SBSendEmail

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INTRODUCTION:

This file details the steps involved in putting together a project that uses Scripting Bridge to send Apple events to the Mail application for the purposes of automatically sending emails.  The following details the steps involved in creating this sample.

1. Start with a new Cocoa application.

In this sample we're going to use the Mail application to send email so we'll call our sample 'SBSendEmail'.  The techniques we are demonstrating in this sample can be used in any Cocoa Application.  We used a simple one window Cocoa application for this sample to keep it simple.   

This project comes with the Interface Builder .nib file and the Controller object to support that already set up.  It is assumed that the reader is familiar with those parts of Cocoa programming so the mechanics of putting those parts together are not discussed in this readme.

2. Add a Scripting Bridge build rule to the project.

The first thing to do is to set up Xcode to automatically generate the Scripting Bridge source for the application you would like to target.  The following steps describe how you can do that:

(a) In the project navigator, choose the project file and select the "SBSendEmail" target.   

(b)With the "SBSendEmail" target selected, switch to the "Build Rules" tab.

(c) In the build rules tab, click on the + button at the bottom to add a new rule.

(d) Set up the new rule as follows:

    Process 'Source files with names matching:'   *.app

    using: 'Custom Script'

    set the script field to:

    sdef "$INPUT_FILE_PATH" | sdp -fh -o "$DERIVED_FILES_DIR" --basename "$INPUT_FILE_BASE" --bundleid `defaults read "$INPUT_FILE_PATH/Contents/Info" CFBundleIdentifier`

    click on the "+" icon below the 'with output files:' field, and then set the field to contain:

    $(DERIVED_FILES_DIR)/$(INPUT_FILE_BASE).h

    NOTE: if you're typing this rule in by hand, note that it should all be one one line, and it must be typed exactly as shown above.  If you have difficulty entering the above command, then copy and paste the command from the readme into the rule.

(e) All done.  Xcode is now set up to automatically generate Scripting Bridge source for any applications you add to your project.

NOTE: this rule uses the sdef and sdp command line tools.  To learn more about these tools, use the following commands in the Terminal window:

   man sdp

   man sdef

3. Select a target application.

To do this, drag and drop the application you would like to target into the project files group inside of the "Groups & Files" list in the project window.  

You can drop the application among the source files you are using for your application.  Because of the build rule we added in step 2, Xcode will treat the Mail application as if it were one of the source files during the build.  

You should uncheck the 'Copy items into destination group's folder (if needed)' option so the application is not copied into your project directory.  In this sample we have selected 'Absolute Path' as the reference type so we can easily move the project around from machine to machine without invalidating the reference (so long as the Mail application is present in the System/Library/CoreServices folder,  Xcode will be able to find it).

In this case, we are adding the Mail to our project.  The Mail application is located in the /Applications folder.

4. Add the target application to the Compile Sources.

After you have added the target application to your project, you must also add it to the main target's Compile Sources.  You can do that by adding the application to the 'Compile Sources' build phase under the main target.

5. Add the Scripting Bridge framework to your project.

In the Build Phases of the main target, expand the group titled "Link With Libraries".  Click the + button and select the ScriptingBridge.framework and click the Add button.

6. Add a minimum system version Info.plist key.

Since the ScriptingBridge.framework is necessary for this application to run and that framework is not present on previous system versions, you should add the following key/value pair to the Info.plist file for the application.  If someone tries to run this application on a system earlier than Mac OS X 10.5, then they will receive a notice from launch services letting them know that the application is meant to be run on a later version of Mac OS X.

    <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>

    <string>10.5</string>

You can edit the Info.plist file by either clicking on its icon in the resources section, or by clicking on the SBSendEmail target, clicking on the Info icon, selecting the Properties tab, and then clicking on "Open Info.plist as File".

7. Build your project.

If you have followed the steps above, Xcode will generate the Scripting Bridge source for your project.  They will be put inside of your build folder in a place where the linker and compiler can find them.  

The build rule that we installed will create a .h file with the same name as the application.  For example, if you added Mail to our project, then the build rule will create Mail.h.  The files will be created inside of the build directory in the DerivedSources directory where the compiler can find them.

For the Debug build, the Mail.h file will be located in this sub folder of the build directory:

/build/Intermediates/SBSendEmail.build/Debug/SBSendEmail.build/DerivedSources/Mail.h

For the Release build, the Mail.h file will be located in this sub folder of the build directory:

/build/Intermediates/SBSendEmail.build/Release/SBSendEmail.build/DerivedSources/Mail.h

A convenient way for you to open and inspect these files is to use the 'Open Quickly' command in the file menu.  For most purposes, the .h file will contain most of the interesting information so to view that file you open the 'Mail.h' file.  

In some cases, depending on what frameworks are in your project, the 'Open Quickly' command may open the system's 'Mail.h' file that includes constants and definitions used by the file system and the Mail application.  If that happens for you, then you will need to navigate into the build folder to find the correct header file.

8. Add in the Mail's Scripting Bridge header.

In the file Controller.m, we have added the import statement '#import "Mail.h"' near the top of the file below '#import "Controller.h"'.  This will include all of the Scripting Bridge definitions for the Mail.

Here is the imports section in our Controller.m file:

    #import "Controller.h"

    #import "Mail.h"

In your own application, of course, you would import the Mail.h file in the file where you intend to call it from.  In this sample, we are using the Scripting Bridge interface inside of three methods in our Controller class so that is why we are importing it into Controller.m.

9. The email sending code

So far, the preceeding steps have described how to set up a project to use Scripting Bridge to target the Mail application.  This sample illustrates how to send an email and the code to do that is relatively simple.  In this section, we'll talk about the code in the -sendEmailMessage: method of the Controller class.

Here is the method itself:

- (IBAction)sendEmailMessage:(id)sender {

        /* create a Scripting Bridge object for talking to the Mail application */

    MailApplication *mail = [SBApplication applicationWithBundleIdentifier:@"com.apple.Mail"];

        /* set ourself as the delegate to receive any errors */

    mail.delegate = self;

        /* create a new outgoing message object */

    MailOutgoingMessage *emailMessage = [[[mail classForScriptingClass:@"outgoing message"] alloc] initWithProperties:

                                            [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:

                                                [self.subjectField stringValue], @"subject",

                                                [[self.messageContent textStorage] string], @"content",

                                                nil]];

        /* Handle a nil value gracefully. */

    if(!emailMessage)

        return;

        /* add the object to the mail app  */

    [[mail outgoingMessages] addObject: emailMessage];

        /* set the sender, show the message */

    emailMessage.sender = [self.fromField stringValue];

    emailMessage.visible = YES;

        /* create a new recipient and add it to the recipients list */

    MailToRecipient *theRecipient = [[[mail classForScriptingClass:@"to recipient"] alloc] initWithProperties:

                                            [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:

                                                [self.toField stringValue], @"address",

                                                nil]];

        /* Handle a nil value gracefully. */

    if(!theRecipient)

        return;

    [emailMessage.toRecipients addObject: theRecipient];

    [theRecipient release];

        /* add an attachment, if one was specified */

    NSString *attachmentFilePath = [self.fileAttachmentField stringValue];

    if ( [attachmentFilePath length] > 0 ) {

        MailAttachment *theAttachment;

            /* In Snow Leopard, the fileName property requires an NSString representing the path to the 

             * attachment.  In Lion, the property has been changed to require an NSURL.   */

        SInt32 osxMinorVersion;

        Gestalt(gestaltSystemVersionMinor, &osxMinorVersion);

            /* create an attachment object */

        if(osxMinorVersion >= 7)

            theAttachment = [[[mail classForScriptingClass:@"attachment"] alloc] initWithProperties:

                                    [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:

                                        [NSURL URLWithString:attachmentFilePath], @"fileName",

                                        nil]];

        else

                /* The string we read from the text field is a URL so we must create an NSURL instance with it

                 * and retrieve the old style file path from the NSURL instance. */

            theAttachment = [[[mail classForScriptingClass:@"attachment"] alloc] initWithProperties:

                                    [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:

                                        [[NSURL URLWithString:attachmentFilePath] path], @"fileName",

                                        nil]];

            /* Handle a nil value gracefully. */

        if(!theAttachment)

            return;

            /* add it to the list of attachments */

        [[emailMessage.content attachments] addObject: theAttachment];

        [theAttachment release];

    }

        /* send the message */

    [emailMessage send];

    [emailMessage release];

}

Interesting points to note:

a. We add the newly created outgoing method to the Mail application's outgoingMessages just after creating it.  This forces Scripting Bridge to send apple events over to the Mail application asking it to create an actual scripting object for the Scripting Bridge proxy object.  After that, we can set properties on the scripting object through our proxy object without any trouble. 

b. When creating new objects the property name in the dictionary providing the properties for the new object is specified using the Objective-C key name.  For example, when creating a new attachment, we used the Cocoa key "fileName" for the AppleScript "file name" property.

c. When creating new objects, we do not specify the Cocoa key value for the class name.  For example, when creating an outgoing email message, we used the AppleScript name "outgoing message" for the class.

d. Inside of the -chooseFileAttachment: method, the NSOpenPanel is set to allow directory selections (via the call to -setCanChooseDirectories:).  When you attach a directory to an outgoing mail message in the Mail application, Mail takes care of bundling up the contents of the directory as a single .zip file attachment that is sent with your message.

e. In this application we only provide facilities for adding a single attachment to an outgoing email message.  This is on purpose to keep the user interface simple.  However, it is not too difficult to revise the -sendEmailMessage: method to add more than one attachment.

First, suppose that the UI was revised to provide an NSArray of path names referring to attachment files.  For illustration, we'll use this NSArray definition:

    /* files to be sent as attachments */

NSArray *attachmentPaths =

    [NSArray arrayWithObjects:

        @"/tmp/one.gif",

        @"/tmp/two.jpg",

        @"/tmp/three.pdf",

        nil];

Then, given that we have the NSArray attachmentPaths, the following code could be used to add them as attachments to the email message.

    /* iterate through the list of files */

for ( NSString* nthPath in attachmentPaths ) {

        /* create an attachment object */

    MailAttachment *theAttachment = [[[mail

        classForScriptingClass:@"attachment"] alloc]

            initWithProperties:

                [NSDictionary dictionaryWithObjectsAndKeys:

                    [NSURL urlWithString:nthPath], @"fileName",

                    nil]];

        /* add it to the list of attachments */

    [[emailMessage.content attachments] addObject: theAttachment];

}

11. Where to next?

Documentation for Scripting Bridge can be found in the Scripting Bridge Release Note at this address:

    http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/ScriptingAutomation/RN-ScriptingBridge/index.html

There are man pages available for the Scripting Bridge command line tools.  To access those pages, enter the following commands into the Terminal window:

   man sdp

   man sdef

There are some other Scripting Bridge samples available including ScriptingBridgeiCal and ScriptingBridgeFinder showing how to use Scripting Bridge together with the Apps named in their titles.

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BUILD REQUIREMENTS

Xcode 3.2, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later.

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RUNTIME REQUIREMENTS

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later.

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CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS VERSIONS

Version 1.1

- Updated attachment code.

- Updated setup instructions in the ReadMe.

- Project updated for Xcode 4.

Version 1.0

- Initial Version

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Copyright (C) 2008-2011 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.