[JW Lua] macOS: Starting plug-ins with the ExecuteOSMenuCommand/MenuPositionCommand doesn't work

[Robert Patterson]

For most menu commands to work on macOS, the dialog window must be in focus
when the menu is executed. I changed some of the mac-side APIs for control
activation in 0.72, and it may have affected ActivateDocumentWindow. If you
haven't tried v0.72, you might try that first (though I don't believe it
actually changed for ActivateDocumentWindow).

It may be that activation of the document window is not sufficient and that
Finale has to get control in order to reactivate menu items, so it might
work to activate the window and then execute the menu item from a
subsequent timer callback.


On Tue, Apr 9, 2024 at 9:45 AM Jan Angermüller <jan at angermueller.com> wrote:

> Has anybody found a solution to the issue that on macOS some Finale
> plug-ins can't be called from within Lua?
> (described in details the old emails below)
>
> I am trying to call the "Change default to whole note rests" plug-in from
> within a lua script.
> It works fine on Windows. But on MacOS calling ExecuteOSMenuCommand has no
> effect.
> However, the result of the ExecuteOSMenuCommand call is true on macOS.
>
> To set the focus I have tried different variations of
> finenv.UI():ActivateDocumentWindow ()  and/or
> finenv.UI():MenuCommand(finale.MENUCMD_SELECTIONTOOL) directly before
> ExecuteOSMenuCommand .
> But still it doesn't work.
>
> finenv.UI():GetOSMenuCommandFromItemText works fine on both Windows and
> macOS.
>
> Jan
>
> Am 11.11.2022 um 14:30 schrieb Robert Patterson:
>
> Most likely it is the focus issue, especially if you are using a dialog
> box, and I don't know of a way to resolve it. I've never tried to use
> execute menu item for plugins.
>
> If you are trying to activate another Lua script, you could use
> FCLuaScriptItem(s) instead.
>
> On Fri, Nov 11, 2022 at 6:05 AM Jan Angermüller <jan at angermueller.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Robert,
>>
>> is there any trick for starting plug-ins from within a lua script with
>> the finenv.UI():ExecuteOSMenuCommand *on macOS*?
>>
>> On macOS I haven't succeeded neither with ExecuteOSMenuCommand nor with
>> MenuPositionCommand.
>> On Windows both functions works fine.
>>
>> finenv.UI():GetOSMenuCommandFromItemText seems to work fine on macOS.
>> Or it least it returns a value that seems to be valid (2033201231).
>>
>> In the documentation it says that on macOS the Finale *document window
>> must be in focus*.
>> Is this the problem? Can I force the document to be in focus?
>> I have tried finenv.UI():ActivateDocumentWindow ()  or
>> finenv.UI():MenuCommand(finale.MENUCMD_SELECTIONTOOL) directly before
>> finenv.UI():ExecuteOSMenuCommand.
>> It doesn't work.
>>
>> Do you have a working example lua script to start any plug-in from the
>> Finale Plug-ins menu on macOS?
>>
>> This topic has already been twice on the mailing list for
>> MenuPositionCommand() (see below).
>> But with no answers yet.
>>
>> I had an interesting request for which I developed a working Windows
>> script. But it doesn't work on macOS yet.
>> The request was for a script that starts another plug-in, but applies the
>> plug-in only to all parts, not to the score.
>>
>> Jan
>>
>>
>> Am 02.03.2020 um 15:47 schrieb Jan Angermüller:
>>
>> Hi Simon,
>>
>> did you find a solution for this?
>> I encountered the same issue.
>> It works fine on Windows, but on MacOS I can't access the Plug-ins menu
>> via MenuPositionCommand() either.
>>
>> Best,
>> Jan
>>
>> Am 28.01.2017 um 18:09 schrieb Simon Leclerc:
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> I’m trying to access the menu “Plug-ins” (as in “File”, “Edit”,
>> “Utilities”, etc…) using the ui:MenuPositionCommand(), but to no avail.
>>
>> I have access to all the other menus and sub-menus, but the “Plug-in”
>> one, which should be #7 on a Mac system, seems not possible to be invoked.
>>
>> I tried many combinations, the zero-based concept not being true all the
>> time, but could not find the right one.
>>
>> Any clue?
>>
>> Thanks to all.
>>
>>
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