How can I pass a variable from applescript to km? 
Thank you,
I figured it outâŚ
Didnât understand the KM document because I donât take the time to read word for wordâŚ
I needed a error trap message when mounting my drives.
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
set Mounteddrives to 1
end tellHey Bill,
Actually youâre only setting the AppleScript variable Mounteddrives to a value of 1
To set a Keyboard Maestro variable from AppleScript you need to do something like this:
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
try
set value of variable "myVarName" to myValue
on error
make new variable with properties {name:"myVarName", value:myValue}
end try
end tell
Be sure to pay attention to the fact that KM variables are quoted-strings. If you donât youâll be scratching your head at some point.
You can of course trap errors more specifically by adding parameters to the error-handler:
on error eMsg number eNum
â
Best Regards,
Chris
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I still having trouble.
When I run this script through Script editor variable "Mounteddrives" is true in KM. BUT when I run script through KM variable "Mounteddrives" is true then sets to not true?? empty??
tell application "Finder"
delay 10
try
-- Check if SERVER is available
set max_retry to 10
set k to 0
repeat while (do shell script "ping -c 1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx") contains "100% packet loss"
delay 5
set k to k + 1
if k > max_retry then error "Server is not responding for predefined period." number 8000
end repeat
--tell app "Finder" to open location "protocol://username:password@server/share"
-- Mount volumes
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive1"
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive2"
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive3"
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive4"
-- Error handler
on error errs number errn
display dialog errs & " " & errn with icon 2
display notification "SERVER not responding to ping."
end try
tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
set value of variable "Mounteddrives" to "Success"
end tell
end tell
KM
I'm not no programmer... But trying hard to learn...
Found the problem 
Save to Variable: ⌠oopsâŚ
But the script could be modified for error catching⌠
Hey Bill,
You were already saving to Mounteddrives from within the script, so as far as I can see there was no reason to output the result to the variable.
However.
One thing you have to look out for is variable state.
If you assign âSuccessâ to that variable it will keep it forever.
If you have a test that uses the variable it wonât necessarily be reliable because of the saved-state.
You need to initialize the variable at the beginning of your script (or macro) OR reset the state when the macro exits.
Generally Iâd go with option one.
Your AppleScript does not require a Finder-Tell-Block. The commands used are from the Standard Additions.osax.
If youâre running from the Finder then itâs desirable to wrap the on-error display dialog call in such a block, because Keyboard Maestro will eat it otherwise. Display Dialog needs a context when run from Keyboard Maestro.
try
delay 10
-- Check if SERVER is available
set max_retry to 10
set k to 0
repeat while (do shell script "ping -c 1 xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx") contains "100% packet loss"
delay 5
set k to k + 1
if k > max_retry then error "Server is not responding for predefined period." number 8000
end repeat
-- tell app "Finder" to open location "protocol://username:password@server/share"
-- Mount volumes
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive1"
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive2"
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive3"
mount volume "smb://user:password@QNAP(SMB)._smb._tcp.local/drive4"
return "Success"
-- Error handler
on error errs number errn
tell application "Finder"
activate
display dialog errs & " " & errn with icon 2
end tell
display notification "SERVER not responding to ping."
return "Failed"
end try
At the beginning of your macro use a Set Variable to Text Action to set âMounteddrivesâ to NULL or FALSE or something else relevant.
Youâll see that the script above will return a value of âSuccessâ if it successfully finishes mounting the drives, and it will return âFailedâ if the it errors-out.
But the initial condition of the âMounteddrivesâ variable should be something else.
You can of course set the value of the variable from within the script rather than as a result of the script.
BTW: I prefer to use camel-case or underscores in variable names to make them more readable:
MountedDrives
mountedDrives
Mounted_Drives
mounted_Drives
mounted_drives
Persistent variables will often bite the hand that feeds them, unless they are given the proper care.
-Chris
Thank you this works great and has changed everything in a very good wayâŚ
Good Idea > camel-case or underscores in variable names
Iâm a beginner to KM Now I see my unneeded variables in KM variable selection how do I remove them from the context menu? 
Again Thank you Chris
Hey Bill,
Look in the Variable pane of KMâs preferences. You can manage them there.
-Chris
LOL⌠I found it⌠Thank youâŚ
Again Thank youâŚ
I think this could be smaller⌠What do you think ccstone?
I had a problem with the last one it would try to mount volumes over and over, this way it checks first but I think itâs fatâŚ
tell application âFinderâ
if not (disk âFaceBook Picturesâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/FaceBook Picturesâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "FaceBook Pictures Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âArt work Filesâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Art work Filesâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Art work Files Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âDownloadâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Downloadâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Download Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âMac Documentsâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Mac Documentsâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Mac Documents Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âMoviesâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Moviesâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Movies Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âQsyncâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Qsyncâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Qsync Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âStuffâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Stuffâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Stuff Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âRachel Filesâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Rachel Filesâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Rachel Files Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âUSBDisk1â exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/USBDisk1â as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "USBDisk1 Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âUSBDisk2â exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/USBDisk2â as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "USBDisk2 Mounted"
end if
if not (disk âMultimediaâ exists) then
mount volume âafp://192.168.2.101/Multimediaâ as user name âadminâ with password "mypassword"
display notification "Multimedia Mounted"
end if
end tell
Hey Bill,
I reckon.
Thereâs nothing wrong with that methodology, except that it becomes more and more difficult to maintain as the list gets longer.
So letâs change things around and make it easy to maintain.
I donât have a network here to test with, so youâll have to be the guinea pig.
------------------------------------------------------------
try
set networkDisks to text 2 thru -2 of "
afp://192.168.2.101/Art work Files
afp://192.168.2.101/Download
afp://192.168.2.101/FaceBook Pictures
afp://192.168.2.101/Mac Documents
afp://192.168.2.101/Movies
afp://192.168.2.101/Multimedia
afp://192.168.2.101/Qsync
afp://192.168.2.101/Rachel Files
afp://192.168.2.101/Stuff
afp://192.168.2.101/USBDisk1
afp://192.168.2.101/USBDisk2
"
tell application "Finder" to set diskNameList to name of disks
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
repeat with i in paragraphs of networkDisks
set {diskAddress, diskName} to {contents, last text item} of i
if diskName is not in diskNameList then
# mount volume diskAddress as user name "admin" with password "mypassword"
display notification diskName & " Mounted"
end if
end repeat
on error e number n
set e to e & return & return & "Num: " & n
if n â -128 then
try
tell current application to button returned of ÂŹ
(display dialog e with title "ERROR!" buttons {"Copy Error Message", "Cancel", "OK"} ÂŹ
default button "OK" giving up after 30)
if ddButton = "Copy" then set the clipboard to e
end try
end if
end try
------------------------------------------------------------
Iâve left the mount line commented, so youâll need to uncomment it when youâre ready to try it out.
This kind of table-based system is much easier to work with and maintain than a bunch of If-statements or AppleScript records. Iâve used similar methods for many tasks over the years, although I usually use the Satimage.osax AppleScript Extension and regular expressions to parse tables.
-Chris
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Bump â fixed some typos and added basic error-checking to the script.   -ccs
1 Like
WOW it worked perfectly and Much leaner!
Iâll look at this line by line to understand how it works never stop learning Loving it.
I wonder is there a resource for applescript for dummies? LMAOâŚ
You are very kind to helping out.
Once again Chris thank you very much. 
Hey Bill,
There is such a book.  Â
Although I havenât had my hands on it and donât have an opinion about its worth.
This might interest you:
References for Learning & Using Applescript
-Chris
1 Like
I found this book very helpful:
Learn AppleScript: The Comprehensive Guide to Scripting and Automation on Mac OS X (Learn (Apress))
Chris, thanks for creating and sharing such a tremendous resource.
JMichael
Good list of references !
Stepping back a bit, perhaps the key is really to get a clear grasp and practiced familiarity with the core concepts â after that the syntax of any particular language is really just a variation in detail.
My list of the core concepts would probably be:
- What is a variable, really, and what is going on in assignment of values to variable names ?
(and what kind of values are there ? Numbers, strings, true|false âbooleansâ, and lists, for a start) - How do
true | false(âbooleanâ) values work in combination with operators like AND, OR, NOT ? - How can one break a problem down into a nest of sequences, branches and loops ?
and then how can you:
- hide details with âsub-routinesâ ?
- apply a function to a value and collect the functionâs result ?
and for extra credit
- how do you write a function whose definition includes itself ?
- why would you want to ?
- how can you use a function as the value of a variable ?
- and why would you want to do that ?
And for context:
What does Lisp look like, and how, broadly, does it work ?
( There is a sense in which all language translators/interpreters rewrite to something very much like Lisp before rewriting down to machine code, and while a dialect like Applescript is relatively niche and ephemeral, we can be fairly confident that even in other galaxies the deep structure of coding is bound to be Lisp-like. See section 9 (conclusion) of Phil Wadlerâs paper )
Expertise is not so much knowing the details as grasping the fundamentals, and the best introductions to Applescript might even be books like:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer on Lisp
or http://eloquentjavascript.net/ on Javascript
( The concepts are the same, and once you have those, the details will come easily : -)
2 Likes
Following on from @ComplexPointâs, err, point, one of the best ways to learn basic programming Iâve seen recently is the Hour of Code, which teaches these sorts of fundamentals. It happens that they use JavaScript, which is very handy for web programming, and now becoming very handy for Mac automation programming as well.
2 Likes
Iâm not sure that I agree. 
I find the so-called ânatural languageâ of AppleScript to actually work against the fundamental knowledge I have of programming, and the many years of programming in other languages. Since I have never thought about coding in a natural, english-language like sense, I find AppleScript to be counter-intuitive.
If a person has never programmed before, of course they need to learn the basic concepts of program design. But learning another language that is nothing like AppleScript might be more of a hindrance than help.
It seems to me that few of the terms used in AppleScript are used elsewhere, and most of the terms common in other languages (and even design) are not used in AppleScript.
So, IMO (and I am far from being an AppleScript expert), a person with no programming experience is better off starting with AppleScript focused training, be that books, tutorials, videos, or other.
As Chris mentioned, much of learning AppleScript is learning the unique code for a specific application. For me, the fastest way I have learned is by example, inspecting, testing, code written by others.
Just my 2¢.