Send Outgoing Mail Messages not working

Question

I'm having trouble with a workflow that creates a new mail message, gets specified iCal items, creates a summary text file, attaches to mail message and then sends mail message. Everything is working except the mail message does not get sent. There are no logged error messages. I've experimented with changing up the order of the actions and noticed that when I place "Send Outgoing Messages" directly after "New Mail Message", the message gets sent without a problem. However in order for my workflow to make sense I need to have many intermediary steps before I trigger the send messages action.
Any clues on this problem. Thanks in advance.
  Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

Answer 1

Cascanuit-
I'm relatively new to Automator as well and by no means a programmer. It does seem that the iCal actions available are pretty meager. I did a search at www.automatorworld.com and there are a few additional actions but none that call out specific menu items.
Another way to approach your desired workflow is to create an applescript that selects Export... from the File Menu. I know very little beyond the basics of applescript but I did cobble together the following:
tell application "iCal" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell application process "iCal"
set frontmost to true
click menu item "Export…" of menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1
delay 4
tell application "System Events"
keystroke return
end tell
end tell
end tell
Here's the weird part. This script works, but only sporadically. Sometimes it stalls at the selection of the Export button in the dialog box. I have no idea why it sometimes works and other times fails.
If someone could refine this script to make it bullet proof than you can simply incorporate it as an automator workflow and then save the created export file to another volume or anywhere you like.
Hope this helps some.