AppleScript in a Nutshell

Name

file specification

Allowed coercions

List with one item

string

Syntax

set fSpec to (new file default name "urlfile")

Description

The file specification class can reserve the name and path for a file, even if the file has not yet been saved to the hard disk. The URL Access Scripting scripting addition takes a value of type file specification for both its download and upload commands.

Examples

This code requests the user to name a file and choose its saving location (with the new file scripting-addition command) then downloads a web page to the file:

set fspec to (new file default name "urlfile") 
tell application "URL Access Scripting" to download "http://www.¬
parkerriver.com" to fspec

new file displays a dialog box that allows the user to name and choose the location for a file, but it doesn’t actually save the file. It returns the file information as a file specification data type.

The following code gets a file specification, and then sends a save Apple event to the text editor BBEdit. The text editor then saves its front window to the file specification the applet user had previously created:

set newFileSpec to¬
   (new file with prompt "where would you like the future file saved?") 
(* returns a file specification object *)
tell application "BBEdit 5.1"
   save window 1 to newFileSpec
end tell

The info for scripting addition takes a file specification parameter. It gives you a substantial amount of information about a file that’s been saved to disk, including the name, size ...