Character escaping

[gephry]

I've been sending data from Filemaker to iCal but have found a problem: any field that has a ! or " in it causes an error in the Applescript to err and to stop.

I'm wondering how can I escape these characters in Filemaker? Or more importantly, how do you search/replace a quote within field contents without going character by character?

I've tried:

Substitute( Cal::Notes; """; """ )

but that doesn't actually do what it implies.

[gephry]

I've been passing a lot of information back and forth between applications with Applescript. Unfortunately, when fields contain stuff like double-quotes, single-quotes, German or other Greek/special characters, Applescript doesn't like it one bit; it will result in an error and won't do what it's intended to do.

I remedied this problem by creating a custom script that takes all un-likable characters and either eliminating them or replacing them with friendly characters (u with ü, 3.14 instead of π, etc).

This script also escapes double-quotes and single-quotes, both in ASCII and in font-style curly quotes.

Substitute( Text;

[ "‘"; "'" ]; // Replace beginning curly single-quote to generic ASCII '

[ "’"; "'" ]; // Replace possessive/ending curly-single quotes to generic ASCII ' 

[ """; """ ]; // escape ASCII double-quotes

[ "“"; "“" ]; // escape first curly double-quotes first

[ "”"; "”" ]; // escape second curly double-quote second



[ "à"; "a" ]; // OPTION ` + a

[ "è"; "e" ]; // OPTION ` + e

[ "ì"; "i" ]; // OPTION ` + i

[ "ò"; "o" ]; // OPTION ` + o

[ "ù"; "u" ]; // OPTION ` + u

[ "á"; "a" ]; // OPTION e + a

[ "é"; "e" ]; // OPTION e + e

[ "í"; "i" ]; // OPTION e + i

[ "ó"; "o" ]; // OPTION e + o

[ "ú"; "u" ]; // OPTION e + u

[ "!" ; "." ]; // SHIFT 1  (don't ask me why but Applescript doesn't like exclamations points, even with  as an escape char)

[ "¡"; "" ]; // OPTION 1

[ "™"; "TM" ]; // OPTION 2

[ "£"; "pounds" ]; // OPTION 3

[ "¢"; "cents" ]; // OPTION 4

[ "∞"; "" ];  // OPTION 5

[ "§"; "" ]; // OPTION 6

[ "•"; "*" ]; // 8 (no 7 since that is ¶ and is a paragraph

[ "ª"; "" ]; // OPTION 9

[ "º"; "" ]; // OPTION 0

[ "≠"; "<>" ];  // OPTION =

[ "«"; "" ]; // OPTION+backslash

[ "…"; "..." ];  // OPTION semicolon

[ "æ"; "ae" ]; // OPTION quote

[ "≤"; "<=" ]; // OPTION <

[ "≥"; ">=" ];  // OPTION >

[ "÷"; "/" ];  // OPTION ?

[ "œ"; "oe" ]; // OPTION q

[ "∑"; "[sum]" ]; // OPTION w

[ "®"; "[Registered]" ]; // OPTION r

[ "†"; "" ]; // OPTION t

[ "¥"; "" ]; // OPTION y

[ "ü"; "u" ];  // OPTION u + u

[ "ë"; "e" ]; // OPTION u + e

[ "ä"; "a" ];  // OPTION u + a

[ "ï"; "i" ];  // OPTION u + i

[ "ö"; "o" ]; // OPTION u + o

[ "ÿ"; "y" ]; // OPTION u + y

[ "â"; "a" ]; // OPTION i + a

[ "ê"; "e" ];

[ "î"; "i" ];

[ "ô"; "o" ];

[ "û"; "u" ];

[ "ø"; "o" ]; // OPTION o

[ "π"; "3.14" ]; // OPTION p

[ "å"; "a" ];  // OPTION a

[ "ß"; "ss" ]; // OPTION s

[ "∂"; "" ]; // OPTION d

[ "ƒ"; "[forte symbol]" ];  // OPTION f

[ "©"; "[Copyright]" ]; // OPTION g

[ "˙"; "'" ]; // OPTION h

[ "∆"; "" ]; // OPTION j

[ "˚"; "" ]; // OPTION k

[ "¬"; "" ]; // OPTION l

[ "Ω"; "[omega]" ]; // OPTION z

[ "≈"; "[approx=]" ]; // OPTION x

[ "ç"; "c" ]; // OPTION c

[ "√"; "[checkmark]" ]; // OPTION v

[ "∫"; "" ]; // OPTION b

[ "ñ"; "n" ]; // OPTION n + n

[ "õ"; "o" ]; // OPTION n + o

[ "ã"; "a" ]; // OPTION n + a

[ "µ"; "u" ] // OPTION m



)

MakeApplescriptSafe.zip

[gephry]

Well, since Applescript doesn't like any special characters (Greek, German ü, single-quotes, double quotes, etc) I decided to make a function to make ALL characters Applescript-friendly.

My custom function escapes all types of quotes and replaces special characters with their equivalent (u vs. ü or 3.14 vs. π).

The problem that I was having above escaping the double-quotes, I realized there are ASCII straight-double quotes, and font-style curly double-quotes. So my script escapes all types of quotes and fixes special characters. The custom function is posted at the link below.

Hope this will help someone else in the long-run!

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?fid/130/tid/199335/pid/308902/post/last/#LAST

[comment]

since Applescript doesn't like any special characters (Greek, German ü, single-quotes, double quotes, etc)

Perhaps you should post your script, before jumping to conclusions.

[Lee Smith]

Do not double post your question.

I have merged your two Threads.

Lee

Edited November 16, 2008 by Guest

[normanicus]

I am not claiming any expertise here but this article says that Applescript it now Unicode compatible:

http://www.apple.com/applescript/features/unicode.html

I searched for iCal Unicode compatibility but could find nothing though it appears there were big changes in Leopard.

[gephry]

I do in fact run Leopard. My client runs Tiger and he was having difficulties, too.

Nono, comment, I didn't jump to conclusions. I definitely took my time to figure out what was happening. I did some pretty extensive testing (on Leopard) with individual characters+Applescript and made notes of all of the characters that didn't work from Filemaker to iCal. Since I couldn't get any of the above characters in the script to work, I made the function according to my findings.

Still, I'm not sure why my function was moved from Custom Function Library? It's a function I wrote that I figured should be with the other custom functions. Sorry if I was out of line...?

B)

[comment]

Well, all I can say is that I have seen no such limitation in Tiger.

[gephry]

Hm, you know what?...I wonder. I am assigning a fields to a variable and then plugging the variable in the Applescript. I wonder if something is happening in the translation between variables and the Applescript.

[Lee Smith]

Still, I'm not sure why my function was moved from Custom Function Library? It's a function I wrote that I figured should be with the other custom functions. Sorry if I was out of line...?

I moved it because you asked a duplicate question concerning it. I can move this whole thread back to the Custom Function Topic, if that is where you prefer it. However, you are getting plenty of responses here.

Lee