{"id":409,"date":"2011-09-30T16:19:32","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T23:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/10.0.1.201\/?p=409"},"modified":"2011-09-30T16:19:32","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T23:19:32","slug":"applescript-to-extract-data-from-a-message-in-mail-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/2011\/09\/30\/applescript-to-extract-data-from-a-message-in-mail-app\/","title":{"rendered":"AppleScript to extract data from a message in Mail.app"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newer more betterer version out now! Check it.<\/a><\/ins><\/p>\n

This is used to take selected e-mails, the contents of which are auto generated web form submissions, and parse them for the mailing address using AppleScript’s text item delimiters.
\n
\nThis can be modified to fit your needs and could actually be tightened up quite a bit. The log<\/strong> commands were used to help debug what the data looked like as the script ran.<\/p>\n

Sample data:<\/p>\n

\nDate: 9\/27\/2011 1:04:46 PM
\nSome Guy has requested a complimentary copy of the Publication<\/p>\n

SHIPPING INFORMATION
\nFirm Name: Some Guy
\nE-mail: someguysfakeaddress@example.com
\nAddress: 123 Main Street
\nCity: Big City
\nState: WY
\nZip: 00000\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ideally you would receive the data formatted how you like, but in this case I have no control over the generating code. So this.<\/p>\n

set theAddresses to \"\"
\nset theCount to 0
\nset old_delims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
\ntell application \"Mail\"
\n\tset myMessages to selection as list
\n\trepeat with i from 1 to the count of myMessages
\n\t\tif subject of item i of myMessages is \"FW: Request - Complimentary publication\" then
\n\t\t-- This matches a specific string. Replace \"is\" with \"contains\" to allow for partial matching.
\n\t\t\tset myContent to content of item i of myMessages
\n\t\t\ttry<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"Firm Name: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theClip to text item 2 of myContent
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 1 - \" & theClip<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"E-mail: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theFirm to text item 1 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 2 - \" & theFirm<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"Address: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theClip to text item 2 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 3 - \" & theClip<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"City: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theAddress to text item 1 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 4 - \" & theAddress<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"City: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theClip to text item 2 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 5 - \" & theClip<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"State: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theCity to text item 1 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 6 - \" & theCity<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"State: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theClip to text item 2 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 7 - \" & theClip<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"Zip: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theState to text item 1 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 8 - \" & theState<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"Zip: \"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theZip to text item 2 of theClip
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog \"Step 9 - \" & theZip
\n\t\t\t\tset AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"\"}
\n\t\t\t\tset theAddresses to theAddresses & theFirm & theAddress & my removeLastChar(theCity) & \", \" & my removeLastChar(theState) & \" \" & theZip & return
\n\t\t\t\t--\t\t\tlog theAddresses<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tset theCount to theCount + 1
\n\t\t\ton error theErr
\n\t\t\t\tlog theErr
\n\t\t\tend try
\n\t\tend if
\n\tend repeat
\n\tif theCount is not 0 then
\n\t\tset the clipboard to theAddresses
\n\t\tdisplay dialog (theCount as string) & \" addresses were extracted from selected e-mails and placed in the clipboard. :)\" with icon 1
\n\telse
\n\t\tdisplay dialog \"No addresses were extracted from selected e-mails. :(\" with icon 2
\n\tend if
\nend tell
\nset AppleScript's text item delimiters to old_delims<\/p>\n

-- Sample data leaves newlines. We can recycle some, but a couple need to go.
\non removeLastChar(the_input)
\n\t-- set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {\"\"} -- We set this earlier but may want to use this function elsewhere.
\n\treturn characters 1 thru ((count of characters of the_input) - 1) of the_input as string
\nend removeLastChar
\n<\/code><\/p>\n

Open in Script Editor.app<\/a><\/p>\n

Be aware that as-is this script does not error check to see if an e-mail is actually selected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Newer more betterer version out now! Check it. This is used to take selected e-mails, the contents of which are auto generated web form submissions, and parse them for the mailing address using AppleScript’s text item delimiters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10,28],"class_list":["post-409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-code","tag-applescript-2","tag-os-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/strawhousepig.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}