AppleScript and Gmail: How to Open Emails and Click Links
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I’ve been asked by a few people recently how to automate their responses to automated emails. I set up this code a little while back originally to work with an auto posting script I created to post to Craigslist. ( I wasn’t spamming I was renting an apartment)
This searches Gmail for an email, or subject line. If your search term matches then it opens the email.
After the email is open it will look for a link that you specify. For example if you are looking to click on something that says “Click here to confirm your post”, you could search for “click here” and it will click on that link.
Also, this is slightly advanced, and should be used in conjunction with my other AppleScript tutorials . If you have not already please check those out first.
to clicktagName(thetagName, elementnum) tell application "Safari" do JavaScript "document.getElementsByTagName('" & thetagName & "')[" & elementnum & "].click();" in document 1 end tell end clicktagName to getInputBytagName(thetag, num) -- defines a function with two inputs, thetag and num tell application "Safari" --tells AS that we are going to use Safari set input to do JavaScript " document.getElementsByTagName('" & thetag & "')[" & num & "].innerHTML;" in document 1 -- uses JavaScript to set the variable input to the information we want end tell return input --tells the function to return the value of the variable input end getInputBytagName to clicktag(tagName, num) tell application "Safari" set input to do JavaScript " var tagName = '" & tagName & "'; var num = '" & num & "'; var x = document.getElementsByTagName(tagName)[num].click();" in document 1 end tell end clicktag -- this searches for the email in Gmail set x to 0 -- start number set tagName to "span" set searchTerm to "example@theDomainName.com" -- you have to change this to something that identifies the email you are looking for. repeat 1000 times -- how many time you want to repeat this set trialInnerHTML to getInputBytagName(tagName, x) -- pulls content from "a" tags if trialInnerHTML = searchTerm then clicktag(tagName, x) exit repeat end if set x to x + 1 -- goes to the next "a" tag end repeat delay 5 -- this searches the email for the link set x to 0 -- start number set tagName to "a" set searchTerm to "add your name to this Availability Request" repeat 500 times -- how many time you want to repeat this set trialInnerHTML to getInputBytagName(tagName, x) -- pulls content from "a" tags if trialInnerHTML = searchTerm then clicktag(tagName, x) exit repeat end if set x to x + 1 -- goes to the next "a" tag end repeat
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This is great thanks!
Thank you!
This is great thanks!
Thank you!
Hi, thanks for all the examples and explanations. I’ve got a similar problem that I am STRUGGLING to solve. I receive a lot of Gmail notifications from google, as people set up new accounts and choose mine as their secondary account. I can’t keep up with all the mail. i’d like to make a script to automatically parse the emails from google, find the relevant link and click on the submit button. I Didn’t quite understand this script – does it iterate trough all the elements in gmail to find the search term? perhaps you could explain it more thoroughly? thanks a lot, you’re doing quite a nice job here.
Hey Jeferson! Thanks, yes it iterates over the page to find the search term and then clicks on it. The search term it is assuming is a link to open the email so when it finds it, the script clicks it.
Hi, thanks for all the examples and explanations. I’ve got a similar problem that I am STRUGGLING to solve. I receive a lot of Gmail notifications from google, as people set up new accounts and choose mine as their secondary account. I can’t keep up with all the mail. i’d like to make a script to automatically parse the emails from google, find the relevant link and click on the submit button. I Didn’t quite understand this script – does it iterate trough all the elements in gmail to find the search term? perhaps you could explain it more thoroughly? thanks a lot, you’re doing quite a nice job here.
Hey Jeferson! Thanks, yes it iterates over the page to find the search term and then clicks on it. The search term it is assuming is a link to open the email so when it finds it, the script clicks it.