Birthday Calendar - automatic or automator?

[weldon]

From the iCal page

Birthday Calendar
Always know the birthdays of everyone in your Address Book with this automatic calendar in iCal.

And from the Automator page

You can easily automate tasks such as renaming a large group of files, resizing dozens of images to fit an iPhoto slideshow or creating iCal birthday events using Address Book contacts, then repeat those tasks again and again.

So which is it? Is the Birthday Calendar automatic? or do you have to run an automator script to update it? or do the program managers for iCal and Automator not talk to each other?

 

[Logik]

From the iCal page

And from the Automator page

So which is it? Is the Birthday Calendar automatic? or do you have to run an automator script to update it? or do the program managers for iCal and Automator not talk to each other?

Both. You can use automator to create EVENTS based on birthdays.. an event in automator is like .. an action.. a "if it's their birthday, do this", "for all people in my address book with a birthday between x-y do this," etc.

While iCal just creates a calendar with the birthdays on it.

 

[weldon]

Really? So the automatic birthday calendar in iCal doesn't have reminders or any other goodies that a normal calendar event would have? A birthday calendar isn't much good to me unless it has reminders to call people or send an email on their birthday.

I suppose I won't have to run the Automator script more than once or twice a year as I update address book with someone's birthday.

 

[Logik]

Really? So the automatic birthday calendar in iCal doesn't have reminders or any other goodies that a normal calendar event would have? A birthday calendar isn't much good to me unless it has reminders to call people or send an email on their birthday.

I suppose I won't have to run the Automator script more than once or twice a year as I update address book with someone's birthday.

no no no, the iCal calendar is just like any other calendar. With automator you can do a lot more though, interacting with other applications like iPhoto, iMovie, etc..

 

[weldon]

no no no, the iCal calendar is just like any other calendar. With automator you can do a lot more though, interacting with other applications like iPhoto, iMovie, etc..

OK. Now that I go back and re-read, I see that misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were talking about calendar events but I see you meant Automator events that would trigger other actions.

Still, I think it's silly that one of the examples given for Automator is completely useless because that functionality is already in iCal.

 

[Logik]

OK. Now that I go back and re-read, I see that misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you were talking about calendar events but I see you meant Automator events that would trigger other actions.

Still, I think it's silly that one of the examples given for Automator is completely useless because that functionality is already in iCal.

not necessarily. by Event i mean you can use automator to trigger events for birthdays... and do ANYTHING you want with that. If you just want reminders that's cool and iCal does that. but it seems like with Automator you can have an email automatically sent to this person, labels printed, etc. just about anything you can do with automator can be triggered by the birthday thing.. i'm sure we'll see some cool uses.

 

[LeeTom]

Here's how I see it:
iCal will see birthdays in your address book, and you will be able to setup normal iCal-type reminders for birthdays, as if they were any other event.

But with Automater you could (as an example), when Josh Smith's birthday arrives, set it to get all photos in your iPhoto library where Josh Smith is a keyword, and send them to Josh Smith's email that's in your address book.

I'm not sure if Automator could do that, but that's just an example of how it could take it one step beyond the basic iCal alarm functionality.

 

[rendezvouscp]

LeeTom, your view is correct. It's all automated by iCal, but you can use Automator to do stuff on someone's birthday, and I believe you attach the Automator script to the birthday (ie, in iCal, you can attach a script as the event). But I'll have to check into it later.
-Chase

 

[Logik]

Here's how I see it:
iCal will see birthdays in your address book, and you will be able to setup normal iCal-type reminders for birthdays, as if they were any other event.

But with Automater you could (as an example), when Josh Smith's birthday arrives, set it to get all photos in your iPhoto library where Josh Smith is a keyword, and send them to Josh Smith's email that's in your address book.

I'm not sure if Automator could do that, but that's just an example of how it could take it one step beyond the basic iCal alarm functionality.

basically the same thing i was saying