Prioritize Today's Tasks AppleScript
 

I thought this post would be better fit for this OmniFocus Extras forum, so pardon the double forum post.

[URL="http://forums.omnigroup.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=128529"]http://forums.omnigroup.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=128529[/URL]
[QUOTE=skillet;128529]I have been using an AppleScript that selects an action name and copies it to the clipboard and then removes the priority number and puts another priority number back in. It only works on one task at a time and I am trying to get it to do this to multiple selected tasks. I am however stuck and wanted to know if anyone knew how to combine these two scripts together?

This lets me prepend text to the start of all the select actions. So I am trying to not only prepend a new action priority at the start of a task but also remove the old priority quickly on all the selected actions.

Whpalmer4 helped me with this before.

[CODE]--Prepend text to select actions
--http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=101754#post101754

tell application "System Events" to key code 49 --Spacebar which causes OmniFocus to duplicate task and mark as complete
delay 0.3
property prependText : "[Dropped] "

tell application "OmniFocus"
tell front document
tell document window 1
set theActions to selected trees of content
set theActionCount to count of theActions
if (theActionCount > 0) then

--set actionPrepend to prependText

repeat with actionCycle from 1 to theActionCount
set actionName to value of (item actionCycle of theActions)
set name of actionName to prependText & name of actionName
end repeat
else
display alert "No content selected!"
end if
end tell
end tell
end tell
[/CODE]


Here is the code that works on one action at a time

[CODE](*
try
set modifierkeysPressed to true
repeat while modifierkeysPressed
set modifierkeysPressed to (do shell script "/Library/Scripts/checkModifierKeys") is not "0"
delay 0.2
end repeat

on error
display dialog "You do not have 'checkModifierKeys' installed. "
end try
*)

tell application "OmniFocus" to activate

--this makes it jump to the next field if it is in a field or go to the first one to clear it out so we always start from the action name.
delay 0.4
tell application "System Events" to key code 48 --Tab
delay 0.2
tell application "System Events" to key code 53 --Esacape
delay 0.2
tell application "System Events" to key code 48 --Tab
delay 0.2
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down} -- Copy to clipboard





--http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=163971#p163971


--set omniFocusAction to the clipboard
delay 0.3

set _text to (the clipboard)
do shell script "<<<" & quoted form of _text & " sed -E 's/\\{[0-9]+\\} //'"

set the clipboard to the result


(* Old way but works
set theBarNumber to the clipboard
set the clipboard to (characters 1 through 5 of theBarNumber) as text
*)

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "v" using {command down}
tell application "System Events" to key code 126 using {option down} --Up arrow
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "{1} "

[/CODE]

I am trying to combine them to something like this but am stuck!

[CODE]--Prepend text to select actions
--http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=101754#post101754

tell application "System Events" to key code 49 --Spacebar which causes OmniFocus to duplicate task and mark as complete
delay 0.3
property prependText : "{2} "

tell application "OmniFocus"
tell front document
tell document window 1
set theActions to selected trees of content
set theActionCount to count of theActions
if (theActionCount > 0) then

set actionPrepend to prependText

repeat with actionCycle from 1 to theActionCount
set actionName to value of (item actionCycle of theActions)

--I need to some how get the action name fist and then do the shellscritp and replace the action name with the result
set name of actionName to actionPrepend & name of actionName --I don't quite understand how this line is working
do shell script "<<<" & quoted form of actionName & " sed -E 's/\\{[0-9]+\\} //'"

--set the result to theNewPriority



end repeat
else
display alert "No content selected!"
end if
end tell
end tell
end tell

[/CODE][/QUOTE]

[bump] Any ideas anyone?

So, you've got the part that puts a priority on the beginning:
[QUOTE]set name of actionName to actionPrepend & name of actionName --I don't quite understand how this line is working[/QUOTE]

I don't understand what your shell script is for. If that's to detect the priority already existing, you need to move it *before* the line that puts the new priority on. Otherwise, you'll be sticking a new priority on and then taking it back off again!

In pseudocode:
[QUOTE]
if the name starts with a priority
remove the priority
end if
add a new priority
[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Lizard;128738]So, you've got the part that puts a priority on the beginning:


I don't understand what your shell script is for. If that's to detect the priority already existing, you need to move it *before* the line that puts the new priority on. Otherwise, you'll be sticking a new priority on and then taking it back off again!

In pseudocode:[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply, I have been checking this forum almost daily, I am glad I did because the email got marked as junk by apple mail for some reason.

Anyway the shell script looks at what is in the clipboard and then removes anything after the priority whatever it may be up to the first Word i.e "{1} ", "{2} ", "{3} " etc. The problem is it has to work on the current action rather then all the selected actions.

I am basically trying to:
1) Get the selected action name
2) Run the shell script on it
3) Return the results back to the action name

4) Repeat steps 1-3 for all selected actions.

I'll see what I can work out from your suggestion. Thank you.

Finally got it to work! I made five of these in the attached zip file to make it easy for anyone interested.

[CODE]property prependPriority : "{5} " --Set the priority for your task here

tell application "OmniFocus"

-- Target the content of the front window
tell content of front window

-- Retrieve every selected task
set theTasks to value of every selected tree

-- Notify the user if no tasks are selected
if theTasks = {} then
display alert "Unable to apply priority to selected task names" message "No tasks were selected. Please select one or more OmniFocus tasks and try again." as warning
return
end if

-- Begin looping through the tasks
repeat with currentTask in theTasks

-- Initialize counting variable
set tasksProcessed to 0

-- Begin looping through the tasks
repeat with currentTask in theTasks

-- Target the current task
tell currentTask

-- Retrieve the name of the current task
set theTaskName to name

do shell script "<<<" & quoted form of theTaskName & " sed -E 's/\\{[0-9]+\\} //'"

set thePriority to the result

set name to the "" & prependPriority & "" & thePriority & ""


-- Increment the number of tasks processed
set tasksProcessed to tasksProcessed + 1

end tell
end repeat

end repeat

-- Notify the user how many tasks were processed
set theAlert to "" & tasksProcessed & " tasks were set to the priority: " & prependPriority & ""

display alert theAlert


end tell
end tell[/CODE]

Here is an update to the perspectives with icons and a new priority of 0 to remove the priority.

[url]http://reference.Studioprime.com/forums/OmniFocus/Priority_with_Perspectives.zip[/url]

[QUOTE=skillet;129142]Here is an update to the perspectives with icons and a new priority of 0 to remove the priority.

[url]http://reference.Studioprime.com/forums/OmniFocus/Priority_with_Perspectives.zip[/url][/QUOTE]

Skillet - Just wanted to say thank you for this script. It seems like it is really going to improve my workflow

[QUOTE=gcrump;129419]Skillet - Just wanted to say thank you for this script. It seems like it is really going to improve my workflow[/QUOTE]

So glad to hear it, I hoped it would be beneficial to someone else too.