Using AppleScript for launch a raw-query Spotlight search?

Question

As per usual with my limited scripting skills, I am finding the apparently simple stuff rather difficult to achieve.
My problem with Spotlight is that I want to use the same type of raw query repeatedly, but I want to avoid the tedium of having to:
1) open my saved search
2) choose "Show Criteria" to make the saved raw query visible
3) edit the text field containing the raw query, where the visible stuff is not what I want to edit, so I have to scroll to the right within that tiny field
So my idea would be to design a simple UI with AppleScript that
1) pops up a dialog asking for a phrase to search
2) launches a Spotlight search using the raw query:
kMDItemTextContent=="xxx*"
where "xxx" is the phrase that I am searching for, and opens a Finder window with the results of that search.
My reason for wanting to do this is that, by default, a search for an exact phrase with Spotlight fails to return matches that contain the plural form when the searched phrase is a singular.
See:
http://www.betalogue.com/2010/05/07/spotlight-plural/
http://www.betalogue.com/2010/05/11/spotlight-phrase/
for more information about the background for this.
Would this be relatively easy to do with AppleScript?
Thanks in advance.
Pierre

Answer 1

Hi
Pierre Igot wrote:
Am I correct in assuming that this means that what I wanted could not just be achieved with AppleScript and required a Perl script?
Message was edited by: Pierre Igot
A smart folder is an XML file (PLIST), you can edit it in many ways.
It's possible with other shell commands (sed or awk).
But perl works seamlessly with extended characters (ASCII > 127)
Also it's possible with AppleScript commands (open for access, read, write, close access), or with *property list file* in System events
But it requires more lines of code.
Here's the script :
global a_text
set smartFolder to "/Users/jack/Library/Saved Searches/Recherche dans “Bureau”.savedSearch"
set a_text to text returned of (display dialog "Enter a phrase to search" default answer "")
if a_text contains """ then
set a_text to findAndReplace(""", "\"", a_text)
end if
tell application "System Events"
set TheXML to property list file smartFolder
repeat with i in (get property list items of contents of TheXML)
set t_name to name of i
if t_name is "RawQuery" then
tell i to set value to my replace_text(get value)
else if t_name is "SearchCriteria" then
tell property list item 2 of property list item "displayValues" of property list item 1 of property list item "FXCriteriaSlices" of i to set value to my replace_text(get value)
else if t_name is "RawQueryDict" then
tell property list item "RawQuery" of i to set value to my replace_text(get value)
end if
end repeat
end tell
set smartFolder to ((POSIX file smartFolder) as alias)
tell application "Finder"
activate
open smartFolder
end tell
on replace_text(t)
set x to the offset of "kMDItemTextContent==" in t
set L to length of t
repeat with i from L to 1 by -1
if character i of t = """ then
set y to i
exit repeat
end if
end repeat
return (text 1 thru (x + 20) of t) & a_text & (text y thru -1 of t)
end replace_text
on findAndReplace(tofind, toreplace, t)
set ditd to text item delimiters
set text item delimiters to tofind
set t to text items of t
set text item delimiters to toreplace
set t to t as string
set text item delimiters to ditd
return t
end findAndReplace