Is it possible to run a shell script when the iChat online status changes on Lion?

Question

I had a script under Snow Leopard that would upload a tiny file to my server when I launched iChat to reflect my status on my website. For some reason it doesn't work anymore in Lion.

Is there a way to trigger a shell script on online/offline status change in 10.7 without even launching iChat?

Answer 1

Option 1: run a script like this every minute or so with cron or launchd:

#!/bin/bash

cd=~/Library/Caches/me.lri.scripts
mkdir -p $cd
cf=$cd/ichatstatuscheck
status=$(osascript -e "tell app \"iChat\" to status")
[[ -f $cf && "$status" != $(cat $cf) ]] && say "$status"
echo "$status" > $cf

(The script activates iChat every time it's run.)

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Option 2: save this as a stay open application in AppleScript Editor:

repeat
    tell application "iChat"
        set prev to status
        delay 5
        if status is not prev then do shell script "say " & quoted form of status
    end tell
end repeat

(Also activates iChat every time it gets the status.)

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Option 3: use an iChat event handler (thanks Kopischke)

This worked for me on Lion, but only when iChat was active. (Not when it wasn't and I changed the status from iChat's status bar item — which I guess was the actual problem the OP had.)