How to create an OS X 10.9 alias by script?

[Paul Dupuis]

On 9/22/2014 9:28 AM, Tiemo Hollmann TB wrote:
> Hi,
>
> can somebody give me a hint on how to add an alias of a program by script
> (shell) to the dock?
>
>

The command below should do it for you. NOTE: The 2 filters are to
handle differences between versions of OSX - tested from Leopard to
Mavericks. It presents a dialog to alert if an identical alias is
already on the dock. Comment out the answer if you don't want that.

command CreateOSXDockAlias pDockItem -- pDockItem is the fill path and
name of the app
  local tPreserveLockScreen
  local tDockItem, tInstalledDockItems, tInstallDockItem
  put the lockScreen into tPreserveLockScreen
  if not tPreserveLockScreen then lock screen
  put pDockItem into tDockItemFilter1
  put pDockItem into tDockItemFilter2
  replace space with "%20" in tDockItemFilter2 -- effectively Percent
Encode string
  put shell("defaults read com.apple.dock persistent-apps") into
tInstalledDockItems
  put tInstalledDockItems into tTestFormat1 -- to use without %20
replacement for space
  put tInstalledDockItems into tTestFormat2 -- to use with %20
replacement for space
  filter tTestFormat1 with ("*"&tDockItemFilter1&"*") -- filter to just
this version of the app
  filter tTestFormat2 with ("*"&tDockItemFilter2&"*") -- filter to just
this version of the app
  if (tTestFormat1 is empty) AND (tTestFormat2 is empty) then -- not
already in dock
    put "defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add " into
tInstallDockItem
    put "'<dict><key>tile-data</key><dict><key>file-data</key><dict>"
after tInstallDockItem
    put "<key>_CFURLString</key><string>"&pDockItem&"</string>" after
tInstallDockItem
    put
"<key>_CFURLStringType</key><integer>0</integer></dict></dict></dict>'"
after tInstallDockItem
    put shell(tInstallDockItem) into tResult -- install into the Dock
    put shell("killall -HUP Dock") into tResult -- restart Dock to show
new item
  else
    answer information pDockItem && "is already installed on the Dock"
with "OK"
  end if
  if not tPreserveLockScreen then unlock screen
end CreateOSXDockAlias