How do I use Display Dialog to get back a date?

Question

Can anyone tell me how to use Display Dialog to get back a date?
I am using the following code that does not work. It does not accept anything.  And I have searched high and low for an answer to my question and found nothing.
repeat
       display dialog "When should I remind you (date)?" default answer ""
       try
             if the text returned of the result is not "" then
                    set the requested_text to the date returned of the result as date
                    exit repeat
            end if
       on error
           beep
end try
endrepeat
display dialog requested_text
The code is based on what I found in AppleScript 1-2-3 (page 300). It shows examples for getting text and numbers but not one for dates.
For what it is worth, my goal is to create a script that will convert an email from Evernote into an iCal Reminder. To do so, I want to ask the user (myself) for the reminder's date and time. I am assuming I need to ask for each separately. I also assume that once I get the date and time for the reminder, it should be relatively straightforward to 'make' a 'todo' with an alarm.
Thanks in advance.
-David

Answer 1

Hi David,
Try this:
repeat
    set theCurrentDate to current date
    display dialog "When should I remind you (date)?" default answer (date string of theCurrentDate & space & time string of theCurrentDate)
    set theText to text returned of result
    try
        if theText is not "" then
            set theDate to date theText -- a date object
            exit repeat
        end if
    on error
        beep
    end try
end repeat
display dialog (date string of theDate & space & time string of theDate)
You might also have a look at this page of the AppleScript Language Guide.
Message was edited by: Pierre L.