Prompting the user to choose from a list of items

var app = Application.currentApplication()
app.includeStandardAdditions = true
var fruitChoices = ["Apple", "Banana", "Orange"]
var favoriteFruit = app.chooseFromList(fruitChoices, {
withPrompt: "Select your favorite fruit:",
defaultItems: ["Apple"]
})
favoriteFruit
// Result: ["Apple"]

The choose from list command can optionally let the user choose multiple items by setting the multiple selections allowed parameter to true. For this reason, the result of the command is always a list of selected strings. This list may be empty if the empty selection allowed parameter has been specified and the user dismissed the dialog without making a selection.

Prompting for a File Name

Prompting for a Color