Smart rule script works in one database but not in another

DEVONthink
1

Hi,

I’m working on a new smart rule script and encountering mysterious behavior, where it works as expected in a test database but not in my “production” database.

I’m stumped and would appreciate any input that might help to move in the direction of a solution.

The script iterates through a certain set of groups and adds the group name to the children as meta data. Multiple group names can be added to the meta data field in this way (as hashtags), in cases where the child is replicated to multiple groups.

This is the script:



on performSmartRule(theGroups)
	tell application id "DNtp"
		try
			repeat with thisGroup in theGroups
				set GroupName to name of thisGroup
				set theChildren to (children of thisGroup whose type = markdown)
				repeat with thisChild in theChildren
					set CustomMD to custom meta data of thisChild
					set CurrentTopics to mdtopictagstorage of CustomMD
					set AllTopics to CurrentTopics & " #" & GroupName
					if CurrentTopics does not contain GroupName then
						add custom meta data AllTopics for "TopicTagStorage" to thisChild
					end if
				end repeat
			end repeat
		end try
	end tell
end performSmartRule
2

And what does „doesn’t work“ mean exactly? Error message, no result, wrong result? What does Script editor tell you when you run the script I’m in?

3

This throws an error in case of no such custom meta data yet.

4

In this case, there is simply no effect i.e. the tags do not get added to the custom metadata field. No errors. However, if I change the scope of the smart rule to the other database, it works as expected.

Yes, I realized that and for the moment just added a space character into the metadata field for all markdown documents. This was also needed to get it to work in the other database.

I was planning to post here at a later stage to see if there is a more elegant solution, but in any case the more significant issue is that I can’t get the script to work at all in the other database.

5

This should work:

try
	set CurrentTopics to mdtopictagstorage of CustomMD
on error
	set CurrentTopics to ""
end try
1 Like
6

This solved the issue!

It seems that when I used batch processing to add a space character to the metadata field for items in the “production” database, I might not have included all items in the scope. So then the ones without the space would have caused the error. It’s not clear why DT didn’t show a visible error here, since it did previously when I was testing.

In any case, happy it’s working and in general I just continue to be amazed at the customizability and versatility DevonThink offers :slight_smile:

7

Due to the try ... end try block enclosing the repeat loop.

8

So when “try” is used, no errors will be displayed in general?

9

Only if you add an on error handler that shows the errors in some way.

10

Got it, thanks. I have much to learn when it comes to scripting :sweat_smile:

11

My preference is to not use a try block until near the end of development unless i have a specific need. Otherwise it hides the errors, as you’ve seen. But the on error is viable too.

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