OS X Mail - autonomous processing of email?

June 19, 2007 8:04 PM

Can Mac OS X Mail be configured to autonomously process email, and based on specific From: and Subject: lines, save the attachment(s) of that email into a specific folder?

I'm a dinosaur and prefer to ssh into my Unix based ISP to read my mail. So never having used OS X Mail before, I have no idea if it can do this. I want to be able to send email to a seldom used POP account and have Mail running on my Mac at home automatically check that account and save an attachment based on From/Subject lines. Possible?

posted by jaimev to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Mail can do filtering, but I just looked and don't immediately see a way to get it to save attachments automatically. Check under Preferences->Rules to see where you can create rules. You might have to use the rules to run an Applescript that will do the saving of the attachment. It looks like this script might do that, though I haven't used it.

If Mail.app cannot, you can always install and run procmail. This is hard to configure, and might be overkill.

I bet it can be done, and someone smarter than me with the Mac stuff will have an answer for you soon.
posted by procrastination at 8:16 PM on June 19, 2007

AppleScript is your friend. This MacTech magazine article is also you friend. I love AppleScript, so I'll pull the juicy bits out for you. Heck, I'll do all the work, too.

1. Run the Script Editor (/Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor).
   
2. Copy and paste the following code into the script window:
   

   on perform_mail_action(theData)
   	tell application "Mail"
   		set theSelectedMessages to |SelectedMessages| of theData
   		set theRule to |Rule| of theData
   		repeat with a from 1 to count theSelectedMessages
   			set theOutputFolder to ("Full:path:to:folder:") as string
   			set theMessages to selection
   			set theMessage to item 1 of theMessages
   			set theAttachments to every attachment of content of theMessage
   			repeat with a from 1 to length of theAttachments
   				set theAttachment to item a of theAttachments
   				try
   					set theAttachmentName to name of theAttachment
   					set theSavePath to theOutputFolder & theAttachmentName
   					save theAttachment in theSavePath
   				end try
   			end repeat
   		end repeat
   	end tell
   end perform_mail_action
   

3. Replace the quoted part in parentheses with the correct, colon-separated path to your destination folder. Start with the name of your hard disk and and with a colon.
   
4. Save the script in a convenient spot.
   
5. Launch Mail.app and go to the Rules section of the Preferences.
   
6. Add a new rule to match for the criteria you specify and make it perform an applescript action, choosing the previously created script. Click OK to save it.
   
7. Close the Preferences and send yourself an email that matches the rule. If all goes well, the attachment will be saved to your desired folder.

posted by pmbuko at 10:39 PM on June 19, 2007

sorry about the extra lines in the code. looked fine on preview.

Step 3 should finish with "and end with a colon."
posted by pmbuko at 10:42 PM on June 19, 2007

One more thing: this script solution requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later.
posted by pmbuko at 10:44 PM on June 19, 2007

pmbuko - thanks for that Applescript. It's not quite working for me yet (attachment isn't being saved to my output folder, with no error indications), but you gave me enough info to get me pointed in the right direction.
posted by jaimev at 11:24 PM on June 19, 2007

Hmmm. This script works for me. For testing, make the rule match only one thing, such as the subject, and make it match exactly.
posted by pmbuko at 5:10 AM on June 20, 2007