Suites: Helix Design Suite, Helix Data Suite, Required Suite, Standard Suite, AppleScript Types

Standard Suite

Standard Suite Common classes and commands for all applications.

Commands

Count

count (verb)Return the number of elements of a particular class within an object. (from Standard Suite)

Function Syntax

set theResult to count reference ¬
     each type class

Result

integer the number of elements

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter required reference the object whose elements are to be counted
each optional type class The class of objects to be counted.

Delete

delete (verb)Delete an object. (from Standard Suite)

Function Syntax

set theResult to delete object or list of object ¬
     deleting data boolean ¬
     ignoring locks boolean

Result

list of object objects that were not deleted because they are referenced from some other object

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter required object or list of object the object or list of objects to delete
deleting data optional boolean should the data be deleted? (Only meaningful for field and relation icons.)
ignoring locks optional boolean ignore the locked status of this icon (or any within it).

Duplicate

duplicate (verb)Copy object(s) and assign the copies a new ordinal (z-index) value. (from Standard Suite)

Function Syntax

set theResult to duplicate helix icon or list of helix icon ¬
     to location specifier ¬
     with properties record

Result

reference the duplicated object(s)

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter required helix icon or list of helix icon the object(s) to duplicate
to optional location specifier The ordinal of the new object(s).
with properties optional record Properties to be set in the new duplicated object(s).

Exists

exists (verb)Verify if an object exists. (from Standard Suite)

Function Syntax

set theResult to exists anything

Result

boolean true if it exists, false if not

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter required anything the object in question

Get

get (verb)Get the data for an object. (from Standard Suite)

Function Syntax

set theResult to get reference

Result

anything

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter required reference the object for the command

Make

make (verb)Make a new object. (from Standard Suite)

Function Syntax

set theResult to make new type class ¬
     at point , template rectangle , location specifier or integer ¬
     with contents anything ¬
     with properties record

Result

reference to the new object

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
at optional point, template rectangle, location specifier or integer Where the object should be in relation to other objects. For icons and tiles, this is a point. For rectangles this is the rectangle whose ordinal value is to be immediately before the new rectangle. Use the first object to place the new rectangle behind every rectangle; omit this parameter to place the new rectangle in front of every rectangle. Since tab order depends on back to front order, making rectangles without this parameter adds them in tab order.
new required type class The class of the new object.
with contents
[synonyms: with data ] 		optional anything The initial contents of the object.
with properties optional record A set of initial properties. This may be a copy of the "properties" of a similar object with appropriate changes, or it may be an arbitrary record made up manually. Any properties that are not appropriate for this new object are ignored.

Open

open (verb)Open a collection if none is open, or open one or more icons in an open collection. (from Standard Suite)

Description

The open command serves two purposes:

  1. Open a collection if none is already open.
  2. Open icons within an already opened collection.

To open a collection, you pass an alias to the file. (Passing a file reference or a string returns an error.) Along with the alias, you can also pass one or more of the four optional parameters. If the collection has a master password, the text passed in that parameter is used to bypass the dialog. (If the password parameter is omitted, Helix presents the standard dialog for entering the collection password.) In like manner, passing a user name (with or without a user password) avoids as much of the manual process as possible. That is, if there is a password for the supplied user, but no password is supplied, Helix presents a dialog asking for just the password. If neither is supplied, the standard user loging dialog is presented.

Once a collection is open, the open command can be used to windows for the various Helix icons that use editor windows. You can pass icons by name: open relation "Global" , by index: open view 3 , or by object id: open object id 15 .

Additional notes:

  • When opening a collection, if a list of aliases is supplied, the list is searched for the first collection that can be opened with the specified optional parameters. All other items in the list are ignored.
  • When opening a collection, the target must be the application level. When opening an icon, the target must be in the direct hierarchy to the icon(s) to open. (Targeting collection 1 allows you to open icons from various relations, assuming the reference can be resolved logically. That is, telling the collection to open view 1 will not work, as there are no views at the collection level. In that case, you must either open view 1 of relation 1 or tell relation 1 to open view 1 .

Function Syntax

set theResult to open alias , list of alias , helix icon or list of helix icon ¬
     password text ¬
     user name text ¬
     user password text ¬
     user mode boolean

Result

null, window or list of window When opening a collection, the reply is empty (null); when opening an icon, a reference to the resulting window (or an error if unsuccessful) is returned.

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter optional alias, list of alias, helix icon or list of helix icon Direct parameter is an alias (if there is no collection open) or one or more icon icons (if a collection is open).
password optional text The collection password
user mode optional boolean Open the collection in user mode (true) or design mode (false). Omit this to open in whatever mode the specified user is in.
user name optional text The name of the user icon with which to open the collection
user password optional text The password for the specified user

Classes

The following classes respond to The open command:
application relation template power query sequence
helix icon field index user data icon
collection abacus form query post view

Print

print (verb)Print a document. (from Standard Suite)

Command Syntax

print list of file or reference ¬
     with properties print settings ¬
     print dialog boolean

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter required list of file or reference The file(s), document(s), or window(s) to be printed.
print dialog optional boolean Should the application show the print dialog?
with properties optional print settings The print settings to use.

Classes

The following classes respond to The print command:
application

Save

save (verb)Save the collection. (from Standard Suite)

Command Syntax

save collection ¬
     as text ¬
     logging boolean ¬
     logging to text ¬
     replacing save options

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter optional collection The collection to save. (Currently ignored, since there is only one collection.)
as optional text The complete filepath (the final component of which is the collection name) to which the collection should be saved. Path can be in HFS or POSIX form.
logging optional boolean False if logging should stop. (Returns an error if the collection is in Design Mode.)
logging to optional text The HFS-style filepath for the transaction log file. (Returns an error if the collection is in Design Mode.) When this parameter is specified, the logging parameter is always set to true.
replacing optional save options Specifies whether or not to replace files that have the same name. (Applies to both collection file and transaction log file.)

Set

set (verb)Set an object's data. (from Standard Suite)

Command Syntax

set reference ¬
     to anything

Parameters

Parameter
Required
Type
Description
direct parameter required reference the object for the command
to required anything The new value.

Enumerations

Printing error handling

printing error handling (enumeration)

Constant
Description
detailed print a detailed report of PostScript errors
standard Standard PostScript error handling

Where Used

The printing error handling enumeration is used in the following ways:

error handling property of the print settings

Save options

save options (enumeration)

Constant
Description
ask Ask the user whether or not to save the file.
no Do not save the file.
yes Save the file.

Where Used

The save options enumeration is used in the following ways:

replacing parameter of the save

saving parameter of the quit

saving parameter of the close collection

Records

Print settings

print settings (record)

Properties

Property
Access
Type
Description
collating get/set boolean Should printed copies be collated?
copies get/set integer the number of copies of a document to be printed
ending page get/set integer the last page of the document to be printed
error handling get/set printing error handling how errors are handled
fax number get/set text for fax number
pages across get/set integer number of logical pages laid across a physical page
pages down get/set integer number of logical pages laid out down a physical page
starting page get/set integer the first page of the document to be printed
target printer get/set text for target printer

Where Used

The print settings record is used in the following ways:

with properties parameter of the print