Mac OSX - Allow for user input in shell script via GUI or Prompt

Question

I created a shell script which requires a person to input their name and then generates a report. The script works as needed when chmoded into an executable script and run from terminal. But, I would like to deploy it and have it be a double click kind of solution instead of instructing people to run it from terminal.

I tried wrapping the script in Platypus, which makes it easy to launch. But it doesn't allow for input from the user, which is critical.

I just found cocoaDialog, but my main concern is whether it will provide the functionality I need and do so without having everyone else install it.

Has anyone ever been in this situation or can offer any pointers?

Answer 1

For the record, I tested (on OS X Yosemite) the following script (namescript), which uses the read command to accept user input. After chmod +x namescript, double clicking from Finder properly launched the script and accepted user input.

    #! /bin/bash

    echo "Please enter your name"
    read name
    echo "Your name is $name"

It is important to choose a name for the script with either no extension (as in namescript) or a .command extension (namescript.command). By default, using .sh (namescript.sh) causes double clicking to open the script in a text editor, as noted in the OP.