macOS Send Mail Using Stationery in Automator/AppleScript

[raiderchic7]

Hi, I am a big fan of working smarter so I am trying to teach myself automator/ applescripts. There are a few things I'd like to automate but am not quite sure how... For example, as the family "electronics coordinator" I send out birthday/anniversary/upcoming events emails to all family members. I would like to set up a script where ical events trigger email to the address book group. The extra twist is that I like using many different mail stationery depending on the occasion.

Any thoughts? Thank you in advance for any guidance you can provide.

 

[healeydave]

Bump.

Surprised there are no replies to the OP, I have a standard automator mail app running from iCal but it would be nice if there is a way to request mail to use a specific stationary form before the process hits the "Send Outgoing Messages" action. Anyone know if this is possible?

 

[Mactrillionaire]

I am not aware if there are any applications out there that would automate this. It seems simple enough to implement, however. The current user's Calendars would be in directories of the form ~/Library/Calendars/*.calendar/Events/ where * is a programmatically calculated unique ID. To provide this functionality would only require parsing a few files to figure out which calendar is which (i.e., the defaults are 'Home' and 'Work', and you can add others as well).

 

[healeydave]

Thanks for the reply, I admit I'm a total novice with Automator, but I'm having difficulties getting it to do simple stuff, so I am doubting its/my ability to do the harder stuff

If I create a simple "iCal Find Events" action to find an event today with "@" in the title, that works (a basic event in my iCal exists with an email address as the title).
If I then add a "Set Value of Variable" action with a new variable called "Recip", I assume the results of the previous action (which contains the email address) is entered into this variable.
The next action "New Mail Message" will however not allow me to drop the "Recip" variable in any of the fields other than the "Subject" field!?!?!??!

Not only that, but Automator seems really buggy, because if I step through the process, sometimes the "Recip" variable seems to populate with the email address, other times, the variable seems to be blank.

If Automator's this intermittent, how can anyone rely on it??

 

[healeydave]

Okay, I've found and excellent download which adds the ability to choose Mail Stationary in Automator via a new action called "Apply Mail Stationery Template", its available at the following link, look for the install hyperlink:

http://www.macosxautomation.com/automator/examples/ex09/index.html

That solves the original topic problem.

Annoyingly, I cant figure out a real basic issue (I thought Apple ruled at making complex things simple!?!?!).

All I want to do is, using the Automator action "New Mail Message", populate the "To:" field with a variable. This field only seemed to accept directly entered text, I want to pull a variable into this field because the script I'm trying to write will be emailing to a different email address every time.

Aaaarrrggghh, wasted hours on what I thought would be a such a simple task.

 

[xreliable]

were you able to get that stationery automator to actually work? I can run new messages and other automations but this fails. I do have assistive devices enabled in Sys Preferences/Universal. I have some 3pd stationery could that be the problem?

Okay, I've found and excellent download which adds the ability to choose Mail Stationary in Automator via a new action called "Apply Mail Stationery Template", its available at the following link, look for the install hyperlink:

http://www.macosxautomation.com/automator/examples/ex09/index.html

That solves the original topic problem.

Annoyingly, I cant figure out a real basic issue (I thought Apple ruled at making complex things simple!?!?!).

All I want to do is, using the Automator action "New Mail Message", populate the "To:" field with a variable. This field only seemed to accept directly entered text, I want to pull a variable into this field because the script I'm trying to write will be emailing to a different email address every time.

Aaaarrrggghh, wasted hours on what I thought would be a such a simple task.

 

[healeydave]

It seems to, I edited one of the standard apple stationary's years ago to incorporate some photo's of our villa, I have it as the only stationary in the favorites category (so it was always quick & easy to pick when using it manually). I have it places after the "New Mail Message" action and before the "Send Outgoing Messages" action. With Category set to "Favorites" and Template Name set to "Air Mail", it works for me.

 

[xreliable]

a bummer for me then. I get errors no matter which stationery I choose in the properties.
The error just says to check the properties.

It seems to, I edited one of the standard apple stationary's years ago to incorporate some photo's of our villa, I have it as the only stationary in the favorites category (so it was always quick & easy to pick when using it manually). I have it places after the "New Mail Message" action and before the "Send Outgoing Messages" action. With Category set to "Favorites" and Template Name set to "Air Mail", it works for me.

 

[healeydave]

hmmm, weird, there is so little to configure, I'm not sure whats causing that, as I sure you've checked the obvious like typo's in the category or template name fields.
Unfortunately, Automator gives zero information when it comes to error's.

One last thought, do you have xcode installed?

I know it might seem overkill to have Apple's development software installed, but the tools are free, and I have found a number of useful utilities over the years that have always worked perfectly on my iMac where I have the dev tools installed but been problematic on other machines without.

For the sake of around a Gb of space, I would never be without it now, it means I always have the pre-requisites covered if I download a new tool in development that requires local compiling before you can use it etc, so its a handy resource to have, even if your not a developer.

 

[ykubeb]

The variable scroll_A_index is not defined

Hi, Im totally new to automator but Im trying to create/send group messages using stationary. Currently I'm just trying to make automator work with apple's stationery (no custom stuff) and it keeps prompting an error while running actions. "The variable scroll_A_index is not defined" can anyone help me out with this? I truly have no idea of how to set that up. Will appreciate any help you can provide.

 

[kryten2]

Post a list of the actions in your workflow and the version of OS X you're using. Which action gives the error? Post a screenshot of the error.

 

[ykubeb]

Thank you so much for your reply! the actions in the workflow are:
New Mail Message
Apply Mail Stationery Template
Find Contacts Groups
Group Mailer
Send Outgoing Messages

 

[kryten2]

Thank you so much for your reply! the actions in the workflow are:
New Mail Message
Apply Mail Stationery Template
Find Contacts Groups
Group Mailer
Send Outgoing Messages

The Apply Mail Stationery Template action is old and utilizes the built-in Graphic User Interface Scripting architecture of Mac OS X. Replace the Apply Mail Stationery Template action with a Run AppleScript action and replace the on run {input, parameters} handler with the following :

on run {input, parameters}
	
	(* Your script goes here *)
	set chosen_category to "Stationery"
	set template_name to "Fun"
	
	set this_system_version to the system version of (system info)
	
	if this_system_version begins with "10.9" then
		set scroll_area_A_index to 2
		set scroll_area_B_index to 3
		set os_version to "Mavericks"
	else if this_system_version is greater than or equal to "10.10" then
		set scroll_area_A_index to 2
		set scroll_area_B_index to 3
		set os_version to "Yosemite"
	end if
	
	
	activate application "Mail"
	tell application "System Events"
		tell process "Mail"
			if not (exists window 1) then error "NO_WINDOW_ERROR"
			tell window 1
				set the_buttons to every button of toolbar 1
				repeat with a_button in the_buttons
					if value of attribute "AXDescription" of a_button is "Show Stationery" then
						click a_button
						exit repeat
					end if
				end repeat
				set this_table to table 1 of scroll area scroll_area_A_index
				if os_version is equal to "Mavericks" then
					set the category_list to the value of static text of every row of this_table
				else
					set the category_list to the value of text field 1 of every row of this_table
				end if
				repeat with i from 1 to the count of the category_list
					set item i of the category_list to (item i of the category_list) as string
				end repeat
				if the category_list contains the chosen_category then
					repeat with i from 1 to the count of rows of this_table
						if os_version is equal to "Mavericks" then
							set this_category to (the value of static text of row i of this_table) as string
						else
							set this_category to (the value of text field 1 of row i of this_table) as string
						end if
						if this_category is the chosen_category then
							select row i of this_table
							exit repeat
						end if
					end repeat
					
					set the template_list to radio group 1 of scroll area scroll_area_B_index
					set the button_titles to the title of every button of template_list
					if the button_titles contains the template_name then
						click button template_name of template_list
					end if
				end if
				click a_button
			end tell
		end tell
	end tell
	return input
end run

Should work on Mavericks and Yosemite.

 

[kosz]

Hi kryten2

any hints how to make this script work on Sierra? scroll are returns error

Thnx.

The Apply Mail Stationery Template action is old and utilizes the built-in Graphic User Interface Scripting architecture of Mac OS X. Replace the Apply Mail Stationery Template action with a Run AppleScript action and replace the on run {input, parameters} handler with the following :

on run {input, parameters}
   
    (* Your script goes here *)
    set chosen_category to "Stationery"
    set template_name to "Fun"
   
    set this_system_version to the system version of (system info)
   
    if this_system_version begins with "10.9" then
        set scroll_area_A_index to 2
        set scroll_area_B_index to 3
        set os_version to "Mavericks"
    else if this_system_version is greater than or equal to "10.10" then
        set scroll_area_A_index to 2
        set scroll_area_B_index to 3
        set os_version to "Yosemite"
    end if
   
   
    activate application "Mail"
    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Mail"
            if not (exists window 1) then error "NO_WINDOW_ERROR"
            tell window 1
                set the_buttons to every button of toolbar 1
                repeat with a_button in the_buttons
                    if value of attribute "AXDescription" of a_button is "Show Stationery" then
                        click a_button
                        exit repeat
                    end if
                end repeat
                set this_table to table 1 of scroll area scroll_area_A_index
                if os_version is equal to "Mavericks" then
                    set the category_list to the value of static text of every row of this_table
                else
                    set the category_list to the value of text field 1 of every row of this_table
                end if
                repeat with i from 1 to the count of the category_list
                    set item i of the category_list to (item i of the category_list) as string
                end repeat
                if the category_list contains the chosen_category then
                    repeat with i from 1 to the count of rows of this_table
                        if os_version is equal to "Mavericks" then
                            set this_category to (the value of static text of row i of this_table) as string
                        else
                            set this_category to (the value of text field 1 of row i of this_table) as string
                        end if
                        if this_category is the chosen_category then
                            select row i of this_table
                            exit repeat
                        end if
                    end repeat
                   
                    set the template_list to radio group 1 of scroll area scroll_area_B_index
                    set the button_titles to the title of every button of template_list
                    if the button_titles contains the template_name then
                        click button template_name of template_list
                    end if
                end if
                click a_button
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
    return input
end run

Should work on Mavericks and Yosemite.

 

[kryten2]

Hi kryten2

any hints how to make this script work on Sierra? scroll are returns error

Thnx.

Hi,

I'm still running Mavericks and Yosemite and have absolutely no intention on running Sierra in the near future. Something changed in the UI of the Mail application.

Hints : Use UI Browser or Apple's Accessibility Inspector to see what changed.

Info : http://pfiddlesoft.com/uibrowser/index.html

 

[kosz]

Hi,

I'm still running Mavericks and Yosemite and have absolutely no intention on running Sierra in the near future. Something changed in the UI of the Mail application.

Hints : Use UI Browser or Apple's Accessibility Inspector to see what changed.

Info : http://pfiddlesoft.com/uibrowser/index.html

I was able to make it work - the problem was that I had no new message window opened.
Added this code before your script and now it works.

property lastWindowID : missing value

tell application "Mail"
    set windowIDs to id of windows
    if windowIDs does not contain lastWindowID then
        set newMessage to make new outgoing message
        tell newMessage
            set visible to true
        end tell
        activate
        set lastWindowID to id of window 1
    else
        tell window id lastWindowID
            set visible to false
            set visible to true
        end tell
        activate
    end if
end tell

Do you know if there is any way to update the specific body content of the mail after loading it from stationery.
I have an element inside and I can reach it (thnx to UI browser). I can also output its value using the dialog box.
What I can't do is changing it and don't understand why.

in my stationery I have this value placed like this:

<span contenteditable="true" apple-content-type="mBody" apple-content-name="mBody">paste text here</span>

This works and outputs "The current value is: paste text here" via dialog

set mBody to static text 1 of text area 1 of group 7 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1
set theDialogText to "The current value is: " & value of mBody
display dialog theDialogText
--> Result: {button returned:"OK"}

But this doesn't:

set mBody to static text 1 of text area 1 of group 7 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1
set value of mBody to "bla bla bla"

Any ideas?

 

[kryten2]

Any ideas?

Nope but perhaps the link can get you on your way again.

Info : https://stackoverflow.com/questions...et-the-body-text-content-of-a-loaded-template

 

[Osty]

I actually had the same problem when wanting a means to automate email newsletters. Got it working but it felt too hacky. Ended up creating a Workflow on my iPad and using that instead.

 

[kosz]

I actually had the same problem when wanting a means to automate email newsletters. Got it working but it felt too hacky. Ended up creating a Workflow on my iPad and using that instead.

Hi Osty,
can you please share your workflow?

I still couldn't get the body of the message update the variable inside (

Thnx

 

[Osty]

Hi Osty,
can you please share your workflow?

I still couldn't get the body of the message update the variable inside (

Thnx

Will do, mate as soon as I get home from work. I wonder if I can do it here or just use the Workflow website...