Script to batch import tasks into the "Things" app by Cultured Code

gistfile1.rb

# format:
# --------------
# date (mm/dd/yy)
# assignment
# assignment
# ...
#
# date
# assignment
# ...

require 'rubygems'
require 'appscript'
require 'date'

class Date
  def to_gm_time
    to_time(new_offset, :gm)
  end

  def to_local_time
    to_time(new_offset(DateTime.now.offset - offset + 1), :local)
  end

  private
  def to_time(dest, method)
    #Convert a fraction of a day to a number of microseconds
    usec = (dest.sec_fraction * 60 * 60 * 24 * (10**6)).to_i
    Time.send(method, dest.year, dest.month, dest.day, dest.hour, dest.min,
              dest.sec, usec)
  end
end

area = ARGV[0]
file = ARGV[1]
get_date = true
date = nil
File.open(file).readlines.each do |line|
  if line != "\n"
    if get_date
      date = DateTime.parse(line.chomp).to_local_time
      get_date = false
    else
      Appscript.app('Things').areas[area].make(:new => :to_do, :with_properties => {:name => line.chomp, :due_date => date})
    end
  else
    get_date = true
  end
end

This is a script that will import tasks from a text file into the Things program for OS X by Cultured Code. Depends on the rb-appscript gem.

The expected format is:

2012-12-30
task title
another task title

2012-12-31
and so on
And so forth

(as noted in the comments)

Also, if you have issues running this in Mac OS X, it may be due to multiple versions of Ruby installed. In this case, explicitly run the version that has gems installed. Find this out by running "gem environment" and running the Ruby that is installed in that folder. Hope this helps someone!

I've updated this to work with Things 2.2 as of October 14, 2013 in my fork:

https://gist.github.com/jverkoey/6983934