Why is this AppleScript idle timer not triggering correctly? - applescript

Question

I am trying to create a timer that increments at a certain time (in this case, whenever the time is xx:03:24) and sends a notification when it reaches a user-inputted value. Once it does so, it resets the increment and repeats until manually quit.
However, this code is not reliably triggering when it is supposed to. Does anyone have a guess as to why?
on quit
continue quit
end quit
tell application "Notifications Scripting"
set event handlers script path to (path to me)
end tell
global actions, newActions
using terms from application "Notifications Scripting"
on notification activated
tell application "Safari"
activate
set winlist to every window
repeat with win in winlist
set numtabs to 0
try
set tablist to every tab of win
set numtabs to length of tablist
end try
if numtabs is greater than 0 then
repeat with t in tablist
if "fallenlondon.storynexus.com" is in (URL of t as string) then
tell application "System Events"
tell window id (id of win as integer) of application "Safari" to set current tab to tab (index of t as integer)
end tell
end if
end repeat
end if
end repeat
end tell
end notification activated
end using terms from
display dialog "How many actions do you want to build up before being notified?" default answer "1"
set actions to (text returned of result) as number
set newActions to 0
on idle
if ((seconds of (current date)) = 24) and ((minutes of (current date)) mod 10 = 3) then
set newActions to (newActions + 1)
set delayTime to 540
else
set delayTime to 0.5
end if
if newActions ≥ actions then
if newActions = 1 then
tell application "Notifications Scripting" to display notification "Fallen London" message "You have " & newActions & " new action!" sound name "Glass"
else
tell application "Notifications Scripting" to display notification "Fallen London" message "You have " & newActions & " new actions!" sound name "Glass"
end if
set newActions to 0
end if
return delayTime
end idle

Answer 1

I would not expect your idle implementation to work reliably. It is not a precision timing mechanism; therefore the following assumption is unsound:
if ((seconds of (current date)) = 24) and ((minutes of (current date)) mod 10 = 3) then
You're attempting to hit a 1-second window in a 10-minute loop here, and if you miss that window it'll be another 10 minutes till you get to try again.
A reliable way to do it is to store a date representing the time upon which to next trigger, then periodically check if the current date is now after that date and trigger if it does:
to nextTriggerDate() -- returns next xx:x3:23 date
set d to current date
set {d's minutes, d's seconds} to {((d's minutes) div 10 * 10) + 3, 23}
if d < (current date) then set d to d + 10 * minutes
d
end nextTriggerDate
property _triggerDate : nextTriggerDate()
on idle
if (current date) > _triggerDate then
set _triggerDate to nextTriggerDate()
-- DO STUFF HERE...
end if
return 1
end idle
Alternatively, you could use NSTimer via the AppleScript-ObjC bridge, which is designed specifically for this type of task, or set up a launchd script to run an AppleScript on the specified times if you don't want to be tied to a stay-open applet.

Answer 2

I think you have a few things working against you with your code.
First thing to note is that only the code within the idle handler will be called on each idle event. In other words, if you're expecting the main body of your script to run with each idle process, it will not.
try this as an example...
on run
display dialog "hello!" giving up after 3
end run
on idle
display dialog "Idle test!" giving up after 3
return 5
on idle
When you save the code above as a stay open script, you'll get one dialog that says "hello" then you'll get the "Idle test!" message several times, until you quit the script. Remember to save it as "Stay Open"
To fix this, if you expect all the code outside of the idle handler to run, create a custom function from it that you call from your idle handler.
on yourCustomFunction()
-- All the code you want to run prior when the idle function is called
end yourCustomFunction
on idle
yourCustomFunction()
-- any other additional code you want to run here
return 5
end idle
Another thing I'd like to point out. You don't need to tell application "Notifications Scripting", you can just display notification as shown below.
on idle
if ((seconds of (current date)) = 24) and ((minutes of (current date)) mod 10 = 3) then
set newActions to (newActions + 1)
set delayTime to 540
else
set delayTime to 0.5
end if
if newActions ≥ actions then
if newActions = 1 then
display notification "You have " & newActions & " new action!" with title "Fallen London" sound name "Glass"
else
display notification "You have " & newActions & " new actions!" with title "Fallen London" sound name "Glass"
end if
set newActions to 0
end if
return delayTime
end idle
Lastly, I would recommend adding an on run handler rather than just writing your code in the script without it.