Auto-accept iChat screen sharing sessions
I went to Europe for three weeks this summer, and wanted a way to be able to grab things from my iMac while I was away. I figured out how to alter the Auto-Accept script in iChat to enable remote screen sharing as well, so that I could start a remote session without confirmation.Input the code below into Script Editor, and save it as Auto Accept modified.applescript in /Library » Scripts » iChat. using terms from application "iChat" on received text invitation theText from theBuddy for theChat accept theChat end received text invitation on received audio invitation theText from theBuddy for theChat accept theChat end received audio invitation on received video invitation theText from theBudd...
published on Wednesday, the 29. October 2008, macosxhints
Automatically reconnect iChat if connection drops
I've had the problem with my iChat Jabber connections (gtalk and yahoo.jabber.org.uk gateway) constantly crashing, causing an error dialog in iChat. Since the Chax add-on no longer seems to support automatically reconnecting to crashed connections in 10.5, I found this great idea for a crontab script to force a reconnection using AppleScript. However, the only problem is that this would start iChat even if it was not running. So I used this slightly extended script to make it check if iChat was running before executing the login command. I added this line to my crontab (via crontab -e or the Cronnix crontab editor) to make it re-run every minute using the command line: * * * * * osascript -e 'tell application "Sy...
published on Thursday, the 28. August 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Automatically set iChat status when in A/V chats
Here is a way to automatically change your status when sending or receiving audio/video invitations. You'll need to create four simple AppleScripts, and save them into your user's Library » Scripts » iChat folder (create the folder if necessary). Open Script Editor (in Applications » AppleScript), then copy and paste these scripts, one at a time, into the Script Editor window. Click the Compile button, then select File » Save As and point to the previously-noted iChat folder. Name them as shown with each scripts code, on the second page of the hint... Script name: iChat invited video.scpt using terms from application "iChat" on received video invitation theText from theBuddy for theChat set status to away set status message to "In conference" end received video invitation end using terms from Script name: iChat invited audio.s...
published on Wednesday, the 14. May 2008, macosxhints
10.5: Create clickable URL status messages in iChat
When people had URLs in their IM status message, it was always a pain to access them in 10.5, since iChat did not allow selecting and copying them, or accessing them directly by clicking.No more! When you see a URL status message in iChat in Leopard, it will show those iTunes Store-like arrows that open the link in your browser by clicking.[robg adds: Interestingly, iChat will respond to file:/// links, though it won't seemingly open applications -- just the folder that contains those applications. This page, however, indicates that it's possible to run an AppleScript directly from a URL, which might have interesting implications for links (not just in iChat, of course).]
published on Tuesday, the 13. November 2007, macosxhints
10.5: Auto accept any chat request in iChat
In 10.4, you had to use Chax to allow auto-acceptance of chats in iChat (there is a way to auto-accept video chats, but that's it).In 10.5, there's a new "Run AppleScript" feature in the Alerts section of iChat's preferences. I was going to use that to write a simple AppleScript to press the Return button in the dialog that appears when you receive a chat invitation. After checking the box to enable AppleScripts with text chat invitations, I got a surprise when I clicked the drop-down menu: Apple's already done the work!When you enable the Run AppleScript feature, you'll see you can pick from three already-created AppleScripts: Auto Accept, Auto Reject, and iTunes Remote Control. Pick the event you'd like to modify (text, audio...
published on Thursday, the 1. November 2007, macosxhints
Change iChat picture based on status via AppleScript
I wrote a small AppleScript called iChatStatusImage (42KB download) that monitors my iChat status and changes my picture based on that status. The script needs to run in the background, but it?s got a pretty small footprint. If you know of a way to make it even smaller, feel free to let me know. It's very simple to use -- unzip the archive and replace the JPG files in the folder with JPG files of your choosing. I recommend keeping the images to around 100x100 pixels in size (iChat will resize them to 28x28). It is very important that you have these four JPG files in the same folder as the iChatStatusImage application: available.jpg away.jpg idle.jpg offline.jpg If you don't, the application will die (it won't hurt anything though); it's not fancy enough to be graceful. Double-click the application to start it, or add it to your ...
published on Tuesday, the 13. February 2007, macosxhints
Use a miniaturized Buddy List in iChat
If you don't like to use iChat's menu extra and you regularly hide your unsightly buddy list, then you're a lot like me. And like me you're probably sick of constantly unhiding the buddy list just to get at your status. I thought it might be better if I could scale the window such that buddies are hidden but the other controls remain accessible, much like the "zoomed" mini-player in iTunes: iChat's stock resizing-widget prevents you from doing this manually, but you can make it happen with a one-line AppleScript I wrote: tell application "iChat" to tell (a reference to the bounds of window "Buddy List") to set contents to (items 1 thru 3 of (get contents) & (item 2 of (get contents)) + 94) There are about a million ways to execute scripts, so I'll leave that part up to you. This will only change the vertical height of the buddy list window, while le...
published on Tuesday, the 6. June 2006, macosxhints