Adding Hyperlinked Image Attachment To an E-mail

Does this help you?

setthis_filetochoose file

display dialog(this_fileastext)

display dialog(POSIX pathofthis_file)

Where does the link come from?

The following version of your script, tested under OS X 10.9.1, seems to do the trick.

tell application "Mail"

set thePath to choose file

tell application "System Events"

set theAttachment to path of thePath

end tell

set theSender to "name@damain.com"

-- In the unedited script, the content would be entered via dialog boxes.

set theSubject to "Testing: 1, 2, 3…"

set theBody to "This is a test."

-- In the unedited script, the recipient information would be retrieved from a txt file.

set emailAddress to "recipient@domain.com"

set emailName to "John Smith"

set theContent to emailName & "," & return & return & theBody & return & return

set theMessage to makenewoutgoing messagewith properties {subject:theSubject, content:theContent, visible:true}

set sender of theMessage to theSender

tell theMessage

makenewto recipientat end of every to recipientwith properties {address:emailAddress}

makenewattachmentwith properties {file name:theAttachment as alias}

end tell

set theLink to "http://www.domain.com"

set the clipboard totheLink

tell application "System Events"

repeat until (UI element 1 of group -1 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 of process "Mail" whose subrole is "AXTextAttachment") exists

end repeat

key code 125 using {command down} -- command + down arrow

key code 123 using {shift down} -- shift + left arrow

keystroke "k" using {command down} -- Edit > Add Link…

keystroke "v" using {command down} -- Edit > Paste

keystrokereturn-- click "OK"

key code 126 using {command down} -- command + up arrow

endtell

--send theMessage

end tell

See Graphic User Interface (GUI) Scripting.

Under Mavericks, see also Accessibility Preferences and GUI Scripting.

Message was edited by: Pierre L. (slightly modified code)

Pierre L. wrote:

The following version of your script, tested under OS X 10.9.1, seems to do the trick.

I can only test on Leopard but unless I am mistaken this fails to do what is required in 2 respects:

1. Clicking the image in the received email does not open a browser at the hyperlink
2. The received email image is attached and not embedded in the html - this is slightly confused because Apple Mail always defines 'inline' images even when they are strictly not inline but attached, ie after the message and not within it

So far my research indicates that many people have tried to do this without any very satisfactory results. The only way I have found so far is to embed the binary UTF8 image data within HTML in the script. This works reliably and is very flexible but it has the following disadvantages:

1. images have to be converted to UTF8
2. the sender needs to know how to use HTML
3. it only works with the email set to invisible in the script

There are several script based (not AppleScript) utilities that can do this.

I will document my slightly manual AppleScript method here later.

Neville Hillyer wrote:

I can only test on Leopard but unless I am mistaken this fails to do what is required in 2 respects:

1. Clicking the image in the received email does not open a browser at the hyperlink
2. The received email image is attached and not embedded in the html - this is slightly confused because Apple Mail always defines 'inline' images even when they are strictly not inline but attached, ie after the message and not within it

1. I have tested the script again with a 2 MB JPEG picture attached to the email (copying and pasting the posted version, and changing only the to recipient address). Clicking the image in the received email did open the Domain.com Website. (Did you try replacing the repeat block in the script with something like “delay 3”?)
2. I don't actually understand your second point (I must say I don't know very much about Mail.app). Why should the image be “embedded in the html”, and what does that mean? By the way, I didn't change anything to the OP's code, I just added a few lines.

Message was edited by: Pierre L.

I can see how it is intended to work in later versions of Mail now that I have replaced the following with delay 4.

repeat until (UI element 1 of group -1 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 ofprocess "Mail" whose subrole is "AXTextAttachment") exists

end repeat

It does not work in my Mail 3.6 as there are no keyboard shortcuts for Link > Add.

However it appears to be an excellent solution to the OP's problem.

Whilst my solution is not very good I will put it here for the record. Change both email addresses to test.

Ratboy wrote:

GOLD STAR!!!

This works for me with a couple of tweeks:

1. I added "activate" after "tellapplication "Mail"" because the script was pasting the URL into the AppleScript Editor window.
2. I added a delay before sending the message, because it would otherwise get sent without giving System Events enough time to perform its actions.

Would you explain exactly how "repeatuntil (UI element 1 ofgroup -1 ofUI element 1 ofscroll area 1 ofwindow 1 ofprocess "Mail" whosesubroleis "AXTextAttachment") exists" works. I understand that it's going through the message looking for an attachment, but I'm unclear each command's role in the process ("group -1" in particular). If I were to place the attachment in the middle of the message (e.g.: "makenewattachmentwith properties {file name:theAttachment as alias} at before paragraph -7"), would that change the code you added?

Thanks!

You're right. One should always activate an application before using GUI Scripting. You could also have placed “activate” immediately before the “tellapplication "System Events"” line.

The repeat block

repeat until (UI element 1 of group -1 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 of process "Mail" whose subrole is "AXTextAttachment") exists

end repeat

just means: “Wait until the attachment exists at the end of the message.” group -1 is exactly the same as lastgroup and refers to an attachment placed at the end of the message. If you were to place the attachment in the middle of the message, for example before paragraph -7, the repeat block would become:

repeat until (UI element 1 of group 6 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 of process "Mail" whose subrole is "AXTextAttachment") exists

end repeat

I used Accessibility Inspector to get the information about the attachment in your original script:

Message was edited by: Pierre L.

Many thanks for your feedback.

Here's an improved version of the code that could be added to the script from your original post. It takes into account both of the tweeks you had to make to the first version.

set theLink to "http://www.domain.com"

set the clipboard totheLink

activate

tell application "System Events"

repeat until (UI element 1 of group -1 of UI element 1 of scroll area 1 of window 1 of process "Mail" whose subrole is "AXTextAttachment") exists

end repeat

key code 125 using {command down} -- command + down arrow

key code 123 using {shift down} -- shift + left arrow

keystroke "k" using {command down} -- Edit > Add Link…

keystroke "v" using {command down} -- Edit > Paste

keystrokereturn-- click "OK"

repeat until (menu item "Edit Link…" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1 of process "Mail") exists

end repeat

end tell

Below is a version which works on older Macs with Mail 3.6. Change both email addresses to test it. I am not sure why I could not get Pierre's version to work on my Mac.

Am I correct in thinking that none of these except my HTML version will work with multiple images or with a single image with text above and below it?

tellapplication"Mail"

setthePathtochoose file

set txt to "Wendy" & return & return & "This is a test." & return & return

setmsgtomakenewoutgoing messagewith properties{sender:"peter@pan.never",subject:"Test",content:txt,visible:true}

set the clipboard to "http://www.domain.com"

tell application "System Events" to set attach to path of thePath

tellmsg

makenewto recipientwith properties{address:"wendy@pan.never"}

makenewattachmentwith properties{file name:attachasalias}

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

repeat until enabled of menu item "Remove Attachments" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Message" of menu bar 1

endrepeat

key code125using{command down}-- command + down arrow

key code123using{shift down}-- shift + left arrow

delay 1

clickmenu item"Add…"ofmenu1ofmenu item"Link"ofmenu1ofmenu bar item"Edit"ofmenu bar1

delay 2

keystroke"v"using{command down}-- Edit > Paste

keystrokereturn-- click "OK"

endtell

send

endtell

endtell

Neville Hillyer wrote:

Below is a version which works on older Macs with Mail 3.6. Change both email addresses to test it. I am not sure why I could not get Pierre's version to work on my Mac.

In order for your new version to work also under Mavericks, you would have to replace

click menu item "Add…" of menu 1 of menu item "Link" of menu 1 of menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1

with something like this:

tell menu 1 of menu bar item "Edit" of menu bar 1

considering numeric strings

if version of application "Mail" < "7.1" then

click menu item "Add…" of menu 1 of menu item "Link"

else

click menu item "Add Link…"

end if

end considering

end tell

I don't know, however, is "7.1" is the right value to use as a threshold.

Am I correct in thinking that none of these except my HTML version will work with multiple images or with a single image with text above and below it?

I would say so.