Script to burst digests

[Allen Watson]

Title: Script to burst digests

on 10/30/2000 5:23 AM, David at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> I just subscribed late last week to the Mac Word list. Knowing it was sent
> in digest form, and hating digests, I set up a rule to burst it into a
> folder.
>
> I've received - I think - four digests but I'm not sure. So far nothing has
> wound up in the folder I assigned it to burst into but I've received 4
> messages to my Inbox. Each one has had no subject line and the header has
> been garbage. The text of this no subject message has been a partial message
> - just a few lines. Until this morning I've seen little more than a
> signature. Today I saw a tagline saying -End Word Digest-
>
> Anyone receiving the Mac Word list successfully? Anyone bursting digests
> successfully?
>
I have been received the Word list digest without problems, unburst, using MLM to file it in a folder. I wrote a script that will burst the digest on demand, so I could assign it to a keyboard shortcut. I prefer scanning the table of contents to see if there are messages I want to read before bursting. The script to "manually" burst a digest is simple, and uses the built-in “burst” command of Entourage:

--- Burst Digests ---
--- Allen Watson, 10/30/2000, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

set doDialog to false -- Suppress dialog; set to true if you want report at end
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
    activate
    set theList to current messages
    if (count of theList) is 0 then
        display dialog "Nothing selected."
        return
    end if
    repeat with theMsg in theList
        if class of theMsg is not incoming message then
            display dialog "Bursting only works on incoming messages."
            return
        end if
        
        set msgProduced to burst theMsg
        set msgCount to count of msgProduced
        if msgCount < 1 then
            display dialog "The message does not seem to be a digest."
            return
        else
            if doDialog then display dialog ("Burst " & msgCount & " messages")
            try
                set read status of theMsg to read
                delete theMsg
            end try
        end if
    end repeat
end tell
--- End script ---

If you set doDialog to true, the script reports how many messages were burst from the digest. It will move the digest message to deleted mail and mark it read. You may find some digests that still do not follow standards and will not burst properly (e.g., the MACSCRPT digest). I have found the built-in burst command now works on listserv and OneList digests. If you select several digest messages the script will burst them all.
--
Peace,
Allen Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> XNS name: =Allen Watson
A Mac family since 1984
My web page: <http://home.earthlink.net/~allenwatson/>