Slider -- How can I get NSSlider/NSControl properies directly?

Question

I’m creating an AppleScript Studio application and I'm looking for a way to get and set the value of a slider via AppleScript. All the examples I've found simply explain how to target a text field with Interface Builder -- that perfectly simple. No problem there. I want to access the slider’s value property directly ... and omit the overhead of an additional text field.
Looks like the control’s data cell holds this value, but I don’t know how to call it -- not surprisingly, I’m having a little trouble understanding all the NSControl properties.
Thanks! John

Answer 1

I've read a good bit about AppleScript Studio, but I
haven't found a page that directly addresses this
simple fact. Part of my difficulty is my lack of OOP
background, so I'm having a bit of trouble
interpreting the class properties. It's probably
listed right there, huh. Where did you come across
this useful tidbit?
The AppleScript Studio Terminology Reference is one good place to look for info and examples. And remember to pay attention when you look at the info for a particular interface element to also look at the "Inherits from:" entry right at the top of the info. For example, when you look at the info for a "slider" you'll see that it inherits from a "control" (and a "control" inherits from a "view")... so a "slider" has all the properties listed under the slider section, but also all the properties listed for a "control" and for a "view", etc... on up the inheritance tree.
Presently, in "on clicked" handlers, I'm
distinguishing between button objects by their title.
As I have more than one slider in my main window, I
planned to do the same in "dragged" handlers ...
however IB's Inspector palette doesn't show a slider
name property!
Can I identify the object by it's AppleScript name?
If so, what's the syntax for that? (If indeed this is
possible, it sounds like a much more stable
connection that by referencing with "the title of the
object."
Yes you can definitely identify objects by their AppleScript name. And in my experience it's almost always easier to identify objects by their AppleScript name rather than by their "title". Some items may not have a title and in some cases (such as buttons) you may even want to change the title at runtime based on what's going on in your program. As you might suspect the property you want is "name". The syntax is like this:
<pre>
on clicked theObject
if name of theObject = "YourItemsAppleScriptName" then
-- do something
end if
end clicked
</pre>
Or
<pre>
on clicked theObject
set clickedItem to name of theObject
if clickedItem = "SomeAppleScriptName" then
-- do something
else if clickedItem = "SomeOtherAppleScriptName" then
-- do something else
end if
end clicked
</pre>
Steve