Make "emailhelpernew.app" my default email in 10.4.11

Another one broken! I got some great advice a long time ago about forcing the OS to use a suite of email databases I built in FileMaker Pro. The AppleScript was:

on open location emailURL
set the text item delimiters to “mailto:”
set email_addressing to text item 2 of emailURL
set the text item delimiters to “@”
set email_name to text item 1 of email_addressing
set email_address to email_addressing

tell application "FileMaker Pro"
	activate
	try
		open alias "Macintosh HD:Users:buckyedgett:02 Lucky Pro:02.01  Lucky Productions:02.01.01  Lucky Business:!!! Current:6_2_1_Corr_Email.fp5"
	on error
		choose file
	end try
	do script "New IM from mailto URL"
	set data of cell "Addressing} Out To Name" of current record to email_name as string
	set data of cell "Addressing} Out To Email" of current record to email_address as string
end tell

end open location

and I had to bundle it as an “.app” (I’ve completely lost the instructions on how to do that, but think I can find them here.) I also had to edit a plist to bundle:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> CFBundleDevelopmentRegion English CFBundleExecutable applet CFBundleIconFile applet CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion 6.0 CFBundlePackageType APPL CFBundleSignature CACA LSPrefersCarbon WindowState positionOfDivider 287 savedFrame 1047 11 772 520 1024 0 1024 768 selectedTabView description CFBundleURLTypes CFBundleURLName mailto handler CFBundleURLSchemes mailto

and a PkgInfo:
APPLCACA

Really. Now, however, upgrading to OS 10.4.11 has just totally broken the routine. Mail.app (the builtin email progam) has taken over again. In OS 9, I used Mail to set the Preferred Email Application. That was the only way I could use emailhelpernew.app with FMP, no other routine (many were suggested) was successful at forcing the OS to ignore Mail and use my emailhelpernew.app. But now Mail won’t set my emailhelpernew.app as the default. Bummer. Do I have to rewrite this for OS 10.4.11? Or is there some way to make the OS recognize my old .app? Thanks for any advice!

You could try using RCDefaultApp.

Thank you, Bruce. Won’t work. I just tried it. The dialog for RCDefaultApp shows Email as a Preference, and interestingly enough the popup List shows my emailhelpernew.app. But when I try to choose that, the List choice zaps back to Mail.app. I tested a few other apps prefs, ad my choices in those cases remained chosen. This reminds me of the behavior in 10.3.9: I first tried to use several “choosing” utilities (was misFox or something one of them?) and none worked. Only Mail would make the choice stick.

I wonder if I have to recompile the .app file?

I won’t say it isn’t possible, but when I moved from OS 9 to 10.4.3, I tried to do something similar… and after a good bit of trial and error (and at least one other tester reporting similar results), I concluded that as long as Mail (or any other OS X mail program existed on board, they would ‘grab’ the mailto protocol for themselves.

As an experiment to prove this, you can zip Mail.app, toss the original, do likewise with any other mail programs you might have, then try your script app and see if it sticks as the mailto handler.

I turned up one other possibility that might work, but that involved altering Mail.app’s .plist and rebuilding the LaunchServices database.

Neither method is for the faint of heart.

However, I’m happily using my own protocol to direct mailto links to Claris Emailer in Classic… and Mail.app resides quietly (zipped) in my applications folder if I ever need to use it.

Peter B.


Fascinating. It seems to be part of the trend toward making the Mac OS “user friendly” by locking users into built-in routines. Guess I can understand that, if one wanted a turn-key, start-up-and-go computer experience. Not so good for me, though, as an only-partial geek!

But if I delete Mail --which I am more than willing to do, as I never use it-- how do I “set” my helper app as the default email app? I’ll try using that RCDefault again. Maybe this time it will work.

Thank you, Peter, for your help.

Oh, and I wonder, is this any easier in 10.5?

If RCDefaultApp doesn’t work, you may need to use MisFox or More Internet.

Don’t know about 10.5. I’m still on 10.4.

Peter B.