(Archived) AppleScript: get current note?

[christianboyce 3]

I am trying to use AppleScript to fill in the Author, Latitude, Longitude, and Altitude information for notes I make on my desktop Mac. I know exactly where it is, and I'm the only one who will create Evernote notes on it, so the information is always going to be the same. I could easily AppleScript the info into a selected note but I can't figure out how to "get" the selected or current note.

Is there a way?

Of course this information would be better as a preference (I would set default values for author, latitude, longitude, and altitude and change them if I had to, on a note-by-note basis), but lacking that an AppleScript is a pretty good Plan B. But I'm stuck at Step 1 of Plan B.

[RobLewis 26]

Sadly, Evernote's AppleScript API has some significant gaps, including the "standard suite" and "required suite" of operations.

Until they fix this (soon, please!), you might be able to cobble something together using the "find notes" verb. I found this seems to work:

tell application "Evernote"

set note_list to find notes "Some search text"

set latitude of item 1 of note_list to 100.0

end tell

If you use a search string that you are sure is unique, then find notes will return just the one note you want.

[RobLewis 26]

Oops. Pay no attention to the fact that "100" is an illegal value for latitude :-)

Maybe Evernote should check for errors like this? Or maybe not, in case somebody wants to poke some other value besides an actual latitude in this field.

[christianboyce 3]

The problem with this is I'd have to have something to search for, which I'm not likely to do on a brand-new note. I can't write a script (with its own unique search string) for each note. Easier to just fill in the note's info by hand.

Evernote guys: can we have a preference to set a default author, latitude, longitude, and altitude? Would be very handy. I would bet you that for most notes, those fields are blank-- because it's too much trouble to fill them in. Let's do it automatically.

[Veritrope 3]

My guess is that we will see some attention being paid to automatically adding lat/long info from the Desktop sooner rather than later:

http://www.geardiary.com/2009/06/16/evernote-podcast-offers-some-insight-into-what-iphone-3-0-really-means/

Until that (happy) day, how did you envision the AppleScript working?

-- "Menu-driven" way to select notebook and note to edit?

-- Lat/Long/Alt. info that persists within a session?

Am I missing anything?

[RobLewis 26]

I could be wrong, but I always assumed that Lat and Lon would be extracted from the Exif tags (or other geographic metadata) if the note being created included an image.

[Veritrope 3]

Rob,

That would be a good one for a "Feature Request":

http://www.evernote.com/about/contact/suggest.php

And while you're at it, asking them to show AppleScript a little more love in a near-term release probably wouldn't hurt!

[engberg 89]

We plan to do something with Core Location on the Mac at some point, which would potentially allow geo-tagging as you move around with your laptop. I don't have a date for when we'll start working on this ... I think we'll want to confirm that the results would work well, etc.

[christianboyce 3]

I keep asking for a preference to set a default location and author for notes that I create, but I don't think I've had anyone from Evernote say "that's a good idea, we'll file it under a feature request." For the record, it IS a good idea, but maybe I'm asking in the wrong forum. Where should I be sending this request?

Geotagging is nice but it's overkill for a desktop Mac. Every single note is going to be created in the same location (my living room). Every single note that is created in my living room will be created by me (I have the only key to the house). One might think that if all of the notes are going to have the same location and author info that it would not be useful, but in my case I share an Evernote account with someone in another location, and it would be super to be able to have that author and location information. That way, if I have a question about a note, I'll know whether to ask her or ask myself.

So... where should I be directing my plea for a preference that sets a default location and author?

[engberg 89]

This is the place, we hear you. It's filed to the Mac, and Geech is working through the list diligently.

[christianboyce 3]

Hey, that's great. Thanks a lot.

[rbl100 1]

I just fetched version 1.10.1 I still don't see a Preference or means to set the default geo location. How is that action coming?

[engberg 89]

Someone has been working on AppleScript additions this week, although I don't know specifically which operations/fields/etc.

[rbl100 1]

That's encouraging but I would hope a Preference is part of the solution to setting the default location as well as a possible AppleScript action.

Thanks for the reply,