Apple Event Registry

Along with scripting components, another important OSA element is the Apple Event Registry. The Registry is an Apple Computer-maintained database that maps all of the Apple events that the Mac OS standard software uses to a corresponding English-language command. This means that the activate AppleScript command is mapped to an activate Apple event, quit is mapped to a quit Apple event, and so on. You can use the Registry to discover the Apple event codes that are used by the Mac’s standard software (such as the Appearance control panel, the ColorSync extension, or Sherlock 2). Section 1.2.4 describes what these codes are.

Tip

The AppleScript software development kit (SDK) includes a FileMaker Pro file that contains the Apple Event Registry for AppleScript Version 1.3.4. Go to http://developer.apple.com/sdkfor more SDK information.

To make them easier to understand and incorporate into applications, Apple events are logically grouped into suites or categories, such as the Database Suite, the Standard Suite, and the Text Suite. All Mac applications are required to support four Standard Suite events (open, print, quit, and run; this was the “Required Suite” prior to AppleScript 1.3). This does not mean that all Mac programs do support these events; software developers don’t go to jail if they have not implemented these Apple events in their programs. However, this does mean that the vast majority of applications will reliably quit if, for example, your script sends them a quit Apple event.

Applications and scripting additions can (and usually do) define their own Apple events and corresponding human-language commands. For example, the BBEdit text editor supports a subset of the Standard Suite of Apple events that you can look up in the Registry database. BBEdit also contains a set of events and classes known as the BBEdit Suite, which is unique to BBEdit. Table 1-1 shows the Standard Suite Apple events and Apple event classes that BBEdit 5.1 supports. It also shows the Apple events and Apple event classes that are listed in the BBEdit Suite. (Section 1.2.6 describes Apple event classes in more detail.)

Table 1-1. BBEdit 5.1’s Standard Suite and BBEdit Suite

BBEdit Standard Suite Events	BBEdit Standard Suite Classes	BBEdit Suite Events	BBEdit Suite Classes
close	application	insert text	character
count	window	insert file	word
delete	document	insert folder	line
get	Recent file	insert project	text
make		find	text item
revert		replace	selection-object
save		find differences	hit
set		go to line
		go to function
		go to marker
		select current paragraph
		twiddle
		change case
		shift
		hard wrap
		insert line breaks
		remove line breaks
		unwrap
		zap gremlins
		entab
		detab
		insert glossary entry
		get FTP file
		put FTP file