MarkPalmer Posted March 27, 2002 Report Share Posted March 27, 2002 Hi, I am trying to set up Retrospect to send warnings via e-mail. I have edited the Retrospect Event Handler AppleScript to include my e-mail, but it then fails to compile because it cannot find the Mail AppleEvent Dictionary. Does anyone have any idea where this is or how I can fix. Cheers Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amccarty Posted March 28, 2002 Report Share Posted March 28, 2002 Mark- I don't know that it matters, but I had the same problem. I had upgraded from the preview version on OS X 10.1.2. I tried upgrading OS X to 10.1.3, and this didn't fix my problem. Out of desire to wipe the plate clean (and fix a slew of other problems) I backed up the machine and reinstalled OS X, and ran Software Update to get everything updated. I just reinstalled Retrospect and my event handler is working fine, was able to compile, etc. I say it might not matter because reinstalling OS X may seem like a drastic step, but it's common practice where I work when we update a major software package like this. HTH -Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pweil Posted April 8, 2002 Report Share Posted April 8, 2002 Has anyone seen this little item tucked away in the Dantz KB? "Retrospect Backup 5.0 running under Mac OS X can only trigger AppleScript events when launched manually. The Retrospect Event Handler is not triggered when the application is automatically launched. To trigger Event Handlers for scheduled operations under Mac OS X, including email notifications and Backup Server reports, launch Retrospect manually and always leave it running." So now we have to leave Retrospect running to generate e-mail reports under X? Why wasn't this included in the ReadMe??!! Doesn't sound like progress to me..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrenaS Posted April 10, 2002 Report Share Posted April 10, 2002 We have reported this problem to Apple, and until they fix it, there's nothing that Retrospect can do. Unfortunately, this was discovered after the documentation was finalized, so it didn't make it in the Readme. It's certainly something we'd like to see fixed. Irena Solomon Dantz Tech Support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oli Posted May 17, 2002 Report Share Posted May 17, 2002 As noted on another post on that topic: this bug does not only interfere with E-Mail notification. Because of the AppleScript handler not working, it's not possible to backup running FileMaker databases. If the AppleScript Event Handlers would have been included in the Beta, I'd have found that bug on day one of use (okay, probably not on the first day, but pretty soon ;-). Maybe that would have given Dantz/Apple more time to find a solution for the released version. For the E-Mail notification itself: I do not understand why Retrospect still needs AppleScript for these operations, when it either should have its own mail sender capability or use UNIX tools like sendmail to accomplish this task. BTW, why don't you allow the Retrospect background task to execute any shell script? That could be very helpful... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm McLeary Posted July 5, 2002 Report Share Posted July 5, 2002 I'm running 10.1.5 with the AppleScript Update 1.8.3 and Retrospect appears to be able to send me email alerts when it automatically starts and performs backups on schedule. What I don't like is the dependance on Mail.app. I'd prefer to have a dedicated mailsender utility or simply use sendmail. I really don't like the way Mail.app is launched and left running. One thing I do to make message distribution simpler is to setup mailing lists on my server for backup-all. backup-ok, backup-error and backup-media. I then set the retroeventhandler to use these addresses and manage who gets what without having to revisit retroeventhandler. Is it likely that email alerts can be handled in a completely faceless fashion in the future? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowspawn Posted July 5, 2002 Report Share Posted July 5, 2002 > For the E-Mail notification itself: I do not understand why Retrospect > still needs AppleScript for these operations, [...] Because AppleScript is a general solution that works on 9 and X, and instead of limiting the power users to what Retrospect supports, lets the power users do whatever they can work out. Makes some sense to let the people who want custom behaviour do the customising, with some helpful examples to get started. > BTW, why don't you allow the Retrospect background task to > execute any shell script? That could be very helpful... Or wait for Apple to add it to AppleScript and get it for free: do shell script "insert unix command here" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oli Posted July 5, 2002 Report Share Posted July 5, 2002 John, 1.) I don't see why I have to become an AppleScript expert just to be able to have basic E-Mail notification done by Retrospect. That should be Retrospect's responsibility, not mine. I have better things to do in life, really. 2.) Any AppleScript/Third-party-mail-client based solution is unreliable and needs to leave the server running with an open user account. This is not what servers are supposed to do. Try that with a remote XServe. 3.) To add AppleScript as an additional layer between Retrospect and shell script execution also adds another layer of unpredictability and software dependency. Why would you want that? The less software used, the less problems you have. 4.) Retrospect's way of doing E-Mail notification is pretty unreliable and uninformative per se. E.g. when an error occurs, why does it not send the log, and if it needs new media, why does it not mail a Media Request. I investigated both and was not able to accomplish it via the AppleScript Mail Handler. 5.) If Retrospect allowed to execute shell commands directly, AFAIK, you could also run AppleScripts from the shell. So you'd have the same kind of flexibility... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadowspawn Posted July 5, 2002 Report Share Posted July 5, 2002 Firstly: a) I think allowing a shell script based event handler is a good idea. I would like more email/scripting messages (especially media requests). I posted because I thought some comments were a bit unix-centric, and I wanted to give Dantz credit for supporting customisation from early on. (Apologies my previous message sounded harsh, wasn't intended!) So I'm not claiming AppleScript is better than shell script, but do want to note that AppleScript on Mac OS X is a first-class native scripting language. IMHO Retrospect should support both. :-) Likewise I'm not claiming using AppleScript (or shell script) to send email is nice. But it does avoid tying the messaging to a particular product. So in addition to Retrospect adding scripting support for media requests and access to the matching log entries for all messages, the shell script message handler should include a sendmail example. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm McLeary Posted August 3, 2002 Report Share Posted August 3, 2002 I'm going to take back some of what I posted last time. It would appear that it works for me ONLY when a user is not logged in. If I'm logged in and Retrospect auto launches then the Event Handler does not do its thing. Perhaps 10.2 will resolve this. I still dislike using Mail.app. I also dislike the way none of this runs faceless when auto launch happens when a user is not logged in. I'd really prefer nothing to popup behind the login prompt. Anyway, since I dislike using Mail.app I have beeen toying with a couple of alternatives ... I have a collegue who is into Java programming so he has written a small java app which can be called from the Event Handler in place of Mail.app. The syntax is a little different so I have a tailored version of Event Handler to drive it. We'll probably call it mailsndr.jar to be a little consistant with Retrospect for Windows (i.e. mailsndr.exe). The solution I'm working on extents the supplied FileMaker database to not only collect volume backup details, but to compose the mail messages and send them via a FileMaker SMTP plugin. I intend to extend the FileMaker database to also generate html files so similar functionality to that provided by the Windows Utility "ReportsWatcher" is available under MacOS. Presently I have FileMaker Pro installed, but my intention is to build a runtime version so FileMaker Pro won't be needed. The advantage of both of these is that only SMTP is used ... no POP or IMAP accounts are needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CallMeDave Posted August 3, 2002 Report Share Posted August 3, 2002 In reply to: If I'm logged in and Retrospect auto launches then the Event Handler does not do its thing. It's not about being logged in or not. It's about auto-launching or not. Retrospect does not talk to the Event Handler AppleScript when it's auto-launched, but it does when it's launched via the Finder or the Dock. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malcolm McLeary Posted August 3, 2002 Report Share Posted August 3, 2002 In reply to: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's not about being logged in or not. It's about auto-launching or not. Retrospect does not talk to the Event Handler AppleScript when it's auto-launched, but it does when it's launched via the Finder or the Dock. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I beg to differ. I've just tried it again. I set a backup to happen in a couple of minutes , quit Retrospect and logged off. After an appropriate delay, Retrospect launched behind the login window, Event Handler launched and opened FileMaker 6.0 and my database, Retrospect did its backup, recorded backup details in the FileMaker database which then composed a mail message and sent it. From: Administrator Date: Sat, 03 Aug 2002 14:07:50 +1000 To: Administrator Subject: Script completed successfully Report generated by Retrospect. Source: Local Desktop:MacOS X [Desktop]:Projects Action: Normal backup Target: Projects Started on: Saturday, 3 August 2002 2:07:45 PM Finished on: Saturday, 3 August 2002 2:07:45 PM 0 files (0 KB) in 0 seconds. Projects finished with no errors. Retrospect then cleaned up and both Event Handler and FileMaker 6.0 quit. I was having a similar experience with Mail.app. It appears to me that the autolaunch issue is a problem when you are logged in. Cheers, Malcolm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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