Issue with applescript function

Question

I'm trying to the function replaceChars in the below script but getting the following error:

error "Finder got an error: Can’t continue replace_chars." number -1708

The intention is to add the script to finder as a button so that I can simply click it to copy the path to my clipboard. I'm adding file://localhost/ so that the link can then be used when shared with users by email as a direct link to a folder on the local network. If possible I would also like to add to clipboard the same for Windows machines.

If you could offer any guidance as to the task above it would be much appreciated, this is my first attempt at programming with applescript so I'm not that knowledgable of how things are done.

Heres the code:

on appIsRunning(appName)
    tell application "System Events"
        set isRunning to ((application processes whose (name is equal to appName)) count)
    end tell

    if isRunning is greater than 0 then
        return true
    else
        return false
    end if
end appIsRunning

on replace_chars(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string
    set the item_list to every text item of this_text
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string
    set this_text to the item_list as string
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
    return this_text
end replace_chars

if appIsRunning("Finder") then
    tell application "Finder"
        set thePath to "file://localhost/" as text
        set theTarget to (target of front Finder window) as text
        set the clipboard to thePath & replace_chars(theTarget, ":", "/") as text
    end tell
end if

Answer 1

AppleScript is looking for a replace_chars handler in the Finder's scripting dictionary. You can either make it into my replace_chars to have AS look in the script, or (probably better) move the set the clipboard to thePath & replace_chars(theTarget, ":", "/") as text line out of the tell block altogether.

Answer 2

You can make it into a one-line script:

tell application "Finder" to set the clipboard to "file://localhost" & (target of front Finder window as text)'s POSIX path

Answer 3

Replace your replace_chars(theTarget, ":", "/") call with replace_chars(theTarget, ":", "/") of me:

set the clipboard to thePath & replace_chars(theTarget, ":", "/") of me as text