com.apple.automation.coercion

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JP4237 Author

Level 1

8 points

com.apple.automation.coercion

Anyone knows what is com.apple.automation.coercion ?

iMac 27", macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 19, 2020 1:07 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

JP4237 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 20, 2020 11:10 AM in response to MrHoffman

Ok, but beside the security concerns from Apple I think that in a security update which weights near 2GB there is a little bit more than security patches.

We will end here that discussion and I thank you both in trying to answer my interrogations about that problem.

Regards

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 19, 2020 5:11 PM in response to JP4237

Not sure, coercion is for instance forcing a value, For example, you can’t write a script that tries to import a Finder reference to an audio file into iTunes because iTunes doesn’t understand Finder file references. In this case, you must coerce the Finder file reference to something iTunes can understand, like an alias. See Converting Between Path Formats below. In most cases, apps with their own path syntax also support standard AppleScript path types.

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/MacAutomationScriptingGuide/ReferenceFilesandFolders.html

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 19, 2020 3:12 PM in response to JP4237

I don't have com.apple.automation.coercion here in 10.13.6

EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report...

https://pastebin.com/

Or use the paperclip at the bottom of a Reply to attach the full report here. :)

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Answer 4

JP4237 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2020 4:35 PM in response to BDAqua

Thanks for your reply.

I have EtreCheck and use it.

To be more precise with my problem, some explications.

Since many many years I'm using iView MediaPro to catalog my photos.

This app may call some Helpers to open an image and work on it (ex. : Photoshop, Preview, Graphicconverter …)

This worked fine until january 02, 2020, not only on one Mac but on the three I have here, two with El Capitan, one with High Sierra 13.6 with security update Nov. 1919.

When I ask iView to start an Helper MacAnalytics from the Console says :

===================== call to Helper PREVIEW from Helpers list ============

18:18:39.926355 -0300 iView MediaPro com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.automation.osaexecute_run

com.apple.message.signature: com.iview.mediapro

com.apple.message.signature2: com.apple.applescript

com.apple.message.summarize: YES

SenderMachUUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

18:18:39.955539 -0300 iView MediaPro com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.qtkit.name

com.apple.message.signature2: jpeg

com.apple.message.summarize: YES

SenderMachUUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

18:18:39.999279 -0300 iView MediaPro com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.automation.coercion

com.apple.message.signature: com.iview.mediapro

com.apple.message.signature2: utxt

com.apple.message.signature3: STXT

com.apple.message.summarize: YES

SenderMachUUID: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

==============

and nothing occurs !

The call seems to abort with com.apple.automation.coercion

What's that ?

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Answer 5

Jan 19, 2020 5:35 PM in response to JP4237

I’m going to guess that you’re not the app developer, that you don’t know if this message was normal prior to whatever happened here, and that this app is unsupported and with no updates and no maintainers are available.

If three separate Macs with presumably differing system configurations all cratered the same way, it’s probably an app bug.

Given it appears this software apparently went unsupported a long time ago, this’ll be “fun” to solve.

https://archive.org/details/tucows_366141_iView_MediaPro

I’d first try booting with a test configuration—a scratch of throw-away install, possibly copied from one of your “main” Mac systems—and the system date set before 2020, and see if this app works again. Date bugs and expired certificates are potential triggers for apps that just stop working, particularly around the new year.

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Answer 6

JP4237 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2020 6:15 PM in response to BDAqua

Ok, maybe it is an explanation but how to explain that, without any change in the configuration of my three Macs, this worked in November and no more in January ?

Two iMacs were disconnected (SMC reset) during one week while the third is a MacBook Pro.

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Answer 7

JP4237 Author

Level 1

8 points

Jan 19, 2020 6:59 PM in response to MrHoffman

Correct, I'm not the app developper. You said "it’s probably an app bug", OK, but this app worked very well with El Capitan and High Sierra in November. What could have changed in January ?

I don't remember where I understood that the app uses script bundles.

So, I tried to mimic the problem with AppleScripts in a fresh APFS High Sierra volume, installing iView from its .DMG original.

No success. It cannot call any helper.

I will try to do the same changing the system date.

Thanks for the suggestion..

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Answer 8

Jan 20, 2020 9:33 AM in response to JP4237

Welcome to old apps.

Software ages out, and fails. Always has.

With our increasingly interconnected era, older network connections will always age out. Always.

Newer apps and newer servers—software that’s being maintained, and tracking security exploits and vulnerabilities—will refuse to connect to the older clients, and older apps using older protocols.

What changed between November and January is the date. Software can have date-based expirations. Among other details, digital security certificates have expiration dates, and need to be replaced from time to time. Apps have latent date bugs, too. There’s a big crop of those as we approach 2038, when one fairly common date encoding format reaches its limit.

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Answer 9

BDAqua

Level 10

245,489 points

Jan 20, 2020 11:54 AM in response to JP4237

Good luck JP. :)

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