Using convert image in JavaScript

[chrillek]

After reading some older posts here on the AppleScript method convert image, I wrote a tiny little thingy in JavaScript:

function performsmartrule(records) {
	var app = Application("DEVONthink 3");
	app.includeStandardAdditions = true;

	records.forEach (r => {
	  if (r.wordCount() === 0) {
 	    const newRecord = app.convertImage (r, {record: r,
			type: "PDF document", waitingForReply: false});
       }
	})
}

which does nothing but produce weird error messages:

• If I leave out the first parameter of convertImage, i.e. r, I get a “missing parameter” error
• The same happens if I leave out the record: r part from the second parameter
• If I call the method as shown above, I get an Error -1728, object can’t be found:

app = Application("DEVONthink 3")
	app.selectedRecords()
		--> [app.databases.byId(1).contents.byId(186284)]
	app.databases.byId(1).contents.byId(186284).wordCount()
		--> 0
	app.convertImage(app.databases.byId(1).contents.byId(186284), {record:app.databases.byId(1).contents.byId(186284), type:"PDF document", waitingForReply:false})
		--> Error -1728: Objekt kann nicht gefunden werden.

From the older posts, I concluded that in AppleScript the method would be called as
convert image record r, without an unnamed first parameter (which goes against the description in the scripting library).

Bonus discovery: using app.ocr(r.path(), { file: r.path(), waitingForReply: true}); at least works, but also insists on using the file’s path twice. And of course it does not remove the original file after OCRing. On the other side, I don’t know if convertImage would remove it, were it working as advertised.

Why do I even bother? Until recently, I had to use Hazel to watch a folder for incoming documents and change their names according to my wishes, since DT could not run JavaScript inside a smart rule. Now it can, and I’d like to get rid of the Hazel step, in analogy to

OCR & Hazel Workflow on Finder before importing into DT

Hello everyone, I‘d like to set up a workflow on finder basis that takes care of OCR and renaming before sending it into DevonThink. Hazel is pretty neat here and already helps me a lot. I would like to set up a folder where it is checked if the pdf files in there already have been OCRed. If so, those files are passed onto into hazel workflows. if not, I‘d like to OCR them first and send them into the hazel workflows afterwards. So far, so easy. In order to OCR those files I‘am looking for a …

[aedwards]

I think part of the problem is that there shouldn’t be an unnamed parameter to any of the OCR commands. Whilst the automatically generated documentation in Script Editor shows that parameter it is not as far as I can see defined internally in the application.

Thanks for the full description, I will take a look.

[fredap]

I was seeking an understanding on how to use the convert() call and this article gave me valuable insight. It puzzled me why the image conversion failed and I have found the answer. In the original function defintion there is a small mistake.

Instead of writing:

const newRecord = app.convertImage (r, {record: r,
			type: "PDF document", waitingForReply: false})

it should be:

const newRecord = app.convertImage (r.path(), {record: r,
			type: "PDF document", waitingForReply: false})