We too appreciate AppleScript’s ability to let you automate repetitive and time consuming tasks. But much like entering a maze at night, using AppleScript requires guesswork — and plenty of feeling around in the dark. Script Debugger flips on the light switch so you can see what’s in front of you. It gives you more than just a flashlight, it gives you daylight.
Explore, Edit, Debug, Deploy | New in Script Debugger 6 | Script Debugger is Great Value | Video Tutorials | Free Trial | Buy Now
What Is Script Debugger?
Script Debugger is an integrated development environment focused entirely on AppleScript. This focus allows Script Debugger to deliver a suite of tools that make AppleScript development amazingly productive. Features like the dictionary explorer allow you to look directly into any application’s live scripting interface and step wise debugging with the ability to see the state of all your variables make AppleScript usable in a way you’ve never experienced before. Of course, this is just a taste of the things Script Debugger does.
Explore, Edit, Debug, Deploy
Explore
Success with AppleScript depends on understanding the applications you want to automate. Script Debugger’s dictionary window is where you discover the information and commands applications offer. But that’s just the launching off point. The Explorer is the place where you can experiment with the application, where you can explore the data that it offers and manipulate the data to see how the application responds.
The power of Explorers doesn’t drop away when you leave the dictionary. As you move to edit your script they follow you and are available as you create and debug your script to show the information you’re operating on.
Edit
Once you’ve discovered how to exploit the capabilities of an application, you’re ready to write scripts. Maximize productivity and write scripts easily and quickly with Script Debugger’s powerful and flexible code creation features. Insert tell blocks for applications and objects or properties. Script Debugger’s ‘clippings’ and text substitution features intelligently insert code ranging from AppleScript constructs (such as repeat loops), to basic tell blocks, to application commands (including parameters). Features expressly honed for the peculiarities of the AppleScript language let you easily navigate large scripts, automatically enter “end” lines and closing delimiters, and more.
Debug
As you create a script, you’ll need to test it to make sure it behaves as expected. The first step is to run the script. Should an error stop the script, Script Debugger tracks all the variables and their values up to that point, making it easy to discover what went wrong. Script Debugger presents a complete picture of what’s happening as your script runs.
The ever-present Explorers continually appear to show any value in great detail. If the value happens to be a reference to a song in iTunes, for example, it not only gives you its name, it also lets you explore the song’s attributes.
Use single-stepping to watch your script as it runs, line by line, viewing the values of all variables at every stage of the script’s execution. Use breakpoints to pause your code at key points. You can even create breakpoints that trap conditions in your code. You’ll never have to add another AppleScript log statement just to see where you are and what the value of an important variable is. With Script Debugger, your code works by design, not by guesswork.
Deploy
After developing a script, you need to package it for your client, working group, or whoever is going to utilize it. Script Debugger leaps in at this point to check for common errors when packaging scripts. Script Debugger 6’s always-on code signing and versioning tools make distributing scripts to others amazingly simple. Should your script contain sensitive or private information, you can export it in Run Only form to prevent others from accessing the code. Script Debugger’s unique Manifest tells you instantly what applications, scripting additions, libraries and frameworks are needed in order to run your script successfully
New in Script Debugger 6
Script Debugger 6 delivers 25 new features to make you even more productive, and a raft of other tweaks and improvements. Script Debugger 6 lets you tackle even larger projects, and to take advantage of new features such as progress reporting, script libraries and AppleScriptObjC. View the Script Debugger 6 Release Notes.
Code Folding
Tame long scripts and stay focused on your work
This is our #1 most requested feature! You can now collapse and hide blocks of code and focus on code that matters. This feature makes working on long scripts so much simpler. Even on short scripts, you can hide irrelevant parts of your code to reveal what’s important.
AppleScriptObjC Code Completion
Let Script Debugger 6 create AppleScriptObjC code for you
AppleScriptObjC is a powerful technology that makes Apple’s developer frameworks available to AppleScript. The problem is that its syntax is both verbose and unforgiving. Script Debugger 6 dramatically improves the AppleScriptObjC coding experience in several ways, starting with code completion tools that generate syntactically correct code.
No more typing current application's NSArray's arrayWithObjects: and hoping you got it right. In Script Debugger 6, class names, methods and enums are all just a click of the escape key away. All the heavy lifting is done for you, down to automatic contextual escaping of terms that clash with AppleScript terminology. Script Debugger 6 even inserts placeholders where you need to enter your own values, so you can simply tab from one to the next. It’s a revelation.
AppleScriptObjC Debugging
Script Debugger 6 displays AppleScriptObjC values as you debug
Script Debugger 6 also comes to the rescue when you want to test and debug your AppleScriptObjC code. There’s no more dealing with ocid values containing streams of meaningless numbers. With Script Debugger 6, AppleScriptObjC values are fully revealed. When working with NSArrays, NSSets and NSDictionaries, you can explore into them using all of Script Debugger’s tools — the guesswork is gone. And like any other code, you can step through line-by-line, inspecting the results as you go. Script Debugger 6 truly opens up the amazing power of AppleScriptObjC.
Always-On Code Signing
Deploy scripts that can pass Mac OS X Gatekeeper
If you distribute scripts, chances are you want them to pass muster with Mac OS X’s Gatekeeper, and that means code signing them. Script Debugger 6 makes this task almost invisible with its always-on code signing. Turn it on, and your script is code signed every time it is saved. No more exporting, no more forgetting.
Application, Script Library and Framework Picker
Never type a script library’s name again
The power of AppleScript comes from its ability to harness other tools: applications, script libraries and frameworks. Script Debugger 6 introduces popup menus for entering application, library and framework names. You can see at a glance what script libraries are installed where, for example, and you will never need to type — or mis-type — one of their names again. In the case of use statements, it will even enter version numbers where applicable.
Enhanced Clippings
Clippings are now more powerful than ever
New features let clippings — snippets of code you can quickly insert into your code — include the ability to display application/library/framework pickers, and link multiple placeholders so their values change in unison. And they are now fully searchable.
Progress Reporting
Follow along as you debug
AppleScript’s progress properties are a great way of displaying a script’s progress in an applet, and now you can display them as you run your scripts in Script Debugger 6.
Script Debugger is Great Value
Script Debugger pays for itself many times over. Whether you’re a hobbyist, or scripting is part of your job, your time is valuable. Don’t waste it. Script Debugger saves you time on a range of fronts: better and faster editing, comprehensive debugging tools that go way beyond simple logging, and a dictionary Explorer that cuts through the tedium of scripting dictionaries to get straight to the point.
The price of Script Debugger 6 has been reduced by 50% making it affordable to anyone interested in make the most out of AppleScript.
Be Ambitious
Script Debugger’s code folding, split panes, tabbed windows, code writers and debugging make large projects manageable. With Script Debugger, the simple is easy and the difficult is possible.
Automate More
When you have Script Debugger, you won’t shy away from automation opportunities. You’ll automate more and reap the benefits. Your projects will let you work more quickly and with greater consistency. Without Script Debugger you may still be doing things manually because creating an automation would not have seemed worthwhile.
AppleScriptObjC Realized
Before Script Debugger 6, working with AppleScriptObjC required specialist software. This powerful technology often requires you to type verbose code, and is unforgiving about case — something foreign to typical scripters. Script Debugger 6’s code completion tools do much of the typing for you and address common problems. Debugging AppleScriptObjC is a bear because AppleScript cannot display values you are working with. Script Debugger 6 fixes this by displaying AppleScriptObjC values as you step through your code — there is no more guessing.