[Pythonmac-SIG] scripting iCal (original) (raw)

has hengist.podd at virgin.net
Mon Nov 29 11:37:16 CET 2004

David Reed wrote:

#!/usr/local/bin/pythonw

from appscript import * from datetime import date, timedelta today = date.today() tomorrow = today + timedelta(1) # To get a list of today's events in calendar 1: print app('ical.app').calendars[1].events.filter((its.startdate >= today).AND(its.startdate < tomorrow)).get()_ _# To get names and descriptions of today's events in 'Home' calendar:_ _ref = app('ical.app').calendars.filter(its.title ==_ _'Home').events.filter((its.startdate >= today).AND(its.startdate < tomorrow)) print zip(ref.summary.get(), ref.description.get()) Thanks. I had tried appscript but hadn't figured it out either.

Specify?

The above works fine except it doesn't pick up events from other days that repeat on the current date.

Tsk. I rarely use iCal, so wasn't aware of this. But I've checked and, yes, start and end date refer to the original event as defined by the user. iCal's designers obviously didn't think through the implications when the event is also set to repeat. (Like I say, iApps' scripting implementations are notoriously second-rate, hardly the showcase you'd expect.)

Only solution I can see is to get the start dates of all events and do the math yourself. It's slower and less convenient but at least it works:

#!/usr/local/bin/pythonw

from appscript import * from datetime import date, timedelta

today = date.today() ref = app('ical.app').calendars[1].events print [r for r, d in zip(ref.get(), ref.start_date.get()) if not (d.date() - today).days % 7]

Is there documentation that I could look at that shows me what calls I can make on the various objects?

No, aete [Apple event terminology] resources don't carry this info (sdefs, their eventual replacement, will have limited information on which commands work on each class), and most applications have little or no additional documentation on their scripting interfaces. Yes, this sucks.

I'm guessing there's a way to change the filter to pick up repeating events, but I don't know where to look.

No, application object references - actually simple relational queries - always follow a standard structure.

Notes:

An Apple event interface isn't like COM where you just chuck a bunch of raw function calls out in the wild; it's a complete View-Controller layer with its own interaction rules: the Apple Event Object Model defines a standard system for referring to objects and the application developer defines the commands and classes they wish to present (which may or may not bear any resemblance to the internal data structures in the application's Model layer). It's a good system in itself, but the quality and quantity of support for it in both first- and third-party applications varies wildly.

On a good day, you can do everything you want with a few references and commands; on a bad day you have to grab raw data and process it yourself; on a really bad day you're reduced to using GUI Scripting to manipulate the app (ugh!); and at worst it's impossible. Some application developers do a good-to-excellent job of implementing - and even documenting(!) - Apple event interfaces (e.g. Finder, InDesign, Entourage), but there's a lot of companies/developers out there who don't bother, or just don't seem to 'get it', or just bodge an quick-n-ugly AE wrapper around whatever existing APIs they already have (e.g. Word & Excel 2004). C'est la vie.

Third-party language bridges like appscript can save you the pain of having to deal with the ugly, underpowered can-o-worms that is the AppleScript language, but they can't do anything to address the deficiencies of individual applications. Feel free to submit feature requests/bug reports/etc. to Apple and application developers: the more they hear from folk, the more likely they are to pay attention.

HTH

has

http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/

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