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I need a script to prompt for a password opening Entourage 2008.
Asked by jondevito in AppleScript, Apple Software
Tags: Microsoft, Entourage, 2008, Mac OSX 10.5.2
Hello, I would like to use a script that will prompt for a password when I open Entourage 2008. If it could minimize the Entourage window until the password was entered that would definitely help. I am a fairly new Mac user so I will need step by step instructions on how to do this.
Thanks in advance.
JDStart Free Trial
Thanks in advance.
JDStart Free Trial
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| 04.19.2008 at 09:00PM PDT, ID: 21394971 |
The main problem here, is that you're looking for functionality from Entourage that it does not have.
If you hide the main window of Entourage, there is nothing to prevent the user from bringing it to the front by clicking on it in the Dock (or using Apple/Cmd-Tab to bring it front-most).
ARD has a screen locking function but I've not found how to invoke that and don't know if you can (unlike the kickstart function).
The best you can do is require a password to unlock the screensaver, and then invoke the screensaver.
Which will of course lock the user out of anything they have going on at that time...
but you can do that via an AppleScript and invoke
tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to activate
As for invoking this anytime the program is launched...
I've not tried it but you could set a launchd watch folder on/for
/User/<username>/Documents
as the date stamp on the DB file will be updated at launch.
For more on launchd and watch folders, see
http://www.afp548.com/arti
If you hide the main window of Entourage, there is nothing to prevent the user from bringing it to the front by clicking on it in the Dock (or using Apple/Cmd-Tab to bring it front-most).
ARD has a screen locking function but I've not found how to invoke that and don't know if you can (unlike the kickstart function).
The best you can do is require a password to unlock the screensaver, and then invoke the screensaver.
Which will of course lock the user out of anything they have going on at that time...
but you can do that via an AppleScript and invoke
tell application "ScreenSaverEngine" to activate
As for invoking this anytime the program is launched...
I've not tried it but you could set a launchd watch folder on/for
/User/<username>/Documents
as the date stamp on the DB file will be updated at launch.
For more on launchd and watch folders, see
http://www.afp548.com/arti
| 04.19.2008 at 10:12PM PDT, ID: 21395077 |
Within Entourage you can set a schedule to start an AppleScript when the program starts. There are a lot of posts if you do a Google search showing different scripts to do exactly what I want but I can't seem to get them to work. I'm pretty sure its something that I'm doing wrong because I am unfamiliar with AppleScript but I am 100% positive that doing this is possible.
| 04.20.2008 at 04:43AM PDT, ID: 21395744 |
It makes it easier to help if you share what you've been trying and where you're stuck, what exactly isn't working (result vs. expected result, error messages). : )
Yes, what you've described appears to be possible but as my initial reply shows, there's more than one way to do it.
If you set Entourage to use the "Switch Identity" at startup that could also completely hide any/all messages. But you'd have to also incorporate a check in your script so that if the user changes that pref (which they could do once they authenticate), it gets set back.
If the user is the Admin (default main account), then this could be relatively trivial, via:
with administrator privileges
Or you can hard-set a password in your AppleScript (and save it as compiled !),
but that's inelegant if you need to implement this for a large number of users. Do you ?
If you need to specifically check against a stored password then you're also looking at keychain scripting, "google" for:
applescript keychain scripting
So then, please let us know what you're specifically trying, and also consider the above.
You could theoretically get the pass from the keychain and check against it, but at that point another person could (attempt to) steal it, so there's concenrs.
Yes, what you've described appears to be possible but as my initial reply shows, there's more than one way to do it.
If you set Entourage to use the "Switch Identity" at startup that could also completely hide any/all messages. But you'd have to also incorporate a check in your script so that if the user changes that pref (which they could do once they authenticate), it gets set back.
If the user is the Admin (default main account), then this could be relatively trivial, via:
with administrator privileges
Or you can hard-set a password in your AppleScript (and save it as compiled !),
but that's inelegant if you need to implement this for a large number of users. Do you ?
If you need to specifically check against a stored password then you're also looking at keychain scripting, "google" for:
applescript keychain scripting
So then, please let us know what you're specifically trying, and also consider the above.
You could theoretically get the pass from the keychain and check against it, but at that point another person could (attempt to) steal it, so there's concenrs.
| 04.20.2008 at 10:33AM PDT, ID: 21396881 |
Sorry, I wanted other people's opinions on better ways to do this, thats why I didn't give exacts on where I was stuck as I wasn't sure this was the best way to get the result I was looking for. Check out this link, http://mac.softpedia.com/g
JD
JD
| 04.20.2008 at 11:55AM PDT, ID: 21397202 |
First off: /System is off limits. Don't put anything in there. Use instead: /Library or the Library within a user folder. Items in the top-level Library will apply for all users and that's what you probably want.
And yah, that software is sadly much too old - the last version it would have worked with was Entourage 2001 - 3 versions ago and just about as many versions back of OS X. I'm not surprised that it's not working, sorry to say.
It would have to be updated to work with 10.4 & esp. 10.5's changes in AppleScript & that's not likely to happen, it looks like it dead-ended as a project long ago.
Also keep in mind, the reason I made my original suggestion is exactly what I expected - this is not going to offer the kind of security you seem to be seeking. In the Readme for Password No Window,
it says: "This script offers no real security. It is easily bypassed if someone simply removes the script from the Entourage Script Menu Items folder or the Schedules file from your identity the Office 2001 Identities folder."
This feature use to exist built-in to Outlook for Mac (now dead and replaced with Entourage),
so if nothing else, consider making a feature-request to Microsoft's MBU.
And yah, that software is sadly much too old - the last version it would have worked with was Entourage 2001 - 3 versions ago and just about as many versions back of OS X. I'm not surprised that it's not working, sorry to say.
It would have to be updated to work with 10.4 & esp. 10.5's changes in AppleScript & that's not likely to happen, it looks like it dead-ended as a project long ago.
Also keep in mind, the reason I made my original suggestion is exactly what I expected - this is not going to offer the kind of security you seem to be seeking. In the Readme for Password No Window,
it says: "This script offers no real security. It is easily bypassed if someone simply removes the script from the Entourage Script Menu Items folder or the Schedules file from your identity the Office 2001 Identities folder."
This feature use to exist built-in to Outlook for Mac (now dead and replaced with Entourage),
so if nothing else, consider making a feature-request to Microsoft's MBU.
| 04.20.2008 at 11:57AM PDT, ID: 21397207 |
and all it's doing (the Password No Window AppleScript) is hiding the Entourage window,
which is easily bypassed (read my original reply).
Not good security at all.
which is easily bypassed (read my original reply).
Not good security at all.
| 04.20.2008 at 12:39PM PDT, ID: 21397316 |
Anyway, this is really very poor security and easily defeatable, but make a new AppleScript, save it as compiled, and add it in Entourage as a scheduled ("At Startup"), but save the script somewhere other than the Entourage Menu Items (or users will be able to see it listed there). For example: /Library/Scripting Additions , and tighten the permissions so that non-admin users can't mess with it.
Here is the content of the script and this is really quite basic, but it's no worse off than what you were hoping to do: the password asked for is hard-set in this script and does not necessarily have any correlation whatsoever to that user's (account) login password nor his/her email password.
Here's the script:
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
close main window
end tell
if text returned of (display dialog ¬
"Enter Microsoft Entourage password:" default answer "" buttons "OK" default button 1) is not "secret" then
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
quit
end tell
else
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
open main window
end tell
end if
Here is the content of the script and this is really quite basic, but it's no worse off than what you were hoping to do: the password asked for is hard-set in this script and does not necessarily have any correlation whatsoever to that user's (account) login password nor his/her email password.
Here's the script:
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
close main window
end tell
if text returned of (display dialog ¬
"Enter Microsoft Entourage password:" default answer "" buttons "OK" default button 1) is not "secret" then
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
quit
end tell
else
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
open main window
end tell
end if
| 04.20.2008 at 12:46PM PDT, ID: 21397344 |
I definitely understand about the security being removed if someone removes the script but I'm just looking to hide from "normal users" prying eyes. If there is a newer script that would do the same thing I would be open to it. I'm not using this in a corporate environment so iron clad security is not necessary. Also, switching identities & things like that will not work because I need to hide some incoming messages & cant really do that if I'm switching between identities. Once I receive it in one identity I don't think I can just move it to a folder in a different identity. I just want it to prompt for a password & if that password isn't entered the program quits.
| 04.20.2008 at 12:50PM PDT, ID: 21397356 |
I tried the one you posted but it does not quit if you type the wrong PW in. It just minimizes the window but you can still go in & have full access to Entourage.
| 04.20.2008 at 02:04PM PDT, ID: 21397598 |
Wow, that's an ugly bug in the latest Entourage.
It needs to close the loop on an AppleScript it runs via it's scheduling. IE: it starts and must complete a wait-loop of some kind. Yargh. In other words, exactly: it won't let you quit it via an AppleScript it calls from its own scheduling tool/mechanism.
I converted this script to launch Mail and do the rest (adjusted for Mail), and it works exactly as expected.
So this won't work with Entourage currently.
There may be a way to do it, but this is a bug/problem with Entourage.
Ouch.
It needs to close the loop on an AppleScript it runs via it's scheduling. IE: it starts and must complete a wait-loop of some kind. Yargh. In other words, exactly: it won't let you quit it via an AppleScript it calls from its own scheduling tool/mechanism.
I converted this script to launch Mail and do the rest (adjusted for Mail), and it works exactly as expected.
So this won't work with Entourage currently.
There may be a way to do it, but this is a bug/problem with Entourage.
Ouch.
20080716-EE-VQP-32 / EE_QW_2_20070628
