It is one thing to learn about AppleScript (pay attention to object specifiers and references), but the scripting terminology of any given application is like the wild west - just about the time you think you have everything figured out, some mysterious animal you haven't seen before comes over the hill and eats all your hair.
In System Events, an attribute is a class that is a named data value associated with a UI element. An attribute will have properties such as a name and value, but the attributes themselves vary depending on the UI object. The various class properties are documented in the scripting dictionary, but you will need to go exploring to find out what attributes are available and what they are. A lot of these attributes can be also figured out from the Cocoa API documentation.
There are some examples out there, although most seem to be based on a few StackExchange topics from over a decade ago. I blew the dust off my version, it uses System Events to get an application's menu item shortcuts and writes them to a file. Note that the script scans every menu item, so depending on how many there are it may take a while. Rich Text and symbols for the various keys and their modifiers are used for readability.
property glyphSymbols : {{2, "tab", "⇥"}, {4, "enter", "⌤"}, {9, "space", "␣"}, {10, "delete right", "⌦"}, {11, "return", "↩"}, {23, "delete left", "⌫"}, {27, "escape", "⎋"}, {28, "clear", "⌧"}, {98, "page up", "⇞"}, {100, "left arrow", "←"}, {101, "right arrow", "→"}, {104, "up arrow", "↑"}, {106, "down arrow", "↓"}, {107, "page down", "⇟"}, {111, "F1", "F1"}, {112, "F2", "F2"}, {113, "F3", "F3"}, {114, "F4", "F4"}, {115, "F5", "F5"}, {116, "F6", "F6"}, {117, "F7", "F7"}, {118, "F8", "F8"}, {119, "F9", "F9"}, {120, "F10", "F10"}, {121, "F11", "F11"}, {122, "F12", "F12"}, {135, "F13", "F13"}, {136, "F14", "F14"}, {137, "F15", "F15"}, {140, "eject", "⏏"}, {143, "F16", "F16"}} -- https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.application.html#menuGlyphs
property modifierSymbols : {{"command", "⌘"}, {"shift-command", "⇧⌘"}, {"option-command", "⌥⌘"}, {"option-shift-command", "⌥⇧⌘"}, {"control-command", "⌃⌘"}, {"control-shift-command", "⌃⇧⌘"}, {"control-option-command", "⌃⌥⌘"}, {"control-option-shift-command", "⌃⌥⇧⌘"}, {"none", ""}, {"shift", "⇧"}, {"option", "⌥"}, {"option-shift", "⌥⇧"}, {"control", "⌃"}, {"control-shift", "⌃⇧"}, {"control-option", "⌃⌥"}, {"control-option-shift", "⌃⌥⇧"}} -- modifier mask bits (⌘ is assumed): 1 = ⇧, 2 = ⌥, 4 = ⌃, 8 = no ⌘, 16 = fn
global ItemsScanned, totalFound -- sums for number of menu items scanned, number of shortcuts found
on run -- example to get a list of menu item key equivalents (shortcuts) for an application
set output to linefeed
set {ItemsScanned, totalFound} to {0, 0}
set appName to name of application ((choose file of type "com.apple.application") as text)
tell application appName to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process appName -- note that process names can be different
repeat with aMenu in (menus of menu bar items 2 thru -1 of menu bar 1) -- skip Apple menu
set someResults to my (getshortcuts for aMenu)
if someResults is not in {"", missing value} then
set output to output & name of aMenu & ":" & linefeed & someResults
end if
end repeat
end tell
set outputPath to ((path to desktop) as text) & id of application appName & " menu item shortcuts.rtf"
do shell script "echo " & quoted form of output & " | /usr/bin/textutil -stdin -convert rtf -output " & quoted form of POSIX path of outputPath -- rich text (for formatting and better symbols)
return "" & ItemsScanned & " menu items scanned for " & totalFound & " shortcuts" -- global sums
end run
# Recursive handler to get modifiers and any key equivalent (shortcut) for menu items of a menu.
to getshortcuts for someMenu given indent:indent : 1
set {shortcuts, prefix} to {"", ""}
repeat indent times
set prefix to prefix & tab
end repeat
tell application "System Events" to repeat with menuItem in (menu items of someMenu)
tell menuItem to try
set itemName to name of it
if itemName is not in {"", missing value} then -- skip separator items and views
set ItemsScanned to ItemsScanned + 1 -- global sum
set symbol to my (getCommandSymbols for it)
if symbol is not missing value then -- found one
set totalFound to totalFound + 1 -- global sum
set spacer to tab
if (count symbol) < 3 or symbol begins with "fn" then set spacer to spacer & tab -- alignment
set shortcuts to shortcuts & prefix & symbol & space & spacer & itemName & linefeed
else -- try submenu
repeat with submenu in menus of it -- keep reference indexes to work with duplicate names
set theItems to my (getshortcuts for submenu given indent:(indent + 1))
if theItems is not in {"", missing value} then set shortcuts to shortcuts & prefix & itemName & ":" & linefeed & theItems
end repeat
end if
end if
on error errmess
log "*** Error getting shortcut for " & (get name of it) & ": " & errmess
end try
end repeat
return shortcuts
end getshortcuts
# Get character symbols as needed for a menu item command.
to getCommandSymbols for menuItem
tell application "System Events" to tell menuItem to try
set cmdModifiers to value of attribute "AXMenuItemCmdModifiers" of it
if cmdModifiers is 8 then -- none
return missing value
else if cmdModifiers is 24 then -- function key
set modifier to "fn"
else
set modifier to last item of item (cmdModifiers + 1) of modifierSymbols -- mask starts at 0
end if
set cmdChar to value of attribute "AXMenuItemCmdChar" of it
if cmdChar is not in {"", missing value} then return modifier & cmdChar
set cmdGlyph to value of attribute "AXMenuItemCmdGlyph" of it
if cmdGlyph is not in {"", missing value} then repeat with glyph in glyphSymbols
if contents of first item of glyph is cmdGlyph then return modifier & last item of glyph
end repeat
on error errmess
log "*** Error getting command symbols for " & quoted form of (get name of it) & ": " & errmess
end try
return missing value
end getCommandSymbols
