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https://github.com/lazerwalker/hubot-imessage

iMessage adapter for Hubot
https://github.com/lazerwalker/hubot-imessage

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iMessage adapter for Hubot

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README 

        
Hubot iMessage Adapter

----------------------



Description

===========

This is an adapter for Hubot that lets you communicate with Hubot via Apple iMessage.



Installation and Setup

======================



### Requirements

Since Apple doesn't (currently) offer an API for accessing the iMessage protocol,

the only way Hubot can use iMessage is by communicating with Messages.app

through AppleScript. As such, using hubot-imessage requires Hubot to be running

on a machine with OS X 10.8 or newer. You will also need a functioning node.js

installation.



**Warning**: It is possible the current code won't work if you are running Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8). If that's

the case, you should check out the `legacy-support` tag. (If you can confirm or deny

this, chiming in on the relevant [issue page](https://github.com/lazerwalker/hubot-imessage/pull/4)

would be appreciated.)



### Installation



Download the [latest version of Hubot](https://github.com/github/hubot/archive/master.zip)

(more info at https://github.com/github/hubot). Extract it somewhere, and then

add both `hubot` and `hubot-imessage` to the dependency section of your `package.json`:



    dependencies: {

        // more dependencies here...

        "hubot": ">=1.4.6",

        "hubot-imessage": ">=0.0.1"

    }



You likely also want to add the `hubot-scripts` package as well; see the regular

Hubot documentation for more info.



Run `npm install` to properly install your dependencies.



### Configure Messages.app

At this point, you've got a basic Hubot instance, but the Hubot iMessage adapter

requires some additional setup.



1. You'll need to set up a secondary iMessage account for your Hubot. Sign up for a

new Apple ID at https://appleid.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/MyAppleId.woa/wa/createAppleId

and sign in to it from your desktop Messages.app.



2. In order for Messages.app to properly route conversations to Hubot, it needs to

be set up to run an AppleScript in response to events. Open up Messages.app,

then its Preferences pane from the title menu. Go to the General tab.



3. Select "Open Scripts Folder" from the "AppleScript handler" dropdown.



4. Copy `$HUBOT_PATH/node_modules/hubot-imessage/src/Hubot Event Handler.applescript`

(substitute `$HUBOT_PATH` with the actual path to your Hubot instance) to the

iMessage scripts folder.



5. Open the copy of `Hubot Event Handler.applescript` and replace `$HUBOT_PATH`

with the path to your Hubot instance.



6. In Messages.app, close the Preferences window and re-open it. Select the

"Hubot Event Handler" script from the "AppleScript handler" dropdown.



7. Messages.app is now configured to accept iMessages from any user, but Hubot

will only respond to commands sent from iMessage users in its whitelist.

Hubot reads in a comma-separated list of iMessage IDs from the environment

variable `HUBOT_IMESSAGE_HANDLES` to know who to trust. iMessage IDs typically

take the format of `+15551234` or `E:[email protected]`.

You can easily set this from your Terminal with something like:



    `export HUBOT_IMESSAGE_HANDLES=+15551234,E:[email protected]`



Usage

=====

Run Hubot with the following command:



    $HUBOT_PATH/bin/hubot -a imessage



From there, you can treat it just as you would any normal Hubot instance with

regards to installing custom scripts, etc.



Warnings and Miscellanea

========================

Typically, you'd host a Hubot on Heroku or something similar, but requiring OS X

makes that impossible. There are a few unfortunate snags I've found from running

Hubot / hubot-imessage on a consumer desktop OS:



* Messages.app doesn't let you sign in to multiple iMessage accounts at the same

time. If you want to be able to send iMessages from your main account on your home

computer, you may want to set up a second machine to act as a dedicated Hubot

server.



* Hubot won't respond to you while the computer running it is asleep. However,

the commands you send will queue up. When your computer comes awake, Hubot will

process and respond to messages in the order in which they were received.



* When using Hubot in a chat room setting, many commands require you to type

Hubot's name before the command. Hubot-imessage eliminates that requirement

for the sake of typing brevity. If you enter `help` to get a list of commands,

some may still include mentioning Hubot's name in the usage instructions, but it

is NOT necessary.



Extending

=========

All iMessage-specific functionality for hubot-imessage lives in AppleScript

scripts rather than the core CoffeeScript code, meaning it would be really easy

to adapt to support any arbitrary AppleScript-based I/O flow.



To send incoming text to Hubot, just run the `messageReceiver.coffee` script

with three arguments: the user ID of the sender (any string, provided it's

whitelisted in the `HUBOT_IMESSAGE_HANDLES` env variable), the message to

be sent, and a friendly name for the sender. If Hubot is running, it will

receive the message.



When Hubot is ready to send a message out to a user, it calls

`Send iMessage.applescript` with two arguments: the user ID of the user

(corresponding to the user ID passed in with a received message) and the message

to send. You can easily replace that with your own custom AppleScript that takes

in those same arguments.



Contribute

==========

I gladly accept pull requests!



License

=======

(c) Michael Walker

Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more info.