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iCal birthday reminders

Ergolad

Ergolad

macrumors newbie
Dec 5, 2007
7
1
Partying like it's 2006....

t0rus said:
dude, if you got nothing useful to contribute, DO NOT POST! for personal expressions they invented BLOGs.

for everyone else, this app might do the trick:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/icalbirthdays.html
Click to expand...

I'm guessing if the lesson wasn't learned since June 2006 good ol' imacintel ain't gonna get it now.

Way to go everyone resuscitating this thread! Keep it up and we might actually see Mac get around to providing a real solution themselves and not have to rely on automators and 3rd party apps.
 
J

Jugdys

macrumors newbie
Jul 16, 2008
6
0
icalbirthdays question

once you instal ical birthdays, is there something else that you are supposed to do so that that calendar appears and you can set alarms? i can't seem to find that screen that provides those options.
 
skellener

skellener

macrumors 68000
Jun 23, 2003
1,786
543
So. Cal.
Jugdys said:
once you instal ical birthdays, is there something else that you are supposed to do so that that calendar appears and you can set alarms? i can't seem to find that screen that provides those options.
Click to expand...

You've got to run it it Automator. You'll see a new calendar of birthdays show up in iCal. Stupid Apple. Why isn't this simply built-in? It used to be.
 
N

n-cholas

macrumors member
Apr 16, 2009
32
39
iCal birthday reminders

My solution to this is to forget trying to get iCal to do reminders and use Google instead.

Publish the calendar from within iCal using a free service such as http://www.icalx.com. Once published you can add it to your Google calendar. The huge benefit of using Google's calendar for the reminders is that you can have them sent via SMS straight to your phone.

I hope this helps!
 
A

andrew.bussman

macrumors newbie
Mar 4, 2007
26
0
Here's a potential fix

I wrote a script that adds an alarm to each one of the events in the "Birthdays" calendar:

Code: 
tell application "iCal"
	tell calendar "Birthdays"
		set all_events to every event
		repeat with this_event in all_events
			tell this_event
				delete every sound alarm
				make new sound alarm at end with properties {trigger interval:-21600, sound name:"Basso"}
			end tell
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell

Hope this works for you!
 
B

berestede

macrumors newbie
Feb 1, 2008
3
0
How to script?

Andrew
That looks like a very neat solution ... but I have no idea how to set up and/or run a script. Is this a simple process and if so do you think you could spell it out for dummies!?
Many thanks
 
X

xjw

macrumors newbie
Jun 13, 2009
1
0
applescript

Andrew,

great solution! I would like to add an email reminder to my email adress, but can't figure out the applescript snytax.

should be something like:

"
make new mail alarm ... ?
(to MYEMAIL, at TIME_X, subject Ys_BIRTHDAY)
"

Is there a resource for ical and applescript or can anyone help?
 
X

xcell

macrumors newbie
Aug 18, 2005
21
0
realityisterror said:
I'm almost definitely sure it's not possible, which is quite annoying if you ask me... It's pretty pointless to integrate both alarms and birthdays, and not have them work together. :(

Submit feedback to Apple to let them know you'd like this feature too.
Click to expand...

pretty pointless - indeed!
Work-arounds for a birthday alarm? WHY DOES APPLE NOT JUST ADD THAT FUNCTION???
Mr. Bussman proved that it´s not that difficult - THANKS Andrew!
 
B

brewj

macrumors newbie
Oct 9, 2009
2
0
Great Script but can you specify the time of the alarm?

The Script works great but I can't figure out how to specify a time for the event. I don't really want to be woken in the middle of the night by my phone or my laptop.
 
B

brewj

macrumors newbie
Oct 9, 2009
2
0
Ahh but of course all you have to do is change the trigger interval which is in minutes.
 
A

andrew.bussman

macrumors newbie
Mar 4, 2007
26
0
@berestede:
To use this script, open up Script Editor (or Applescript Editor if you're using Snow Leopard) and copy and paste the script into an empty document. Save the script as whatever you want to call it (e.g. "Add Alarms to Birthdays") in your home folder under Library/Scripts/Applications/iCal (if the folder doesn't exist, just make it). Under Script Editor, go to Preferences (⌘,) and make sure "Show Script menu in menu bar" is checked (I also prefer to select the "Show application scripts at:" to "top"). Now you should see a little script icon in the top right of your menu bar (it looks like a curled piece of paper). When iCal is open, you can click on this script icon and should see the script listed there. Remember: The script is not automatic; i.e., you have to click on the script every time you add or change a birthday. Hope this helps!

@xjw
I think you're talking about something like this:

Code: 
tell application "iCal"
	tell calendar "Birthdays"
		set all_events to every event
		repeat with this_event in all_events
			tell this_event
				delete every mail alarm
				make new mail alarm with properties {trigger interval:-13680}
			end tell
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell

It's not a very feature rich script, meaning that you can't add you're own message/subject to the email… but it might do the trick for you. It shouldn't interfere with any other alarms on birthday events you might have.

@brewj
Yes, change the -21600 to -20880. Sorry about that… I missed that until I was rudely awaken at midnight to alert me that my friend's birthday was coming up. Oh, well! :p
 
J

Jugdys

macrumors newbie
Jul 16, 2008
6
0
andrew.bussman said:
I wrote a script that adds an alarm to each one of the events in the "Birthdays" calendar:

Code: 
tell application "iCal"
	tell calendar "Birthdays"
		set all_events to every event
		repeat with this_event in all_events
			tell this_event
				delete every sound alarm
				make new sound alarm at end with properties {trigger interval:-21600, sound name:"Basso"}
			end tell
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell

Hope this works for you!
Click to expand...

I am still having trouble with this. I am using Snow Leopard and pasted it to a document but when pasted it does not look exactly how it did in this post. Am I missing something?
 
A

andrew.bussman

macrumors newbie
Mar 4, 2007
26
0
Jugdys said:
I am still having trouble with this. I am using Snow Leopard and pasted it to a document but when pasted it does not look exactly how it did in this post. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Try the script I've attached. It should work for you.
 

Attachments

  • Add Display Alarm to Birthdays.zip
    5.3 KB · Views: 355
T

turim

macrumors newbie
Nov 16, 2009
4
0
Hi!

Thanks for the script, Andrew!
I have just ran into the problems that Apple are so kind to give us, conserning the Birthdays in Addressbook and iCal.
I have now used your script and altered the trigger interval to -720, which means only 12 hours before (suiting me better).

Again, thank you :)
 
P

P.O. Box

macrumors newbie
Nov 28, 2009
1
0
Italy
I am learning fast but this is my first time I meet a script and I don't want to make mistakes with my 500+ contacts, many with birthdays...
I bought my iMac only two weeks ago and I had no clue of how a Mac worked until then (guess which OS I used before :rolleyes:): can I use this script as it is in English or do I need to localize it in my language before I run it? If yes, what should I change?
Thanks :apple:
 
S

slpatters

macrumors newbie
Apr 29, 2010
1
0
Message with sound alarms

Sorry for coming to the discussion so late. The script is GREAT and works, but I would like alarms that have "message with sound". What is the syntax for that?

Code: 
tell application "iCal"
	tell calendar "Birthdays"
		set all_events to every event
		repeat with this_event in all_events
			tell this_event
				delete every display alarm
				make new display alarm at end with properties {trigger interval:-19440}
			end tell
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell
 
A

andrew.bussman

macrumors newbie
Mar 4, 2007
26
0
No problem. Just use this:

Code: 
tell application "iCal"
	tell calendar "Birthdays"
		set all_events to every event
		repeat with this_event in all_events
			tell this_event
				delete every sound alarm
				make new sound alarm at end with properties {trigger interval:-19440, sound name:"Basso"}
			end tell
		end repeat
	end tell
end tell
 
A

Adolph

macrumors newbie
May 2, 2010
4
0
Hello

Hello everybody with automator u can send postcard when there's a birthday. But anyone knows how to change the picture that there are in the automator library "Send birthday Greetings" ?
Thank's and enjoy the life:):)
 
redboxcar

redboxcar

macrumors 6502
Oct 20, 2009
290
66
This may not be the right thread (sorry!) but is there a way to have the iCal-generated Birthdays calendar sync with my iPhone calendar? I'm using MobileMe and currently my work, school, and personal calendars all sync, but not the automatic Birthdays calendar which is taken from my Address Book.

Thanks in advance.
 
A

andrew.bussman

macrumors newbie
Mar 4, 2007
26
0
redboxcar said:
This may not be the right thread (sorry!) but is there a way to have the iCal-generated Birthdays calendar sync with my iPhone calendar? I'm using MobileMe and currently my work, school, and personal calendars all sync, but not the automatic Birthdays calendar which is taken from my Address Book.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

For some unknown reason, you can't sync subscribed calendars (such as the birthdays calendar) with the iPhone or MobileMe. So I wrote a script that works around this by creating a "local" birthdays calendar from the birth dates listed in the address book.

The best way to use this script is to disable the "Show Birthdays calendar" option in iCal (under Preferences) before running it. As long as you've enabled calendar syncing with your iPhone, the birthdays calendar should show up on the phone.

The only downside is that this calendar isn't automatic, meaning that any changes to birth dates in the address book won't automatically show up in iCal. You'll have to re-run the script in order for these changes to be reflected in the "local" birthdays calendar.

Let me know if this works for you!

Code: 
tell application "iCal"
	if (exists calendar "Birthdays") is false then make new calendar with properties {name:"Birthdays"}
	delete every event of calendar "Birthdays"
end tell

tell application "Address Book"
	set every_person to every person whose birth date is not missing value
	repeat with this_person in every_person
		set this_date to the birth date of this_person
		set this_name to the name of this_person
		tell application "iCal" to tell calendar "Birthdays" to make new event with properties {summary:this_name, start date:this_date, end date:this_date, recurrence:"FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1", allday event:true}
	end repeat
end tell
 
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