macOS Applescript parsing mail -> weird characters

[babbler]

I am parsing mail messages with AppleScript to process incoming mail. The main purpose is to feed appointment requests straight to iCal and to fix a strange timezone 'feature' in mail from windows

My script now manages incoming mail from windows OK, but the text it grabs from Mail.app calendar attachments is full of strange codes for spaces and c/r.

I have hacked down the script to find the problem and at it simplest:

on perform mail action with messages theMessages
tell application "Mail"
repeat with theMessage in theMessages
set theSource to the source of theMessage
set the clipboard to theSource

.....

Puts text like this into the clipboard from a mac mail attachment:

Content-Disposition: attachment;
filename=iCal-20070928-122135.ics

BEGIN:VCALENDAR=0D=0APRODID:-//Apple=20Computer\,=20Inc//iCal=202.0//EN=0D=
=0AMETHOD:REQUEST=0D=0ACALSCALE:GREGORIAN=0D=0AVERSION:2.0=0D=0A=
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE=0D=0ATZID:Africa/Nairobi=0D=0A=
LAST-MODIFIED:20070928T092135Z=0D=0ABEGIN:STANDARD=0D=0A=
DTSTART:19321213T204552=0D=0ATZOFFSETTO:+0230=0D=0ATZOFFSETFROM:+0000=0D=0A=
TZNAME:BEAT=0D=0AEND:STANDARD=0D=0ABEGIN:STANDARD=0D=0A=
DTSTART:19400101T001445=0D=0ATZOFFSETTO:+024445=0D=0ATZOFFSETFROM:+0230=0D=
=0ATZNAME:BEAUT=0D=0AEND:STANDARD=0D=0ABEGIN:STANDARD=0D=0A=
DTSTART:19600101T001515=0D=0ATZOFFSETTO:

whereas from a windows mail it puts this:


------_=_NextPart_001_01C800D9.B7B371C2
Content-class: urn:content-classes:calendarmessage
Content-Type: text/calendar;
name="meeting.ics";
method=REQUEST
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:Microsoft CDO for Microsoft Exchange
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZIDGMT+03.00) East Africa/Nairobi
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-TZID:56
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:16010101T000000
TZOFFSETFROM:+0300

How do I strip out those codes in the mac version, better still how do I stop them from appearing.

Thanks

 

[angelwatt]

Check out the bottom of this page, http://www.apple.com/applescript/guidebook/sbrt/pgs/sbrt.07.htm

It talks about substituting text in a string. You can replace the "=0D=0A" with "(ASCII character 13)" which I believe is the CR (carriage return) on Mac. ASCII character 10 would probably also work.