variable button_pressed is not defined

[MacHacker24]

I am making an Applescript to edit the host file on a mac. This is all I have so far, but when I click compile, I get an error: "The variable button_pressed is not defined." Can anyone help me out?

AppleScript:

tell application "Finder"
display dialog "This application will block Homecalling in Adobe Products CS5.5 and Earlier. To continue, please press OK. Otherwise, Press Cancel."
end tell
if button_pressed = "OK" then
tell application "Terminal"
do script " sudo nano /private/etc/hosts"
end tell
end if
if button_pressed = "Cancel" then
tell application "Finder"
display dialog "You Have Canceled The Installation"
end tell
end if

[sojourner]

If you just run:

tell application "Finder"
	display dialog "This application will block Homecalling in Adobe Products CS5.5 and Earlier. To continue, please press OK. Otherwise, Press Cancel."
end tell

When you press "OK", the result returned is:

{button returned:"OK"}

Your script tells Script Editor to get the value of the variable button_pressed, and that variable doesn't exist. Even if you asked for the value of the variable |button returned|, Script Editor would throw an error, because the variable |button returned| doesn't exist.

The correct phrasing for what you want is:

button returned of result

as in:

if button returned of result = "OK" then

Note that when you press the "Cancel" button, the result returned is:

error "Finder got an error: User canceled." number -128

This means that the script was canceled immediately, and no if statements were processed. Because of this, you'll have to script it differently if you really want a message to display if the user presses cancel. In that case, I would suggest looking into try/on error statements. While I could help further with this, I won't be able to do that this week (and maybe not next).

[MacHacker24]

Thanks you, I am new to applescript and have lots to learn!

[ganbustein]

Another way to get the script to continue even if the user presses "Cancel" is to spell it differently, as in:

tell application "Finder"
	display dialog "This application will block Homecalling in Adobe Products CS5.5 and Earlier. To continue, please press OK. Otherwise, Press Cancel." buttons {"OK", " Cancel "}
end tell
if button returned of the result = "OK" then
	tell application "Terminal"
		do script " sudo nano /private/etc/hosts"
	end tell
else
	-- user pressed " Cancel "
	tell application "Finder"
		display dialog "You Have Canceled The Installation" buttons {"OK"} default button 1
	end tell
end if

Notice the spaces around the word "Cancel" in the button name, making the button appear not to be a cancel button.

Notice the buttons {"OK"} default button 1 in the second display dialog, so the user can dismiss the dialog by simply pressing return or enter, rather than having to use the mouse to click on one of the two buttons and wondering what the difference is between them.

But you have other problems. The terminal command is only going to open /private/etc/hosts for editing in a new window. A user who doesn't already know what to do in that window (if they see it at all -- it may be hidden behind other windows) will be mystified what to do next; a user who does know what to do next isn't going to bother running an Apple Script to do something they already know how to do in Terminal.