Running semi-complex AppleScripts with a Mail rule in Mountain Lion.

[Dirt_Diglett]

[u][i][b]EDIT: I just thought I’d leave this up for whatever reason, but I managed to get 99% of it working, the issue iss with 10.8’s sandboxing.

Good reading to review this is: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4146081
[/b][/i][/u]

Hello again everybody,

I have been working on a script for a few weeks now that takes a .txt file (Work Roster) and creates calender events based on the shifts/break times, etc. (An example of the roster is visible on http://pastebin.ca/2358083)

I’ve already had a fair bit of assistance in making this from the very helpful Nigel Garvey, who is a legend on this thread: http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=40707

The script so far works fine when run on its own via AppleScript Editor, but attempting to make it work during a Mail rule has ultimately failed.

Here is a flow of how I’d expect it to function for every email matching a certain mail rule:

-Mail gets a new eMail with the subject "Lunch Roster - "
-Mail gets every attachment from the email (There are 4 per email, only 1 applies to a user at a time though)
-It checks for a plist: ~/Library/Application Support/mat.bagoftricks/info.plist if this doesn’t exist, creates it based on information provided by the user (A dialog asking for their name, and their section of the workplace)
-It then checks each attachment, opens it for reading, and finds which attachment has me (Or another user, based on a .plist)
-Checks for the appropriate folders, if they do not exist, creates them.
-Saves the attachments to these folders.
-For the attachment that contains the user it runs a function that creates calander events based on the roster.

So far, it will work fine with checking the name of the attachments, saving them to a specific folder & trying to make the folders at first, with the script:

using terms from application "Mail"
	on perform mail action with messages theselectedMessages
		
		-- Check for the folders & make them if they do not exist
		set theDownloadFolder to (path to downloads folder from user domain) as rich text
		set theFolder to theDownloadFolder & "Lunch Rosters:"
		
		try
			tell application "Finder"
				set p to theDownloadFolder
				make new folder at p with properties {name:"Lunch Rosters"}
			end tell
		end try
		
		try
			tell application "Finder"
				set p to theFolder
				make new folder at p with properties {name:"LOB1"}
			end tell
		end try
		
		try
			tell application "Finder"
				set p to theFolder
				make new folder at p with properties {name:"LOB2"}
			end tell
		end try
		
		-- get the home folder
		set sandboxedhomeFolder to (path to home folder)
		-- strip out the stupid sandboxed rubbish in the folder name
		set homeFolder to (do shell script "echo " & sandboxedhomeFolder & " | sed 's/Librar.*//'")
		-- add on the desired attachments folder (must be somewhere Mail can write to)
		set attachmentsFolder to homeFolder & "Downloads:Lunch Rosters"
		tell application "Mail"
			repeat with theMessage in theselectedMessages
				-- get the sender's name
				set senderName to extract name from theMessage's sender
				repeat with theAttachment in theMessage's mail attachments
					set originalName to name of theAttachment
					
					-- default to Tier 1
					set tier2 to false
					
					-- Check if the attachment is a tier 2 attachment
					if ("T2" is in originalName or "Tier 2" is in originalName) then
						set tier2 to true
					end if
					
					--if {originalName starts with "LOB1" or foobar starts with "goodbye"} then
					if {originalName starts with "LOB1"} and (tier2 is true) then
						
						set savePath to attachmentsFolder & ":LOB1:" & originalName
						try
							save theAttachment in savePath
						end try
						
					else if {originalName starts with "LOB2"} and tier2 is true then
						
						set savePath to attachmentsFolder & ":LOB2:" & originalName
						try
							save theAttachment in savePath
						end try
					end if
					
				end repeat
			end repeat
		end tell
	end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from

But as soon as I try to make it do anything more complex, such as displaying dialogs and setting functions or global variables, it just ignores them.

So I’ve got the following as the script that works perfectly fine on its own; Here’s how this script currently works:

1. Checks for existing plist folder & .plist
2. If they don’t exist, creates them.
   2a. For the plist, asks the user their name that shows up on the roster, and their line of business.
3. Uses the information from the plist to set variables for use when gathering the user’s chunk of the roster.
4. Creates calender entries for the roster.

-- ///Set all global variables
global thePlistFolderLocation
global userName
global thePlistFolder
global endRosterChunk
global theRoster
global theData

-- ///Set location variables
set thePlistFolder to "com.mat.bagoftricks"
set thePlistFolderLocation to (((path to application support from user domain) as text) & thePlistFolder & ":") as text
set thePlist to (((path to application support from user domain) as text) & thePlistFolder & ":info.plist") as text
set rosterRootFolder to (path to downloads folder from user domain as text) & "Lunch Rosters:"
set endRosterChunk to "____________________"

-- ///Check for existing folders, if they don't exist, make them.
if FileExists(thePlistFolderLocation) is false then
	tell application "Finder"
		set p to path to application support from user domain
		make new folder at p with properties {name:thePlistFolder}
	end tell
end if

-- ///If no plist exists, make one
if FileExists(thePlist) is false then
	
	--Gather the user's roster name
	--display dialog "What is your name in the roster?" default answer "example: 'Matthew Stares'"
	display dialog "What is your name in the roster?" default answer "example: 'Matthew Stares'" with title "Bag of tricks setup" with icon 2
	set userName to (text returned of result)
	
	--Repeat until it is filled in
	repeat while userName = "example: 'Matthew Stares'" or userName is null
		display dialog "What is your name in the roster?" default answer "example: 'Matthew Stares'" buttons {"Ok"}
		set userName to (text returned of result)
	end repeat
	
	--Check if user is in LOB1 or LOB2
	display dialog "Are you LOB1 or LOB2?" buttons {"LOB1", "LOB2"} with title "Bag of tricks setup" with icon 2
	set userLOB to button returned of result
	
	
	if userName is not null then
		-- Create the plist using the information provided
		tell application "System Events"
			
			set the parent_dictionary to make new property list item with properties {kind:record}
			set this_plistfile to make new property list file with properties {contents:parent_dictionary, name:thePlist}
			make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile with properties {kind:string, name:"RosterName", value:userName}
			make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile with properties {kind:string, name:"RosterLineOfBusiness", value:userLOB}
			set theRosterLocation to rosterRootFolder & userLOB & ":"
			make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile with properties {kind:string, name:"RosterLocation", value:theRosterLocation}
		end tell
	end if
end if



-- Get the userName
-- Get the roster location
-- Get the time last run for the script
tell application "System Events"
	-- Get the plist itself.
	set p_list to property list file (thePlist)
	-- Get the userName
	set userName to value of property list item "RosterName" of p_list
	-- Get the roster location
	set theRosterLocation to value of property list item "RosterLocation" of p_list
	-- Get the last run
	
	set scriptRunTime to current date
	
	make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of p_list with properties {kind:string, name:"LastRun", value:scriptRunTime}
	
	set lastScriptRunTime to value of property list item "LastRun" of p_list
end tell


-- Get every roster that was created after the last scritp run
tell application "Finder"
	-- set the folder, ignoring all the DS_Store files.
	set the item_list to list folder theRosterLocation without invisibles
end tell

-- repeat for each roster file
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in the item_list
	set theRoster to (theRosterLocation & (item i of item_list)) as alias
	tell application "Finder"
		set theFileDate to (the creation date of theRoster)
	end tell
	-- if the file was made since the last time the script was run
	--if theFileDate > lastScriptRunTime then
	-- Read this roster
	set theData to (read theRoster)
	if userName is in theData then
		roster2iCal()
	end if
	--end if
end repeat



-- ///SET ALL FUNCTIONS HERE

-- Check if a file/folder exists.
on FileExists(thePath) -- (String) as Boolean
	try
		get thePath as alias
		return true
	on error
		return false
	end try
end FileExists

on makeEvent for theSummary from startDate to endDate between theseTimes given allday:allday
	tell startDate to set {its hours, its minutes} to words 1 thru 2 of theseTimes
	tell endDate to set {its hours, its minutes} to words 3 thru 4 of theseTimes
	tell application "Calendar" to make new event at end of events of calendar "Test Roster" with properties {summary:theSummary, start date:startDate, end date:endDate, allday event:allday}
end makeEvent

on roster2iCal()
	-- Isolate the section of text containing "my" roster.
	set astid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to userName
	set theData to text from paragraph (count paragraphs of text item 1 of theData) to end of theData
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to endRosterChunk
	set myRoster to paragraphs of text item 1 of theData
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to astid
	
	tell application "Calendar" to activate
	
	set startDate to (current date) -- Create a date object whose properties we'll set below.
	set onVacation to false -- For convenience, start each rota week not already being on holiday!
	repeat with thisLine in myRoster
		if (thisLine contains "Vacation") then -- This line indicates a vacation day.
			-- If already on vacation (this week), just advance the current end date.
			-- Otherwise note the vacation start date and set the onVacation flag.
			if (onVacation) then
				set endDate to endDate + days
			else
				tell startDate to set {day, time, year, {its month, day}} to {1, 1, 2000 + (word 3 of thisLine), words 1 thru 2 of thisLine}
				copy startDate to endDate
				set onVacation to true
			end if
		else -- This line doesn't indicate a vacation day.
			-- If it's the day after a vacation, make an all-day event for this week's portion of the entire vacation and unset the onVacation flag.
			if (onVacation) then
				makeEvent for "Vacation" from startDate to endDate between "00:01 00:01" with allday
				set onVacation to false
			end if
			if ((count thisLine's contents's words) > 0) then
				-- If thisLine's not blank, it contains either a date and "OFF", a date and shift and break details, or just break details.
				if (thisLine contains "/") then -- It begins with a date.
					-- Initialise start and end dates to the date.
					tell startDate to set {day, year, {its month, day}} to {1, 2000 + (word 3 of thisLine), words 1 thru 2 of thisLine}
					copy startDate to endDate
					-- If the line contains "OFF", make an all-day event for it.
					-- Otherwise make timed events for both the shift and the break.
					if (thisLine contains "OFF") then
						makeEvent for "Off" from startDate to endDate between "00:01 00:01" with allday
						-- Check for public holiday
					else if (thisLine contains "Public Holiday") then
						makeEvent for "Public Holiday" from startDate to endDate between (text from word 5 to word 8 of thisLine) without allday
					else if (thisLine contains "Overtime") then
						--display dialog (thisLine)
						--display dialog (text from word 5 to word 8 of thisLine)
						set checkFirst to (text from word 5 to word 8 of thisLine)
						set checkSecond to (text from word 11 to word 14 of thisLine)
						-- Check if the line is the first one, or on the end of the shift.
						if (checkFirst is equal to checkSecond) then
							makeEvent for "Scheduled Overtime" from startDate to endDate between (text from word 5 to word 8 of thisLine) without allday
						end if
					else
						makeEvent for "Available" from startDate to endDate between (text from word 5 to word 8 of thisLine) without allday
						makeEvent for (word 9 of thisLine) from startDate to endDate between (text from word 10 to word 13 of thisLine) without allday
					end if
				else
					
					if (thisLine does not contain userName) and (thisLine does not start with "Date") then
						
						if (thisLine contains "Scheduled Overtime") then
							makeEvent for "Overtime" from startDate to endDate between (text from word 3 to word 6 of thisLine) without allday
						else
							makeEvent for (word 1 of thisLine) from startDate to endDate between (text from word 2 to word 5 of thisLine) without allday
						end if
						
					end if
					-- It's a line containing only break details.
					-- Make a timed event for the break.
					--makeEvent for (word 1 of thisLine) from startDate to endDate between (text from word 2 to word 5 of thisLine) without allday
					--makeEvent for (word 1 of thisLine) from startDate to endDate between (text from word 2 to word 5 of thisLine) without allday
					
				end if
			end if
		end if
	end repeat
end roster2iCal

The .plist looks like this:

RosterLineOfBusiness
LOB1
RosterLocation
Macintosh HD:Users:Mat:Downloads:Lunch Rosters:LOB1:
RosterName
Matthew Stares

[b]If anyone could please help with getting the second script running INSIDE the mail rule script for every email that matches a mail rule… I would be extremely grateful!

The main reasoning behind doing it via the mail rule is so that the script doesn’t need a timer or to be always-running, it just purely adds new rosters when they come in.[/b]