Can AppleScript listen for events?

Question

I want to write a script that takes action when a document is opened on a certain application, or before an application quits, etc.

Is there a way to attach a script to an event in an application? Does AppleScript support any form of hooks at all?

If not, can I hack my way into getting what I want?

Answer 1

applescript only has certain "event listeners" the are folder action script that might be considered an event listener and indesign has real event listeners which I won't get into at the moment.

if you want a blanket listener for any application to quit you may find what your looking for in a Quickeys though I'm not certain of this as it has been a long time since I have messed around with quickeys.

but all and all the answer is for the most part no.

hth Mike

EDIT more tools that may help brought by kch

FastScripts

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Keyboard Maestro

"Some apps, eg. iChat, have script hooks in the preferences. In iChat, the Alerts preference pane, you can set it to run a script when a certain event is triggered, like message received, file transfer request, etc." – kch