JSX and doScript differences in InDesign 2022 and 2023

One way to pass arguments (instead of that replace):

app.doScript ('tell application "System Events" to open location (item 1 of arguments)',ScriptLanguage.APPLESCRIPT_LANGUAGE,["https://www.google.com? test "]);

Note the additional spaces, in my Safari they arrive URL encoded.

1. Is there a specific reason why the first code snippet does not work in InDesign 2023?

Hi @asaxena , It also doesn’t work for me in CC2021 either. If I set pUrl to "www.google.com" and trace your body variable I get this:

open location "www.google.com"

But that doesn’t work in Apple’s ScriptEditor because as Mark points out there’s no tell block. This also works:

function openNativeBrowser (pUrl){
    // open the url in the default browser on Mac
    var body = [    'tell application "Safari" \r open location "%s"'.replace ("%s", pUrl),
                    ].join ("\r") + "\r end tell";
    app.doScript (body,ScriptLanguage.APPLESCRIPT_LANGUAGE);
}

Hi @asaxena, here's my (not expert) answers to your questions:

1. My guess is that something has changed with which process the applescript gets sent to. It seems to be fixed by explicitly setting this in your applescript command:

function openNativeBrowser(pUrl) {
    var body = 'tell app "System Events" to open location "' + pUrl + '"';
    app.doScript(body, ScriptLanguage.APPLESCRIPT_LANGUAGE);
}

2. It's hard to say. I would tend to use unix command line tools for this kind of thing because they are so easy to test (in Terminal.app for example), but really doing the applescript is easy to test too (in Script Editor.app). The unix style command can often be simpler to construct. They are both pretty standard commands, and unlikely to change in system updates. I don't think it matters which you use.

3. It is just a string, so just concatenate them in the normal way eg.

var url = "https://" + domain + "?parameter=" + encodeURI(myStringOrNumberParameter);

- Mark