AppleScript applet won't run on new mac

AppleScript
#1

Someone I work with just got a new macbook air with the latest system.

He tried to run an applet that I wrote years ago that he’s been using every week. It controls TextWrangler; Transmit (FTP) and the Finder.

When he tries to run it he get’s a message that it’s not authorized to control the finder.

I think I can get around that by using Shane’s Filemanager library. But I have a few questions.

Is that a finder thing or if I get rid of the finder command will I get the same message for the other two apps?

Is there an easy way to authorize an applet to control Finder?

Are there any other roadblocks that will pop up with the new mac that I should be aware of?

#2

Please see this post for details of the changes in macOS Mojave and later which impact applets.

#3

Thanks, Mark, that’s exactly the information I needed.

My quick and dirty solution was to open the applet on the user’s mac in Script Editor. Then save it as an app. Then run it, three times, and after each run going into the System Prefs app and giving it permission to control Finder, Transmit and Text Wrangler.

Since I hadn’t edited this applet since 2015, I don’t expect I’ll have to repeat that process anytime soon.

But, with my company fully supporting macs agains (yay!) I think I’ll see more people trying to run my scripts on newer systems, so I’ll need to get the paid apple ID and start code signing.

#4

It’s probably worth pointing out that with 10.15, and with 10.14.6, standard code-signing does nothing in terms of Gatekeeper. (I suppose it helps if you’re only distributing to users running older systems, but that’s just leaving traps for later.) You really need to move to notarization if you can. And the latest version of SD Notary should run under 10.13.6 and later.

#5

So I gotta keep up. Notarizing is all I need for 10.15? Do I still need the apple id?

#6

You require a paid developer account and a developer ID in order to sign and notarize applications.