kd-applescript

A high-level way to execute AppleScript code through Node.js, and retrieve the result as a native JavaScript object. Underneath the hood, this module is just a simple wrapper around the macOS osascript command.

Why?

AppleScripts are the only way to communicate and interact with certain external macOS processes, for example iTunes.

Easy Install

$ npm install applescript

Requirements

Mac (or Hackintosh) running macOS (tested with High Sierra) Node.js (v0.2.0 or newer)

Usage

The node-applescript module provides execString and execFile functions to easily execute AppleScript commands and buffer the output into a calback.

const applescript = require('applescript');

// Very basic AppleScript command. Returns the song name of each
// currently selected track in iTunes as an 'Array' of 'String's.
const script = 'tell application "iTunes" to get name of selection';

applescript.execString(script, (err, rtn) => {
  if (err) {
    // Something went wrong!
  }
  if (Array.isArray(rtn)) {
    for (const songName of rtn) {
      console.log(songName);
    }
  }
});

execFile works the exact same way, except you pass the path of the AppleScript (*.applescript) file as the first argument instead of the command itself, and you may pass an optional Array of String arguments to send to the applescript file.

Licence

The node-applescript module is licensed under the MIT license, of course!