Question

So I have a script in ruby that obviously uses variables. Part of the script opens an app and runs an automator workflow. There are some variables in my ruby script that I need my workflow to use. Is this possible in anyway?

Answer 1

Are you able to:
a) Execute a command line program from Ruby
b) Save your Automator workflow as an application

If so, you should be able to run the open command, e.g. open test.app --args someArg. Or you could use the automator command, such as echo "someArg" | automator -i - test.app

Note that the entire Automator script will run once for each argument – try having ‘Speak Text’ as your first item to verify this.

To work with all the parameters in one go you need to actually pass just one and then split it up, e.g. open test.app --args "one|two|three|four" then something like

on run input
    set myArray to my theSplit(input as string, "|")
    set a to item 1 of myArray
    set b to item 2 of myArray
    set c to item 3 of myArray
    set d to item 4 of myArray
    display dialog "c is " & c

        --do stuff
    return str
end run

on theSplit(theString, theDelimiter)
    -- save delimiters to restore old settings
    set oldDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    -- set delimiters to delimiter to be used
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to theDelimiter
    -- create the array
    --set theArray to every text item of theString
    set theArray to text items of theString
    --display dialog theArray as string
    -- restore the old setting
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldDelimiters
    -- return the result
    return theArray
end theSplit

However, the AppleScript only seems to work if it’s not the first action. If you need it as the first action, which you probably do, insert a Run Shell Script first that just passes on the arguments:

for f
do
  echo “$f"
done