Create a two-way link (using AppleScript?) in Numbers '09

Question

We are migrating to iWork '09 for our business needs and seek an Applescript expert to advise us as follows.
Our team has successfully used VBA in Excel for Mac 2004 to "two-way link" two cells in differing spreadsheets such that anything entered in cell 1 shows up in cell 2 and vice versa. However, neither Excel for Mac 2008 (which most of our company uses) nor Numbers supports VBA, and Numbers seems like the best overall app to use IF we can get two cells to link as described. Typical formulas do not work as a cell cannot be both an input and an output cell.
Please advise or help!
Thank you,
Reos Partners

Answer 1

yuleth wrote:
Thank you Yvan. We are grateful for your lengthy response and your suggested script. There are a few things to clarify before we can take a next step with that script.
1. We are planning to have not just two documents, but many documents. When we share these Numbers documents on a network drive or Dropbox, the entire setup will become a project management tool. We will have a "master" document as well as "project-specific" documents in this setup, all linked together by the script or scripts in question and housed in different folders.
I really dislike working with documents stored on a network.
It's more safe to work with a local file and store it on the network when it's OK.
The "master" document will allow the general manager to see and enter data that shows up in "project-specific" documents. On the other hand, data entered in specific cells in the "project-specific" documents will show up in the manager's "master."
If I understand well,
rangeA of cells of the 'master' doc are shared with document A
rangeB of cells of the 'master' doc are shared with document B
rangeZ of cells of the 'master' doc are shared with document Z
as well as
rangeA of cells of document A are shared with the 'master' doc
rangeB of cells of the document B are shared with the 'master' doc
rangeZ of cells of the document Z are shared with the 'master' doc
It's important that this functionality operate not only with open documents; this should be able to function also when only one of the linked documents, master or otherwise, is in use. Is that possible?
It would require that the script is aware of the exact location of every document.
2. We understand the limitation you describe: either a predefined (hardcoded) cell in the script OR the same location in the target document.
3. Once we have a script that performs as described above, we actually don't know what to do with it: we're brand new to Applescript but have used Macs for many years. Given our unfamiliarity with the use of such scripts, please advise, or point us to a resource: then what? How is such a script applied to a Numbers document or a series of documents? Or do we set it up such that it always runs when Numbers runs, and if so, how? What is the procedure?
Using a script running in the background would not be safe to capture cells selection.
I thought that I was clear when I wrote:
+Given two open documents whose names are defined by the property theDocs,+
+enter a value in a cell on one of them.+
+With the cell selected, call the script.+
+It will copy the entered value in the same cell of the other document.+
In the original script, when one script is filled and selected,
it's your duty to call the script.
--[SCRIPT]
The embedded properties describe a master document
and several subscriber documents.
One describe the ranges of cells dedicated to each subscriber.
These ranges are of this format: {topRow, leftColumn, bottomRow, rightColumn}
In the open document, fill the range of cells dedicated to one document.
Select this range.
Call the script.
It will copy the selected range in the same range of the target document.
Yvan KOENIG (Vallauris, FRANCE)
2009/07/31
enhanced 2009/08/01
property masterName : "masterDoc.numbers"
property masterContainer : "Macintosh HD:Users:yvan_koenig:Desktop:"
property theNames : {"documentA.numbers", "documentB.numbers"}
property theContainers : {"Macintosh HD:Users:yvan_koenig:Desktop:", "Macintosh HD:Users:yvan_koenig:Desktop:"}
property theRanges : {{2, 2, 4, 3}, {5, 4, 8, 5}}
--=====
on run
set {dName, sName, tName, rname, rowNum1, colNum1, rowNum2, colNum2} to my getSelParams()
if (dName is not masterName) and (dName is not in theNames) then error "the source document is not an allowed one !"
if dName is masterName then (*
the selection is in the master document
we must define the target document *)
set theRange to {rowNum1, colNum1, rowNum2, colNum2}
set maybe to false
repeat with i from 1 to count of theRanges
if theRange is item i of theRanges then (*
the selected range is one of the predefined ones so we may define the parameters of the target document *)
set targetname to item i of theNames
set targetContainer to item i of theContainers
set maybe to true
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
if maybe is false then error "the selection in the document “" & dName & "” is not valid !"
else (*
the selection is in one of the subscriber documents.
So the target document is the master one. *)
set targetname to masterName
set targetContainer to masterContainer
(* now, we must grab the predefined range linked to the active document *)
repeat with i from 1 to count of theNames
if dName is item i of theNames then
set theRange to item i of theRanges
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
(* we check that the selected range is really the predefined one *)
if {rowNum1, colNum1, rowNum2, colNum2} is not theRange then error "the selection in the document “" & dName & "” is not valid !"
end if
(* Here we know the name of the target document
the container of the target document
the selected range
tell application "Numbers"
set isOpen to targetname is in (get name of documents)
if not isOpen then
open file (targetContainer & targetname)
repeat
if (get name of documents) contains targetname then exit repeat
end repeat
end if
repeat with r from item 1 of theRange to item 3 of theRange
repeat with c from item 2 of theRange to item 4 of theRange
tell document dName to tell sheet sName to tell table tName to set theValue to value of cell r of column c
tell document targetname to tell sheet sName to tell table tName to set value of cell r of column c to theValue
end repeat -- columns
end repeat -- rows
save document targetname
if not isOpen then close document targetname
end tell -- Numbers
end run
--=====
set { dName, sName, tName, rname, rowNum1, colNum1, rowNum2, colNum2} to my getSelParams()
on getSelParams()
local r_Name, t_Name, s_Name, d_Name, col_Num1, row_Num1, col_Num2, row_Num2
set {d_Name, s_Name, t_Name, r_Name} to my getSelection()
if r_Name is missing value then
if my parleAnglais() then
error "No selected cells"
else
error "Il n'y a pas de cellule sélectionnée !"
end if
end if
set two_Names to my decoupe(r_Name, ":")
set {row_Num1, col_Num1} to my decipher(item 1 of two_Names, d_Name, s_Name, t_Name)
if item 2 of two_Names = item 1 of two_Names then
set {row_Num2, col_Num2} to {row_Num1, col_Num1}
else
set {row_Num2, col_Num2} to my decipher(item 2 of two_Names, d_Name, s_Name, t_Name)
end if
return {d_Name, s_Name, t_Name, r_Name, row_Num1, col_Num1, row_Num2, col_Num2}
end getSelParams
--=====
set {rowNumber, columnNumber} to my decipher(cellRef,docName,sheetName,tableName)
apply to named row or named column !
on decipher(n, d, s, t)
tell application "Numbers" to tell document d to tell sheet s to tell table t to return {address of row of cell n, address of column of cell n}
end decipher
--=====
set { d_Name, s_Name, t_Name, r_Name} to my getSelection()
on getSelection()
local _, theRange, theTable, theSheet, theDoc, errMsg, errNum
tell application "Numbers" to tell document 1
repeat with i from 1 to the count of sheets
tell sheet i
set x to the count of tables
if x > 0 then
repeat with y from 1 to x
try
(selection range of table y) as text
on error errMsg number errNum
set {_, theRange, _, theTable, _, theSheet, _, theDoc} to my decoupe(errMsg, quote)
return {theDoc, theSheet, theTable, theRange}
end try
end repeat -- y
end if -- x>0
end tell -- sheet
end repeat -- i
end tell -- document
return {missing value, missing value, missing value, missing value}
end getSelection
--=====
on decoupe(t, d)
local l
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d
set l to text items of t
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
return l
end decoupe
--=====
on parleAnglais()
local z
try
tell application "Numbers09English" to set z to localized string "Cancel"
on error
set z to "Cancel"
end try
return (z is not "Annuler")
end parleAnglais
--=====
--[/SCRIPT]
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE samedi 1 août 2009 17:57:05)