the previous post — email file from finder — showed how to use applescript to quickly attach a selected finder item to an email — adding a recipient, subject and basic content along the way. this post will show how to adapt that script to allow for multiple attachments and multiple recipients.
here’s the original script :
set mgPeople to {}
set mgFirsts to {}
set mgAddresses to {}
tell application "Address Book"
repeat with mgPerson in people
tell mgPerson
repeat with mgEmail in emails
copy name to the end of mgPeople
copy first name to the end of mgFirsts
copy value of mgEmail to the end of mgAddresses
end repeat
end tell
end repeat
end tell
-- thanks to Mark J. Reed
-- http://lists.apple.com/archives/applescript-users/2007/Mar/msg00086.html
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to (ASCII character 10)
set mgSortedPeople to paragraphs of (do shell script "echo " & quoted form of (mgPeople as string) & "| sort -d -f")
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to ""
-------------
choose from list mgSortedPeople with prompt "who you emailing then?"
if result is not false then
set mgChosenOne to item 1 of result
else
error number -128
end if
repeat with x from 1 to count of mgPeople
if item x of mgPeople = mgChosenOne then
set mgFirstName to item x of mgFirsts
set mgChosenEmail to item x of mgAddresses
end if
end repeat
tell application "Finder"
set mgSelection to the selection
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to ":"
if class of (item 1 of mgSelection) is folder then
set mgSubject to text item -2 of ((item 1 of mgSelection) as string)
set mgContent to "Hi " & mgFirstName & return & return & "Here's that folder we were talking about." & return & return
else
set mgSubject to text item -1 of ((item 1 of mgSelection) as string)
set mgContent to "Hi " & mgFirstName & return & return & "Here's the file you're waiting for." & return & return
end if
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to "."
set mgSubject to text item 1 of mgSubject
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to ""
end tell
tell application "Mail"
activate
set mgMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:mgSubject, content:mgContent, visible:true}
tell mgMessage
make new to recipient with properties {name:mgChosenOne, address:mgChosenEmail}
make new attachment with properties {file name:(mgSelection as alias)} at after last paragraph of content
save
end tell
end tell
that script first creates three lists — names, first names and email addresses. the list of first names was used to create the salutation in the email (“Hi whoever”). but this script allows for multiple recipients so the salutation will change (in this script we’ll use “Hi all”). so, the start of the script will be stripped back to this :
set mgPeople to {}
set mgAddresses to {}
tell application "Address Book"
repeat with mgPerson in people
tell mgPerson
repeat with mgEmail in emails
copy name to the end of mgPeople
copy value of mgEmail to the end of mgAddresses
end repeat
end tell
end repeat
end tell
-- thanks to Mark J. Reed
-- http://lists.apple.com/archives/applescript-users/2007/Mar/msg00086.html
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to (ASCII character 10)
set mgSortedPeople to paragraphs of (do shell script "echo " & quoted form of (mgPeople as string) & "| sort -d -f")
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to ""
-------------
the next thing we need to do is allow the user to select multiple email recipients. that’s as simple as changing the end of that choose from list command. we also need to change the way we capture that data — it’s no longer a list with only one item :
choose from list mgSortedPeople with prompt "who you emailing then?" with multiple selections allowed if result is not false then set mgChosenOnes to result else error number -128 end if
as per standard mac functionality, you can select multiple items in the dialog by holding down the command key :
we’re going to dump the next repeat loop from the original script — we’ll integrate that functionality once we start talking to Mail. here’s the new code we need for addressing the finder. this time we’re going to capture the name of the folder containing the finder selection to use as our subject line :
tell application "Finder"
set mgSelection to the selection
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to ":"
if class of (item 1 of mgSelection) is folder then
set mgSubject to text item -3 of ((item 1 of mgSelection) as string)
else
set mgSubject to text item -2 of ((item 1 of mgSelection) as string)
end if
set text item delimiters of AppleScript to ""
end tell
the original script allowed for one attachment and one recipient, so the last portion of the script — the bit that created the actual email — was quite simple. with this version we need two repeat loops — one to process the multiple recipients and one to process the multiple attachments :
tell application "Mail"
activate
set mgContent to "Hi all" & return & return & "Please find attached ..." & return & return
set mgMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:mgSubject, content:mgContent, visible:true}
tell mgMessage
repeat with mgChosenOne in mgChosenOnes
repeat with x from 1 to count of mgPeople
if item x of mgPeople = (mgChosenOne as string) then
set mgChosenEmail to item x of mgAddresses
make new to recipient with properties {name:mgChosenOne, address:mgChosenEmail}
end if
end repeat
end repeat
repeat with mgitem in mgSelection
make new attachment with properties {file name:(mgitem as alias)} at after last paragraph of content
end repeat
save
end tell
end tell
your homework for this week is to come up with a way to make the salutation personal if only one recipient is selected (eg. “Hi John”) but generic if multiple recipients are selected (eg. “Hi all”).
next time we’ll look again at how to turn this script into a service for easy accessibility from within the finder.
macgrunt 