Interesting concept for iChat script - but I don't have the skills :(

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

Hi there
New here (to Macs, not just applescripts). Very new. Just found out what applescripts are yesterday.
Immediately I had a wonderful idea…

I would like to have a script that checks if my WORK screen name is signed on, then checks if I am currently engaged in a conversation with someone, and then checks (most importantly) if it is between 9 and 5. If not, it would sign me off.
Otherwise, if it is not signed on, it would check and see if it is between 9 and 5, and sign me on if that is the case and my computer is not idle.

I unfortunately cannot figure it out just yet, I have tried, and I of course have no background in programming, but here is the basic logic of the program…


tell application "iChat"
  if service "workSN" is not Offline then --check to see if that SN is online, but my status may not be "available"... so... if it's anything but OFFLINE
      repeat every 5 minutes
      if idle time > 5 minutes then --see if I'm idle (But I want this "idle" to be whether or not I am speaking to someone with workSN, regardless of my personalSN)
         if current time is less than 9 or current time is greater than 17 then --check the time
              tell application iChat
                   log out "workSN"
              end tell
         else (*do nothing*)
         end if
      end if
      end repeat
  else if service "workSN" is Offline then
     repeat every 5 minutes
    if current day is not Sunday then --(no work on sundays!)
         if current time is greater than 9 and current time is less than 17 then --check that it's work hours
            tell application iChat
               log in "workSN"
            end tell
         end if
    end if
     end repeat
end if
end tell

And that’s about as close as I can come… Maybe some of you can instruct me? This is far too ambitious a project for a beginner, I know!

Comments:
-I think the way to define the “idle” is to check when the last message was sent by me, and if it was over 5 minutes ago, I’ve probably finished working for the day…
-How do you code in something that will disregard this script if I manually sign in, so that if I manually sign OFF on a monday afternoon because I am too busy, it will not auto sign me in?

Thanks in advance!

Model: Macbook Pro Aluminum
AppleScript: Latest?
Browser: Firefox 3.0.4
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.5)

#2

Hi and welcome.

try this, save the script as stay open application.
idleTime is the real system idle time


property workSN : "myWorkSN"

on idle
	tell application "iChat" to tell service workSN to set isOnline to enabled and status is connected
	tell (current date) to set {hr, wk} to {its hours, weekday}
	if isOnline and hr < 9 and hr > 17 then
		set idleTime to (do shell script "ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | perl -ane 'if (/Idle/) {$idle=(pop @F)/1000000000; print $idle,\"\";last}'") as integer
		if idleTime > 5 * minutes then tell application "iChat" to log out service workSN
	else if not isOnline and wk is not Sunday and hr > 9 and hr < 17 then
		tell application "iChat" to log in service workSN
	end if
	return 300
end idle
#3

will give it a try, thank you!

#4

So a) how do i use it and b) will it sign off if the PC is not idle (I am chatting on my personal SN) but i haven’t sent a message in a while using WorkSN?

Thanks
JL

#5

a) as mentioned above save it as stay open application and just run it
b) which PC? :wink: The given idle time is global idle time of the OS, not of iChat

To make sure, that the script affects only the work account, I added a line


property workSN : "myWorkSN"

on idle
	tell application "iChat" to tell service workSN to set {workIsEnabled, workIsOnline} to {enabled, status is connected}
	if workIsEnabled then
		tell (current date) to set {hr, wk} to {its hours, weekday}
		if workIsOnline and hr < 9 and hr > 17 then
			set idleTime to (do shell script "ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | perl -ane 'if (/Idle/) {$idle=(pop @F)/1000000000; print $idle,\"\";last}'") as integer
			if idleTime > 5 * minutes then tell application "iChat" to log out service workSN
		else if not workIsOnline and wk is not Sunday and hr > 9 and hr < 17 then
			tell application "iChat" to log in service workSN
		end if
	end if
	return 300
end idle
#6

Hello Stefan,

Would you kindly explain to me what the above mentioned line of code is doing? It seems interesting, but my Perl powers are still low and I don’t understand it.

Thanks in advance!

#7

It gathers the idle time form IO registry and prints it, perl is just used to parse the data

#8

So I’d like to know though, is there any way to do this so that it goes based on the idle time of the work SN, not the system? Sometimes I am still active on my computer, but not on the work SN, which means I would want it to sign off if it’s not work hours!

Thanks
JL

#9

I guess not?