Need help w/ applescript to restart, launch an app, restart, then repeat

Question

Hey Everyone,
Ok. I want to write an AppleScript that will do the following:
1) restart computer
2) launch 1st app for x sec.
3) restart
4) launch 2nd app for x sec.
5) restart
6) launch 3rd app for x sec.
6) restart
However, the only code I've been able to find that restarts the computer is the following:
tell application "Finder"
restart
end tell
While this does restart the computer, I can't find a way to integrate it with my "sub" AppleScript that launches the app. So far, my script only does the following:
1) Launch 1st app for x sec
2) Restart
I'm having problems launching things automatically after a restart. Does anyone have any suggestions?
thanks,
--Jonathan

Answer 1

The fact that you restart the machine automatically terminates your script, which is why you don't continue after the restart.
What you will need to do is use some persistent data to keep track of the iterations. You will then need to add your script to the login items (so it's launched the system restarts) and it can use its persistent data to know how many restarts it has done. For example (untested):
property numRestarts: 0 -- this will be the restart counter
on run
  if numRestarts = 0 then -- first run
    set numRestarts to 1
    tell application "System Events" to restart
  else if numRestarts = 1 then
    tell application "App1" to activate
    delay 120 -- wait 120 seconds (two minutes)
    set numRestarts to 2 -- increment the counter
    tell application "System Events" to restart
  else if numRestarts = 2 then
    tell application "App2" to activate
    delay 120 -- wait again
    set numRestarts to 3
    tell application "System Events" to restart
  end if
  -- add more cases here
end run