Comments on: OS X Mail - autonomous processing of email?

Question: OS X Mail - autonomous processing of email?

jaimev — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:04:52 -0800

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?

By: procrastination

procrastination — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 20:16:13 -0800

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.

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:39:58 -0800

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.

Run the Script Editor (/Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor).

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

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.
Save the script in a convenient spot.
Launch Mail.app and go to the Rules section of the Preferences.
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.
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.

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:42:01 -0800

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

Step 3 should finish with "and end with a colon."

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 22:44:40 -0800

One more thing: this script solution requires Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later.

By: jaimev

jaimev — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:24:06 -0800

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.

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:10:41 -0800

Hmmm. This script works for me. For testing, make the rule match only one thing, such as the subject, and make it match exactly.