Re: Actions and Workflow don't work - but new user
Re: Actions and Workflow don't work - but new user
- Subject: Re: Actions and Workflow don't work - but new user
- From: Ben Waldie <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2009 09:17:14 -0500
Steven,
There are several issues at play here:
1) Although it is possible to create a looping workflow, Automator
doesn't presently offer a way to pass individual items through a
workflow, one at a time. There are some third-party ways of doing
this with files, but not with Mail messages or other types of data.
For some tips on creating basic looping workflows, check out the
latest episode (#15) of my "Mac Automation Made Simple" video podcast.
<http://www.automatedworkflows.com/tips/podcast.html>
2) The "Get Attachments from Mail Messages" action apparently doesn't
support saving multiple files with the same name. I would suggest
that you report this issue to Apple, so that they are aware of the
problem, and perhaps they will consider an improvement in the future.
<http://www.apple.com/feedback/automator.html>
3) Automator doesn't presently include actions to delete Mail messages
or to save Mail messages as files. You could look for third-party
actions to perform these tasks, but I'm not aware of any at this time.
As previously suggested, you could potentially write an AppleScript to
perform the desired tasks. To get started, I would suggest taking a
look at some of my MacTech AppleScript columns, which you can find in
the "Tips" section of my website at <http://www.automatedworkflows.com/tips/developers/mactech/mactech.html
>. Specifically, check out my introductions to Finder and Mail
scripting.
Hope this helps,
-Ben
P.S. If you're new to Automator, and you have not done so already, you
may want to check out my book... "Automator for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard:
Visual QuickStart Guide" (Peachpit Press). <http://www.automatedworkflows.com/books/automator_vqs.html
>
Ben Waldie
President
Automated Workflows, LLC
610.935.0652
=============================================
AppleScript * Automator * Workflow Automation
Products, Training, Custom Development Services
<http://www.automatedworkflows.com>
=============================================
On Feb 5, 2009, at 10:49 AM, Steven Knowles wrote:
Thanks to H, I'm a step forward with resolving my problems.
The suggestion was to use "Filter Mail Items" instead of "Find Mail
Items", and the suggestion has worked.
It was also suggested that the problems with the attachments not
being saved might have something to do with the attachments having
the same name. And that's it. They did have the same name. Tested
with different named attachments, and it works.
In my case though, I won't be able to get round having attachments
of the same name. So, does anyone know of any way that I can get
round this problem with Automator? H suggested it may be able to be
done with some smart AppleScripting, but I have no idea about
AppleScript (or Automator for that matter), but would be grateful
for some ideas or direction.
Ideally I want the attachment from each email, together with the
email itself (but attachment and email to end up as separate files)
saved in a folder independent of all other email + attachments. I
guess if there was a way to do that, the same-name-attachments
problem would be overcome because the attachments would be in
different folders, so no name clashing.
So instead of the process being ...
Filter Mail Items > Get Attachments From Mail Messages (to be saved
to a specific folder)
... it needs to be ...
Grab The First Matching Mail Item (1) > Create Folder 'A' > Get
Attachment And Put In Folder 'A' > Unzip Attachment (I receive the
attachment in zipped form) > Remove Attachment From Mail (1) > Save
Mail (1) Minus Attachment To Folder 'A' > Delete Mail (1) from Apple
Mail Inbox
... and then start the cycle again moving on to the next Mail
Item ....
Grab The Second Matching Mail Item (2) > Create Folder 'B' > Get
Attachment And Put In Folder 'B' > Unzip Attachment > Remove
Attachment From Mail (2) > Save Mail (2) Minus Attachment To Folder
'B' > Delete Mail (2) from Apple Mail Inbox
Are my hopes too high?
Cheers, Steven
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