Script for automatically extracting calendar items from meeting requests in Mail.app and adding them into iCal. It will always extract into the first local calendar.

iCal-Invite-Fix.applescript

(*
  Script for automatically extracting calendar items from meeting requests
	and adding them into iCal. It will always extract into the first local calendar.
	
	written by Andy Fragen <[email protected]>
	
	modified to run from AppleScript menu
	
	http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060821073102694
	http://bbs.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=17655
	
	Special thanks to Martin Herrera Soler for loads of exceptions. ;-)
	Special thanks to Michael Bartz showing me replies.
	
	Abstracted the grep and sed to work better with other Exchange invites.
	
	05 Aug 2008 - Fixed to run as rule
	07 Aug 2008 - Fixed for invites as attachments only
	11 Aug 2008 - Cleaned up code and fixed for METHOD:PUBLISH
	12 Aug 2008 - Fixed code to work with METHOD:CANCEL
	14 Aug 2008 - Cleaned up code, user will still need to manually delete cancelled events
	05 Sept 2008 - Fixed sed substitution to remove quotes from DTSTART;TZID and DTEND;TZID, more CalDAV compliant
	29 Sept 2008 - Fixed for problem when attachment name identical then latest .ics attachment not saved, move /tmp/*.ics to Trash
	03 Dec 2008 - Fixed to remove modal dialog from METHOD:PUBLISH invites by changing to METHOD:REQUEST, fixed a few things
	28 Dec 2008 - Added ability to allow for multiple exchange servers with only one script
	13 Jan 2009 - Removed need for defining calendar for cancelling events
	08 Sept 2009 - Fixed for goofy Snow Leopard problem openning .ics file
	29 Sept 2009 - Added ability to fix event replies, Simplified parts of the script and cleaned up code
	30 Sept 2009 - Cleaned up code some more
*)

--The following 2 properties allow for use with multiple Exchange Servers. You must have the exchange_fragment in the same list position as its ical_tzid
-- Add or change these values to include a unique fragment of the Exchange Server's TZID
property exchange_fragment : {"Central", "GMT -0800", "Montevideo", "Perth"}
--Change these values to what your iCal time zone expects. This is *not* your local timezone. It is the timezone of the Exchange server in proper iCal format. No spaces allowed; but they will be fixed.
property ical_tzid : {"US/Central", "US/Pacific", "America/Buenos Aires", "Australia/Perth"}


using terms from application "Mail"
	on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
		set thepath to ((path to startup disk) as string) & "tmp:temp_invite.ics"
		my make_iCal_Event(thepath, theMessages)
	end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from

on run {}
	set thepath to ((path to startup disk) as string) & "tmp:temp_invite.ics"
	tell application "Mail" to set theMessages to selected messages of message viewer 1
	my make_iCal_Event(thepath, theMessages)
end run

on make_iCal_Event(thepath, theMessages)
	repeat with theMessage in theMessages
		set flRequest to false
		set flPublish to false
		set flCancel to false
		set flReply to false
		set theInvite to ""
		tell application "Mail" to set theSource to the source of theMessage
		tell application "Mail" to set theSubject to the subject of theMessage
		(* Get the ics data *)
		if (the offset of "content-class: urn:content-classes:calendarmessage" in theSource) is not equal to 0 then
			(* Find the range of the message source that is an ics message 
				   Note: this works both on messages that detect the .ics attachement,
						and on crappy Exchange invites that show up as an owa url. *)
			set vcalBegin to the offset of "BEGIN:VCALENDAR" in theSource
			set vcalEnd to (the offset of "END:VCALENDAR" in theSource) + (the length of "END:VCALENDAR")
			set theInvite to the text vcalBegin thru vcalEnd of theSource
		else
			set theInvite to my icsAttachment(theMessage)
		end if
		
		(* Only deal with requests *)
		if (the offset of "METHOD:REQUEST" in theInvite) is equal to 0 then
			(* do nothing *)
		else
			set flRequest to true
		end if
		
		(* Only deal with publishes *)
		if (the offset of "METHOD:PUBLISH" in theInvite) is equal to 0 then
			(* do nothing *)
		else
			set flPublish to true
		end if
		
		(* Only deal with cancellations *)
		if (the offset of "METHOD:CANCEL" in theInvite) is equal to 0 then
			(* do nothing *)
		else
			set flCancel to true
		end if
		
		(* Only deal with replies *)
		if (the offset of "METHOD:REPLY" in theInvite) is equal to 0 then
			(* do nothing *)
		else
			set flReply to true
		end if
		
		set thepath to my writeEvent(thepath, theInvite)
		my process_event(thepath, flRequest, flPublish, flCancel, flReply, theSubject)
		
	end repeat
	
	tell application "Mail" to set theSource to ""
	tell application "Mail" to set theInvite to ""
	(* delete the file *)
	do shell script "mv /tmp/*.ics ~/.Trash/"
end make_iCal_Event

on writeEvent(thepath, theInvite)
	(* write to a temp file *)
	set fh to open for access thepath with write permission
	set eof fh to 0
	
	write theInvite to fh as string
	close access fh
	return thepath
end writeEvent

on icsAttachment(theMessage)
	tell application "Mail"
		if theMessage's mail attachments is not {} then
			repeat with theAttachment in theMessage's mail attachments
				set attachmentName to the name of theAttachment
				if attachmentName ends with ".ics" then
					set attachmentName to do shell script "echo \"" & attachmentName & "\" | sed 's/ //g'"
					set theFileName to ((path to startup disk) as string) & "tmp:" & attachmentName
					try
						save theAttachment in theFileName
					on error errnum
					end try
				else
					return
				end if
			end repeat
		end if
	end tell
	return read file theFileName
end icsAttachment

on process_event(thepath, flRequest, flPublish, flCancel, flReply, theSubject)
	set tPath to POSIX path of thepath
	if flRequest then
		my fix_TZID(thepath)
	else if flPublish then
		do shell script "sed 's|METHOD:PUBLISH|METHOD:REQUEST|g' " & tPath & " > " & tPath & "2"
		do shell script "mv " & tPath & "2 " & tPath
	else if flCancel then
		my fix_TZID(thepath)
	else if flReply then
		if not my fix_TZID(thepath) then
			ignoring case
				if theSubject contains "accept" then
					set theStatus to "ACCEPTED"
				else if theSubject contains "declined" then
					set theStatus to "DECLINED"
				else
					set theStatus to "TENTATIVE"
				end if
			end ignoring
			do shell script "sed 's|ORGANIZER|ATTENDEE|g;s/:MAILTO/;PARTSTAT=" & theStatus & ":MAILTO/g' " & tPath & " > " & tPath & "2"
			do shell script "mv " & tPath & "2 " & tPath
		end if
	end if
	
	(* open in iCal *)
	tell application "Calendar" to activate
	try
		tell application "Calendar" to open alias thepath
	on error
		--Snow Leopard kludge
		set tPath to POSIX path of thepath
		do shell script "open " & tPath
	end try
end process_event

on fix_TZID(thepath) --fix for Outlook TZID weirdness
	set tPath to POSIX path of thepath
	repeat with i from 1 to the length of ical_tzid
		--this should automatically grab the TZID that Exchange gives
		set exchange_tzid to do shell script "grep -o ^TZID.*$ " & tPath & " | sed -e 's|TZID:\\(.*\\)|\\1|g'"
		if exchange_tzid contains item i of exchange_fragment then
			--make sure user input doesn't have spaces :-)
			set item i of ical_tzid to do shell script "echo \"" & item i of ical_tzid & "\"| sed 's/ /_/g'"
			--possible fix if TZID is on 2 lines (unable to test)
			--set exchange_tzid to do shell script "sed -n '/TZID:/{N;p;}' " & tPath & " | sed  's/TZID://g' | tr -d '\\n'"
			set quoted_ical_tzid to "\"" & item i of ical_tzid & "\""
			if exchange_tzid is not "" then
				do shell script "sed 's|" & exchange_tzid & "|" & item i of ical_tzid & "|g;s|" & quoted_ical_tzid & "|" & item i of ical_tzid & "|g' " & tPath & " > " & tPath & "2"
				do shell script "mv " & tPath & "2 " & tPath
			end if
		end if
	end repeat
	if exchange_tzid is "" then return false
	return true
end fix_TZID

That's an impressive amount of work. Kudos to you!! (and shame on Apple for making it necessary.)