Mail Previous Recipients "port" to /folder/ in Contacts

I have tested the script. It seems to work flawlessly, provided the name of the group is the same in the Address Book as in the script (although uppercase letters are not distinguished from lowercase letters). If the names were different, the script would return an AppleScript error (Contacts got an error: Can’t get group "previous recipients") and shouldn't add any new card into the “All Contacts” section of the Address Book.

Jon,

I have tested the script (the one in your very last post) again on my MacBook Pro, just changing "Previous recipients" for "Test Group". And again the script worked flawlessly (at least from my point of view).

A few remarks:

It doesn't seem to matter whether Contacts.app and Mail.app are open or not before running the script.

It doesn't seem to matter whether you compile the script or not before running it. Clicking the Run button just after pasting the script into the AppleScript Editor window is exactly the same as clicking Compile first, then Run.

By the way, since the beginning of this thread, I don't understand what you mean by “folder”. For me, there are just groups in the Contacts.app window, all listed below All Contacts. And I don't see the word “folder” anywhere in Mail's menus.

Of course, each time the script is run, new cards are added to All Contacts, it cannot be otherwise. But these new cards are also added to the Test Group; they will also be deleted from All Contacts when deleted (not just removed) from the Test Group.

And yes, in it' present state, if you run the script three times in line, you'll get three instances of each new card in your Test Group, without overwriting anything though. However that could probably be changed using an if clause, or otherwise.

Message was edited by: Pierre L.

Here's a new (somewhat slower) version of the script that shouldn't create any duplicate in the “Test Group” group:

set theNewNames to {}

set theNewEmails to {}

tell application "Mail"

launch

activate

end tell

-- Get all the previous recipients:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Mail"

click menu item "Previous Recipients" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1

key code 51 -- ⌫ to remove the whole contents of the search field

keystroketab

keystroke "a" usingcommand down-- select all the rows

tell rows of table 1 of scroll area 1 of window "Previous Recipients"

set theCardIcons to image 1

set theNames to value of text field 1

set theEmails to value of text field 2

end tell

keystroke "w" usingcommand down-- close the "Previous Recipients" window

end tell

-- Get only the previous recipients who are not already in your contacts:

repeat with k from 1 to (count theEmails)

if (item k of theCardIcons is missing value) then

copy (item k of theNames) to the end of theNewNames

copy (item k of theEmails) to the end of theNewEmails

end if

end repeat

-- Get the first and last names if possible -- that's the weakest part of the script

set theNewFirstNames to {}

set theNewLastNames to {}

repeat with thisName in theNewNames

set theFirstName to ""

set theLastName to ""

if (thisName is not "") and ("@" is not in thisName) then

try

set theLastName to word -1 of thisName

set theFirstName to text 1 through word -2 of thisName

end try

end if

copy theFirstName to the end of theNewFirstNames

copy theLastName to the end of theNewLastNames

end repeat

-- Add those previous recipients to the contacts, in the “Previous recipients” group:

tell application "Contacts"

launch

activate

set theGroup to group "Test Group"

set theAlreadyAddedEmails to (value of email of people of theGroup) as text

set k to 0

repeat with j from 1 to (count theNewEmails)

set thisEmail to itemj of theNewEmails

if not (thisEmail is in theAlreadyAddedEmails) then

set thisFirstName to itemj of theNewFirstNames

set thisLastName to itemj of theNewLastNames

set thisPerson to makenewpersonwith properties ¬

{first name:thisFirstName, last name:thisLastName}

makenewemailat end of emails of thisPersonwith properties ¬

{label:"eMail", value:thisEmail}

addthisPersontotheGroup

set k to k + 1

end if

end repeat

save

set selected of theGroup to true

display dialog "Done (" & (k as text) & " contacts added)." buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon 1

end tell

Hope it can help.

Jon, you're under Mac OS X 10.6.8 while I'm under OS X 10.8. Maybe that could explain the discrepancies between your results and mine.

Better late than never… 😕

i wonder if it is necessary to create a new folder instead of the "test group"

Have you read each of my last three posts? I'm asking because you're talking again of a "folder", and I don't understand what you mean by that. Do you just mean “group” when using the word “folder” or do you actually mean some real folder somewhere in the folder hierarchy?

i should manually create a folder in Contacts/Address Book with the same name as the one described in the script is that right?

That's right. At least, that's what I do on my MacBook Pro.

and then if i run it on two machines it will put all the previous recipients from each machine into this single group is that right?

Is that right? That's all the question. As soon as you are talking about two machines, surely you are talking about iCloud and some sort of synchronisation. Unfortunately, I don't use iCloud and know practically nothing about it. But the more I think about your issues, the more it seems to me that there lies the source of all your problems, in iCloud. If that's the case, i can't be of no help.

can i please just ask you for a version that puts the information in a group named "previous recipients" and one that puts the information in a group named "previous recipients_MBP".

The following very slightly modified version of the script puts the information in a group named "previous recipients". To get a version that puts the information in a group named "previous recipients_MBP", just replace "previous recipients" with "previous recipients_MBP" in the very first line of the script. Absolutely no way to go wrong here!

set theGroupName to "previous recipients" -- or any other name that fits your needs

set theNewNames to {}

set theNewEmails to {}

tell application "Mail"

launch

activate

end tell

-- Get all the previous recipients:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "Mail"

click menu item "Previous Recipients" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Window" of menu bar 1

key code 51 -- ⌫ to remove the whole contents of the search field

keystroketab

keystroke "a" usingcommand down-- select all the rows

tell rows of table 1 of scroll area 1 of window "Previous Recipients"

set theCardIcons to image 1

set theNames to value of text field 1

set theEmails to value of text field 2

end tell

keystroke "w" usingcommand down-- close the "Previous Recipients" window

end tell

-- Get only the previous recipients who are not already in your contacts:

repeat with k from 1 to (count theEmails)

if (item k of theCardIcons is missing value) then

copy (item k of theNames) to the end of theNewNames

copy (item k of theEmails) to the end of theNewEmails

end if

end repeat

-- Get the first and last names if possible -- that's the weakest part of the script

set theNewFirstNames to {}

set theNewLastNames to {}

repeat with thisName in theNewNames

set theFirstName to ""

set theLastName to ""

if (thisName is not "") and ("@" is not in thisName) then

try

set theLastName to word -1 of thisName

set theFirstName to text 1 through word -2 of thisName

end try

end if

copy theFirstName to the end of theNewFirstNames

copy theLastName to the end of theNewLastNames

end repeat

-- Add those previous recipients to the contacts, in the “Previous recipients” group:

tell application "Contacts"

launch

activate

set theGroup to grouptheGroupName

set theAlreadyAddedEmails to (value of email of people of theGroup) as text

set k to 0

repeat with j from 1 to (count theNewEmails)

set thisEmail to itemj of theNewEmails

if not (thisEmail is in theAlreadyAddedEmails) then

set thisFirstName to itemj of theNewFirstNames

set thisLastName to itemj of theNewLastNames

set thisPerson to makenewpersonwith properties ¬

{first name:thisFirstName, last name:thisLastName}

makenewemailat end of emails of thisPersonwith properties ¬

{label:"eMail", value:thisEmail}

addthisPersontotheGroup

set k to k + 1

end if

end repeat

save

set selected of theGroup to true

display dialog "Done (" & (k as text) & " contacts added)." buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon 1 giving up after 2

end tell