Library for JXA

This is a helper library for AppleScript in JavaScript that works on macOS 10.10 and above. To properly use this, a bundler must be used such as Webpack. It is recommended to install jxa-types as well.

This repository also demonstrates how to write tests mocking the JXA environment. See the *.test.ts files in src.

Example use

import { FileManager } from 'jxa-lib';

const fm = new FileManager();
let attr;
try {
  attr = fm.attributesOfItem('/some-file');
} catch (e) {
  // Instead of having to pass &error (Ref object) like in Objective-C,
  // an exception is thrown
  console.log('Maybe /some-file does not exist?');
}

// attr type is FileAttributes or undefined, which does not have prefixes removed
if (attr) {
  console.log(attr.NSFileGroupOwnerAccountID); // string
  console.log(attr.NSFileModificationDate); // Date object
}
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Example with C functions

You do not have to use ObjC.import() because all modules will do this on their own.

import { stdlib, string } from 'jxa-lib';

const size = 32;
const buf = stdlib.malloc(size); // returns Ref<number>
string.memset(buf, 0, size);
for (let i = 0, c = 'a'.charCodeAt(0); i < size; i++, c++) {
  buf[i] = c;
}

const asciiC = 'c'.charCodeAt(0);
const asciiD = 'd'.charCodeAt(0);

// memchr() returns Ref<number> or Ref to NULL
const result = string.memchr(buf, asciiC, size);
if (result[0]) {
  // this will be asciiC or null/undefined
  console.log(result[0] === asciiC); // true
  console.log(result[1] === asciiD); // true

  // Getting result[30] or above is not defined behaviour
}

stdlib.free(result);

// Do not print the result of the last expression
stdlib.exit(0);
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