Is there a way to send an email in an automator workflow without sendingthe previous actions content? I'd like to notify some people in my group that I've added a file to a folder, but not send them the file, I don't want to fill up their inbox with atachements.
Rich
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
That is the way the action works - if you don't want an action to use the previous input, set its Ignore Input option.
That is the way the action works - if you don't want an action to use the previous input, set its Ignore Input option.
This isn't the sweet spot for email.
Consider switching tactics, and serve the file-change information via RSS (that's a little more work) or (depending on the need for longevity of the notifications) maybe via (networked) Growl.
A content-management system can generate these XML-based notifications, as can the (retiring) iWeb stuff.
Basically, this is something that detects and runs when the containing directory is modified (probably via a Folder Action), and that then either dynamically generates the RSS when the change is made, or that serves up the current data when the RSS query arrives.
This looks fairly close to what you'd want for creating an RSS feed.
And there are ways to generate XML in AppleScript.
Here's another potential starting point for RSS- or otherwise automating this file-serving (and notification) task is scrup; that tool gets you uploads to an ftp server under your control.
Red,
Thanks very much, although the RSS is a good idea it may be too much for what I was looking for. Just a simple notice will work fine, and this tip on ignore input still sends the email, just without the attachement.
Thanks
Automator email action
