Node-iMessage – Query iMessage from terminal and Node.js

by nicolagreco • 12 years ago

81 24 12 years ago

RoseO2• 12 years ago

I wrote a little bash script to allow for the sending of iMessages and made a little API in Node so I could send service status messages across all my devices easily.

It's probably not possible to do this in pure Node but if it's of interest here is the gist: https://gist.github.com/roldershaw/7311547

Now I can see iMessage chatbots being made :P

quarterto2• 12 years ago

You could probably do this with node-applescript[0].

EDIT: ...which appears to be a simple wrapper around osascript.

[0] https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-applescript

madeofpalk2• 12 years ago

There's now also the official Javascript for Automation[1], however I'm not sure how much that ties in with node.

[1] https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/releasenotes/Interap...

aktau• 12 years ago

Cool, I have something similar cobbled together: http://www.aktau.be/2014/02/12/send-imessages-via-the-comman...

The gist version should even be able to handle input from stdin: https://gist.github.com/aktau/8958054

Like this: ./imessage <number> < notes.txt

I use it quite often :). The most difficult thing to me was getting it to work even when Messages.app wasn't started. Applescript is quite frustrating for someone who's never dealt with it before. This was on Mavericks though, not sure if that's still a problem on Yosemite. Does your version have problems with that?

RoseO2• 12 years ago

That's pretty cool, I never bothered handling actually starting the Messages app because I was just running it in a VM and assumed it would always work on startup.

I don't use this anymore because I've ditched my iPhone.

filipedeschamps2• 12 years ago

Genuine question: I'm seeing a lot of innovation coming from Node.js projects, some of them useful, some of them not, but even though when not, they're really creative.

I'm new to programing and I'm wondering if this happened in the past for other technologies when they were released. Did they reached the same spectrum?

Best regards.

_mikz• 12 years ago

Reading SQLite database is innovation?

filipedeschamps2• 12 years ago

Well, I can't answer your question. What I can say is I found this thread on Hacker News first page.

matthewmacleod• 12 years ago

I'm curious what you mean by that. This is basically a wrapper around the iMessage SQLite database – it could equally well have been implemented in Ruby, or Python, or Go. Projects like this always seem to be implemented in whatever environment the developer wants to use, which is great, but not really relevant.

I don't see any particularly interesting innovation from Node.js projects when compared with any other similar community.

jekrb• 12 years ago

I know what you mean when something could have been implemented in X, Y, or Z language, but I too, have noticed some really interesting projects in Node.js.

One of my favorites is torrent-mount. It allows me to use virtual machines directly from a torrent stream, rather than first downloading the entire vm.

https://github.com/mafintosh/torrent-mount

poolpool• 12 years ago

NPM has a very innovative approach to package management

pdpi• 12 years ago

How so? Nothing about it has struck me as being particularly unusual.

mattgreenrocks• 12 years ago

Other languages certainly had their share of creative hacks.

But I think Node's packages are coming in at a faster rate, and they're more publicized.

emehrkay• 12 years ago

I've been programming since the early 2000s and I would say that Node's growth/popularity is unmatched. There are a combination of things that makes that a reality though: you have JavaScript's growth on the back of what Google shown Ajax could do, then you have Github, then you have Nodejs itself which allowed more people to participate because of the "ease" of JavaScript.

From my vantage point, Node is poised to replace Java as the write-once, run anywhere platform. Well, as long as that platform has Webkit running.

nicolagreco2• 12 years ago

Thanks everyone for the support. Not sure about `innovation`, but hope this abstracts iMessage nicely for developers that want to focus on the main product ;) or want to do quick and dirty little hacks, My 2c.

BaconJuice• 12 years ago

how does this work? How does it get the iMessage data from let say an iPhone? Or is this for Mac users only?

tlack• 12 years ago

Looks like iMessage for Mac stores the messages it receives in an SQLite database. This app simply reads and queries that database. See here: https://github.com/nicola/node-imessage/blob/master/index.js...

bkurtz13• 12 years ago

Shouldn't be asking people to upvote in the README.

nicolagreco2• 12 years ago

You have a good point, updated.

Node-iMessage – Query iMessage from terminal and Node.js

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