exec osascript(AppleScript) from within NodeJS

Question

I know I am probably missing this hugely,

but anyone knows why this keeps returning an error?

$ node -v && node
v0.4.6
> var cmd = 'osascript -e "open location \"http://google.com\""';
> require('child_process').exec(cmd, function (error, stdout, stderr) { console.log(error); });

//Error message
> { 
    stack: [Getter/Setter],
    arguments: undefined,
    type: undefined,
    message: 'Command failed: 15:20: syntax error: A “:” can’t go after this identifier. (-2740)\n',
    killed: false,
    code: 1,
    signal: null 
}

Perhaps it has something to do with the double quotes in the cmd?

sakra · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-07T11:29:48.357

4

Probably just a quoting issue. This one works for me:

$ node -v && node
v0.4.8
> var cmd = 'osascript -e \'open location \"http://google.com\"\'';
> require('child_process').exec(cmd, function (error, stdout, stderr) { console.log(error); });

Btw, if you just want to open a URL, there is no need to go through AppleScript. Just use the open command:

> var cmd = 'open \"http://google.com\"';

edited Jun 07 '11 at 11:29

answered Jun 07 '11 at 11:24

sakra

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thanks a lot @sakra that worked very well :) also cheers to the tip saying that no applescript was necessary...yes I really needed to open an url on the default browser. Thanks again for your help – zanona Jun 07 '11 at 12:25

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 02 '18 at 17:26

This is simplified through backticks in current node version

$ node -v && node
v10.5.0
> let cmd = `osascript -e 'open location "http://google.com"'`
> require('child_process').exec(cmd, function (error, stdout, stderr) { console.log(error) })

and for the open command

var cmd = `open "http://google.com"`

exec osascript(AppleScript) from within NodeJS

2 Answers2