Automatic event creation in iCal

Question

I'd like to be able to create a standard set of events in iCal whose dates are based on another event.
For a simplified example, if I have a meeting on Wednesday, I'd like to be able to run a script of some sort to add: "Confirm Appt" 2 days before, "Collect Papers" 1 day before, and "Followup" 1 week after.
I've tried putting something together in Automator, but the existing actions don't allow for this kind of event creation. The closest I came up with was series of prompts with the correct event titles, but with predetermined rather than relative dates.
Anyone know of a utility or script, or Automator add-on that could do this? Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi,
Hope you haven't done this manually yet!
Try:
1) Find Events in iCal
- Find "Events"
- Whose "Calendar" is "School Days" and whose "Summary" is equal to "A Day"
2) Run AppleScript
on run {input, parameters}
set letterday_startdates to {}
repeat with i from 1 to count of the input
set letter_day to item i of the input
tell application "iCal"
set letterday_startdates to (letterday_startdates & (start date of the letter_day))
end tell
end repeat
repeat with i from 1 to count of letterday_startdates
set letterday_startdate to item i of letterday_startdates
-- Class 1
set Class1_Start to (date "9:25 am" in letterday_startdate)
set Class1_End to (date "10:15 am" in letterday_startdate)
-- Class 2
set Class2_Start to (date "2:00 pm" in letterday_startdate)
set Class2_End to (date "2:45 pm" in letterday_startdate)
tell application "iCal"
tell calendar "School Days"
make new event at the end of events with properties {summary:"Class 1", start date:Class1_Start, end date:Class1_End}
make new event at the end of events with properties {summary:"Class 2", start date:Class2_Start, end date:Class2_End}
end tell
end tell
end repeat
return input
end run
You would then either have to change the class times in the AppleScript for each A-G day, or make 7 different workflows with the same actions, just configured for each school day. For example, workflow A has "A Day" in the first action and the times for A Day classes in the run applescript. Workflow B has "B Day" in the first action and the times for B Day classes in the run applescript, etc.
Hope it helps!