Overview of Bike's outline path behavior.

README.md

Outline paths can be significantly more performant than AppleScript's filtering operations.

For example, //*/run::@strong gets interpreted as:

1. For all descendants of the root node,
2. Look at their associated rich text by using run:: axes, then
3. Run predicate against the attributes associated with each rich text run’s attributes.

Within Bike, outline paths can return different kinds of values:

• count(//*) returns a number.
• //* returns a list of “nodes” (rows and/or text runs).

To avoid implementation complexity, Bike's automation interfaces behave slightly differently:

1. In Shortcuts, “Query Rows” only returns rows -- count(//*) returns an empty list.

2. In AppleScript, the “query” command returns rows and numbers, but not text runs. Instead, add /.. to the end of the query to obtain the parent rows containing the matching text runs, not the text runs themselves. For example:

   • //*/run::@strong — Zero results in AppleScript since no text run results
   • //*/run::@strong/.. — Returns all rows that contain strong (bold) text.

For more information, see the following resources:

1. Using Outline Paths | Bike User Guide
2. Post about Outline Paths | Hog Bay Software
3. Bike 1.17 Outline Path Automation Details | Bike Support Forum

query-bike-with-outline-paths_applescript.applescript

(*
    Gets all URLs in the current document that link to internal rows or other Bike documents (any link starting with 'bike://')
 *)
tell application "Bike"
	-- The `query` command in Bike's scripting interface only returns rows and/or numbers.
	-- Use "/.." at the end of the outline path to get parent rows of matching text runs.
	-- A row's `attribute runs` can be used to get equivalent text run info, if needed.
	set theRows to query document 1 outline path "//*/run::@link beginswith \"bike://\"/.."
	
	set internalLinks to {}
	repeat with theRow in theRows
		copy (link of text content of theRow) as text to end of internalLinks
	end repeat
	return internalLinks
end tell

query-bike-with-outline-paths_jxa.js

/**
 * Gets all URLs in the current document that link to internal rows or other Bike documents (any link starting with 'bike://')
 */
function run() {
	const bike = Application("Bike");
	
	// The `query` command in Bike's scripting interface only returns rows and/or numbers.
	// Use "/.." at the end of the outline path to get parent rows of matching text runs.
	// A row's `attribute runs` can be used to get equivalent text run info, if needed.
	const rows = bike.query(bike.documents.first, { outlinePath: `//*/run::@link beginswith "bike://"/..` });
	return rows.map(row => row.textContent.link())
}