AppleScript returns error on defining date

applescript

my following code returns an error

tell current application
    set b to "Tuesday 12 April 2016 at 18:06:10"
    date b
end tell

If I would write the string, defined in b, directly before date, it is working, but my date string is defined by some variables, so b is just an example for the string, how it looks like.

But why does AppleScript returns the error, only because of the string is defined in a variable?

Best Answer

Try:

set dateString to "Tuesday, April 12, 2016 at 12:00:00 AM"
set dateReference to date dateString

tell current application
    -- insert commands here
end tell

Another approach:

set y to 2001
set m to 6
set d to 12
set h to 12
set min to 12
set s to 12

set cd to current date
tell cd
    set its year to y
    set its month to m
    set its day to d
    set its hours to h
    set its minutes to min
    set its seconds to s
end tell

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You can do what you are trying to do using the killall command and referring directly to the application's name.

repeat
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Date calculation in AppleScript. Week numbers and their start date

Thanks to @ryan-m's comment I found a solution. Turns out date(1) is actually really cool. Its ability to do "adjustments" were the answer.

You can tell date to simply "go to" a specific day by using -v. You can then use plus and minus to "adjust" that date in another -v. So for instance:

date -v 1w -v 16y

Will go to the first month of 2016. (Or a date that contains that date)

With an adjustment we can walk through dates:

date -v +1w -v +0d -v 16y
date -v +1w -v +6d -v 16y

This goes to the first week of 2016. The second command goes from the beginning of that first week 6 days ahead. This is the 10th of January 2016. -v +2w would be the second week, and so forth. It's apparent which part can be automated here.

Everything that +'string' at the end does is it formats the date you're at in the way you want it displayed. I use this in my script to make a date-string that AppleScript's date command understands. Please don't confuse the shell command date(1) with the AppleScript date command.

This is the script I ended up with, by the way:

repeat with weekNumber from 1 to 52
    set weekStartShell to (do shell script "date -v +" & weekNumber & "w -v +0d -v 16y +'%d. %m. %Y'")
    set weekStart to date weekStartShell
    set weekEndShell to do shell script "date -v +" & weekNumber & "w -v +6d -v 16y +'%d. %m. %Y'"
    set weekEnd to date (weekEndShell & " 23:59:59")
    set projectName to (("CW" & weekNumber & ": " & weekStartShell & " - " & weekEndShell) as string)

    tell application "OmniFocus"
        tell folder "Day Projects" of default document
            set projectWeek to make new project with properties {name:projectName, defer date:weekStart, due date:weekEnd, singleton action holder:true}

        end tell
    end tell

end repeat

Note that in order to use AppleScript's set var to date "date-string" you have to give it a string in your locale. In Europe the string is 01. 02. 2016 23:59:59. In America this probably is something like 2016/02/01 23:59:59. You need to modify these in the variables in the script. (+'%Y/%m/%d' at the end)

Best Answer

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