How do I use a command stored in a variable"

Automation
#1

Hi,
I am updating an Applescript that reads data from my calendar and writes into a year planner that gets drawn in Omnigraffle. My aim in this update is to set the colour of portions of the text in a rectangle. Looking at Applescript written by Omnigraffle the text: value of a cell may be a list of text values. Note I have added line endings for clarity.

tell canvas of front window
		make new shape at end of graphics with properties {fill:no fill, draws stroke:false, draws shadow:false, autosizing:full, size:{512.32, 28.447998}, 
		text:{{size:16, alignment:center, color:{1.0, 0.13552, 0.16384}, font:"HelveticaNeue", text:"Here is "}, 
		{size:16, alignment:center, color:{0.137255, 0.368627, 0.0}, font:"HelveticaNeue", text:"Some"}, 
		{size:16, alignment:center, color:{1.0, 0.13552, 0.16384}, font:"HelveticaNeue", text:" Text : "}, 
		{size:16, alignment:center, color:{0.704176, 0.37007, 0.115055}, font:"HelveticaNeue", text:"The Quick Brown Fox"}, 
		{size:16, alignment:center, color:{1.0, 0.13552, 0.16384}, font:"HelveticaNeue", text:" Jumps OVER "}, 
		{size:16, alignment:center, color:{0.156863, 0.203922, 0.313726}, font:"HelveticaNeue", text:"the LAzy Dog"}, 
		{size:16, alignment:center, color:{1.0, 0.13552, 0.16384}, font:"HelveticaNeue", text:"."}}, origin:{90.708662, 58.110237}, thickness:2}
	end tell

My code generates the text portion of the command and stores it in a variable tText e.g.

{font:kfont, size:kCalEventTextSize, alignment:left, color:{0, 47802, 0},text:"Grn Bin"},{font:kfont, size:kCalEventTextSize, alignment:left, color:{33924, 16962, 12079},text:"Red/Brn Bin"}

Next the string variable, tText, is wrapped in brackets and used in a command sent to OmniGraffle (inside a tell block) :

set tText to "{" & tText & "}"
							make new shape at end of graphics of first canvas with properties {origin:{Col3LeftMargin, myVerticalCursor}, size:{myNotesColWidth, myNormalCellHt}, draws shadow:false, name:"Rectangle", user name:"MyEntry", fill color:tCellColour, text:tText, user data:{CellDate:userDataDate}}

This causes OmniGraffle to print out the full command as the text in the rectangle rather than running it as a command.

I think that I should be using the RunScript command but am uncertain how ?

Any thoughts?

#2

Answering my own question. The way I managed to get the code working is to use the Run Script command. This command accepts a multi line string of text that has to be a valid Applescript in its own right.

So I modified my code to write a long string :

set tCellColourString to "{" & item 1 of tCellColour & "," & item 2 of tCellColour & "," & item 3 of tCellColour & "}"							
set tCommand to "tell document 1 of application \"OmniGraffle\"" & return
set tCommand to tCommand & "set kfont to " & "\"" & kfont & "\"" & return
set tCommand to tCommand & "set kCalEventTextSize to " & "\"" & kCalEventTextSize & "\"" & return
set tCommand to tCommand & "make new shape at end of graphics of first canvas with properties {origin:{" & Col3LeftMargin & "," & myVerticalCursor & "}, size:{" & myNotesColWidth & "," & myNormalCellHt & "}, draws shadow:false, name:" & "\"Rectangle\", user name:\"MyEntry\", fill color:" & tCellColourString & ", text:{" & tText & "}, user data:{CellDate:" & userDataDate & "}}" & return
set tCommand to tCommand & "end tell"
							
run script tCommand

The code snip first converts a colour list present in the parent script to text. This is followed by the tell statement and the definition of two variables that are used in the contents of tText where tText is the Applescript code created in sub routines. The principle payload line is the one before the end tell.

The string that is created is of variable length depending on the number of ‘text’ items present in the ‘text’ list. Here is an example of what the code above creates, note I have added some additional linefeeds for clarity:

tell document 1 of application "OmniGraffle"
	set kfont to "Gill Sans"
	set kCalEventTextSize to "9"
	make new shape at end of graphics of first canvas with properties {origin:{94, 171}, size:{216.666666666667, 28}, draws shadow:false, name:"Rectangle", user name:"MyEntry", fill color:{63000, 63000, 63000}, 
	text:{{font:"kfont", size:kCalEventTextSize, alignment:left, color:{0, 47802, 0}, text:"Grn Bin"}, 
	      {font:"kfont", size:kCalEventTextSize, alignment:left, color:{33924, 16962, 12079}, text:",Red/Brn Bin"}}, user data:{CellDate:1 / 6 / 2024}}
end tell

The code works but I’m sure it can be improved. For example I’m not sure if kfont needs to be in quotes when kCalEventTextSize is not. The down side of using this long string method is difficulty debugging and ‘set’ commands littered with Ampersand and Back slash characters.

S