How do I Applescript the Current Date?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
,
#1

Hello!

I am VERY new to applescripting and my first one won’t work:


tell application "System Preferences"
	reveal anchor "DateTime" of pane id ¬
		"com.apple.preference.datetime"
end tell

tell application "System Events"
	tell process "System Preferences"
		click checkbox "Set date & time automatically:" of group 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
		tell UI element 5 of group 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
			--this part doesn't set the date at all
			set value to "2006-11-5 12:00:00 -0600"
		end tell
	end tell
	--and because that earlier part didn't change anything, this doesn't work either
	click button "Save" of group 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
end tell

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Model: 1.42 Mac Mini (OCd to 1.5)
AppleScript: 2.0
Browser: Safari 523.10.6
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.5)

#2

Welcome. :slight_smile:

Try something like this:

do shell script "/bin/date -f '%Y-%m-%e %T' " & quoted form of "2006-11-5 16:18:05" with administrator privileges
#3

:smiley:
Thank You!
That solved about 6 hours of mild frustration
I eventually got it to this:


display dialog "Set the time:" buttons {"Cancel", "Current", "Old"} default button 1
copy the result as list to {buttonpressed}
if the buttonpressed is "Old" then
	try
		do shell script "/bin/date -f '%Y-%m-%e %T' " & quoted form of "2006-3-31 12:00:00" with administrator privileges
		delay 1
	end try
else if the buttonpressed is "Current" then
	try
		tell application "System Preferences"
			reveal anchor "DateTime" of pane id ¬
				"com.apple.preference.datetime"
		end tell
		
		tell application "System Events"
			tell process "System Preferences"
				click checkbox "Set date & time automatically:" of group 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
				click checkbox "Set date & time automatically:" of group 1 of tab group 1 of window 1
			end tell
		end tell
	end try
end if

I should be able to apply this to a lot of new applescripts later on…
Again, Thank You!