Re: Applescript to create Visio like rack space tool

On 14 Oct 2008, at 4:55pm, Chris Inacio wrote:

> I am interested in what would be necessary to support Visio like  
> operation
> of building racks of components.  I have a Visio file a workmate  
> sent me and
> if I hover over some items, it gives me information such as:

> So the question is, do any of the Applescript experts out there  
> think it
> would be feasible to build something that can understand U height in
> Omnigraffle?  I can program in a bunch of different languages, so I'm
> willing to tackle it; I just don't have a lot of time to invest in  
> something
> that will just end up not being feasible.  I know that I can at  
> least use
> AppleScript to start inserting information into my OmniGraffle  
> objects that
> will make it keep working as expected in Visio, and at a minimum I  
> would
> like to do that.
>
> So expert feedback would be greatly appreciated.
>
> thank you,
> Chris Inacio
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Chris,

I have been doing a lot of work on something not a million miles from  
this over the summer. This has involved round-tripping files from a  
particular xml format (zthes - Z39.50) via a shell script and xslt  
into AppleScript, then running that AppleScript to generate an  
Omnigraffle diagram representing the xml hierarchy. This involved  
creating shapes containing titles and metadata (user data it is called  
in OG) and joing those shapes in a systematic way. The other part of  
the round-tripping was to take the plist format file that Omnigraffle  
uses when saving the diagram and then using another xslt to convert  
the diagram back to zthes format. The overall purpose, you will  
probably already have inferred, is to provide a mechanism for visually  
editing xml files. Omnigraffle and AppleScript work really well  
together to do this kind of thing. The only bug-bear is finding what  
AppleScript functions can be used in OG and exactly how to use them.  
The dictionary is not bad but lacks examples. Anyway, happy to  
communicate detail about this off-list (the detail probably won't  
interest many folks here).

Regards,



Ian.
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