[Pythonmac-SIG] How to fetch iCal todo description?

[Paul Berkowitz]

Whoa!

So now you're saying that - in spite of AppleScript not having 'description'
in the iCal 1.5.5 dictionary in Panther - appscript can still get it? Do you
mind explaining how that might be possible, has?

Note that there are some OS versions and script editors (e.g. Script
Debugger 4 in OS 10.4.4) which - when you try to open an AppleScript
dictionary of an iApp on another partition with another OS installed,
actually shows you the dictionary of the iApp on your currently booted OS.
(Cocoa sdef applications insist on opening when you try to look at their
dictionaries, and only the version of the Apple iApp applications belonging
to your booted OS can open.) Other script editors and OS versions (e,g,
Script Editor 2.1.1 and Smile 3.0.6 in OS 10.4.4) simply refuse to open
invalid iApp version dictionaries. Do you think maybe you've been taken in
by this, has? Perhaps you're in Tiger and thought you were looking at iCal
1.5.x's dictionary? You weren't - it was iCal 2.0.x's dictionary. That has
'description' of todo. iCal 1.5.x does not.

It is fully documented that iCal 1.5 in Panther did NOT have 'description'
in its AppleScript dictionary. As Skip says, I reported that on
AppleScript-Users in 2003. I also, more effectively I think, made a bug
report at bugreporter.apple.com . I also tried to bring it up at WWDC 2004
but there was no one there to discuss it with, although I did send an urgent
reminder through an intermediary. Nevertheless, they did act on my bug
report. (I was asked to check it out in a very late beta of 10.4.).

My understanding was that appscript worked through the same dictionary as
AppleScript. If you're now saying that appscript could somehow access a
property named 'description' of todo, even though no such property exists in
the Panther iCal 1.5.5 AppleScript dictionary (although of course the UI
todo does indeed have "Notes") - how exactly does it do it?

Or have you been fooled by OS X's way of blocking older versions of iApps
from opening in later booted OS versions and thus from exposing their
dictionaries?

-- 
Paul Berkowitz


> From: has <hengist.podd at virgin.net>
> Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 07:49:05 +0000
> To: <pythonmac-sig at python.org>
> Subject: Re: [Pythonmac-SIG] How to fetch iCal todo description?
> 
> skip wrote:
> 
>> I'm stuck trying to figure out how to get the notes for a todo.  If I create
>> a todo via iCal and add a note to it, I don't see any property of the todo
>> instance that contains that note.  The HTMLDictionary output doesn't list
>> "description" or "note" as one of the properties of a todo item, yet it's
>> clearly there in iCal.
> 
> It's definitely there in 10.3 and 10.4, even if they have bodged up the
> dictionary a bit in 10.4.
> 
> todo -- This class represents a task.
> Parent:
> (Bad terminology: can't find class with AE code '****'.)
> Properties:
> completion_date DateTime -- The todo completion date.
> due_date DateTime -- The todo due date.
> priority k.no_priority | k.low_priority | k.medium_priority | k.high_priority
> -- The todo priority.
> sequence (r/o) Integer -- The todo version.
> stamp_date (r/o) DateTime -- The todo modification date.
> summary Unicode -- This is the todo summary.
> description Unicode -- The todo notes. *****************
> uid (r/o) Unicode -- A unique todo key.
> url Unicode -- The URL associated to the todo.
> Elements:
> display_alarms --
> mail_alarms --
> open_file_alarms --
> sound_alarms --
> 
> Try:
> 
> ical = app('iCal')
> ical.calendars[1].todos.end.make(new=k.todo,
> with_properties={k.description:'hello world'})
> print ical.calendars[1].todos[-1].description()
> 
> has
> -- 
> http://freespace.virgin.net/hamish.sanderson/
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