Chained Folder Actions

I am getting a headache by now trying to figure out how to do a fairly simple thing...
I have created applesript that sorts my download folder
So i have couple of folders in there and any file that goes into
downloads folder is moved to coresponding folder based on extension
say i have 4 folders
-Media
-Text
-Install Disks
-Other
i then decided to take it one step further
and created folder action that takes files in a given folder and
puts them in a folder with corresponding date
so to put it simple say there is blah_blah.mp3 that i copy to downloads folder
my two scripts idealy if they would cooperate should work like this
___________________________\/ DateSort folder action \/
"Download folder" -->> "media folder" -->> "\[current date\] folder"
___\^download folder action\^
the problem thought they work separately but when i use them together
as i described... "DateSort" for some reason does not enter
^repeat with this_item in added_items^
to be honest added_items it such use case is blank for unknown reason...
And the question that is bothering me is WHYYYYYYY?
(because if simply put a file into "media folder" it works like charm...)

I know it is very late to reply... But my attemps to create a chained folder script system did not work very well, and i just ended up baking the operations from the second script into the first.
Seems like on *new folder item* does not handle files placed by another apple script. Further working on it I've forsaken the idea of using folder script paradigm alltogether, It is very unreliable. Especially so when trying to deal with download folder. There are clashes all over the place. For example i dont want to touch safari/chrom download chache files, but If I dont treat them the first time around the script will never touch them again.
So I ended up writing an app that does all this and have it being triggered by launchd every so often. Much easier to handle. If you are still inrpterested i can give you my current version. It has much cleaner code, and it finally works without a hinge.

Similar Messages

What 'item type' do I use to add action to SCHEDULER CHAIN folder?

I am using SQL Developer version 3.1.06.82
I would like to add a User Defined Extension to a Scheduler CHAIN. I am looking through the Namespace for Version 3.1 at: http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/sqldeveloper/3_1/dialogs/index.html. Under the COMMON OBJECT TYPES, I do not see any of the Scheduler items. I was able to use <item type="SCHEDULER"> to add an action to the SCHEDULER folder, but what I really want to do is add an action to a CHAIN.
Does anyone know what type name to use??
Has the Namespace been updated and published somewhere else?
If you have an example, it would be greatly appreciated.
Edited by: 975201 on Feb 28, 2013 8:24 PM

>
I would like to add a User Defined Extension to a Scheduler CHAIN. I am looking through the Namespace for Version 3.1 at: http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/sqldeveloper/3_1/dialogs/index.html. Under the COMMON OBJECT TYPES, I do not see any of the Scheduler items. I was able to use <item type="SCHEDULER"> to add an action to the SCHEDULER folder, but what I really want to do is add an action to a CHAIN.
>
Those COMMON OBJECT TYPES are database schema objects so SCHEDULER or CHAIN would not be in those lists.
Did you try "CHAIN" or "SCHEDULER CHAIN"?
I suggest you change your thread subject to match your question and maybe one of the developer team members will notice it.
For example: What 'item type' do I use to add action to SCHEDULER CHAIN folder?

Folder Actions still unreliable in Snow Leopard

Hello everybody,
I used to give folder actions a try in Tiger, then in Leopard and now in Snow Leopard I still see that in terms of reliability, folder actions still seem to be useless - at least to me.
Yesterday I created a folder action in Automator which is intended to just *move files* that have been downloaded with Safari in the Downloads folder, to another folder, nested in the Downloads folder itself.
So for example when I download a file with a .rar .dmg .iso .zip extension, it should move it to the next folder "archives" where a similar folder action awaits the files to be moved according to their "type" in the next folders (rar, dmg, iso and zip). The same thing for images, music and movies.
It works for a few files, but then for some reason (the holy Apple gods know why) it gets picky or lazy if you like : it just doesn't work 100%. I can manually drag out the files it didn't "act upon" and redrop them in the folder - still no joy.
And I noticed a flickering or blinking of the finder window. Really weird....
So I fire this out in hope that some of you share the same frustration
Maybe somebody knows how to fix this.
Or maybe I'm doing something wrong..
cheers
X
Message was edited by: xanvertin

Thanks for the quick and helpful reply!
I also thought that incomplete files downloaded through Safari could mess up things, but it seems to be a general issue the way the folder script "asks for the files". I tried the same folder action in a different folder, where I manually drag 'n dropped several files manually in it - still no joy. 49 out of 100 files just stayed put. It's so frustrating.
And I believe such thing as folder actions is tremendously useful if it "just works" - I download so many files on daily basis at my University - wether it is PDFs, photos, music whatever - that after a while the whole idea of "Stacks" and Coverflow in the Downloads folder just becomes a real useless pain. You just can't find anything through browsing. Sure you could search - if you know what to search for - but almost every file nowadays in the Net has a cryptic file name. So if I look for "applepie" the real file turns out to be "3934iiijpjfedi923.jpg
folder actions could at least help us get things more "organized"
but..
nope.
I just found out that my folder action has a problem with "hidden extensions"...
oh dear...
i think I'll stick to my wasted hours of cleaning up my mac on sundays...

Folder Action to Launch Perl Script

Hello.
I wrote a perl script which I wanted to execute when a file was dropped into a folder. I added a folder action with a very simple applescript:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
do shell script ¬
("perl /Users/Alexander/Library/Scripts/gte2.pl")
end adding folder items to
The folder action didn't do anything, any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? Note, the perl script works fine when I run it from the terminal.
thanks.

Thanks Camelot, I appreciate the help. My script below is trying to read data from a file in folder in my system. So I will try your suggestion, I didn't realize the environment and path my be different.
Regards Alex
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#This program is to convert files from gamin running GPS watch to text file which can be loaded into excel.
# To make executable, remember to set: chmod u+x <file>
#set all the flags. Note the flags are used to stop the matching
$i = 1; $k = 0; $start = "no";
#Open data file and find values
open(DATA,"/Users/Alexander/Alex's Misc/Health/Garmin_Conversion/run.tcx") || die "Couldn't open file*\n";
#read in the data line by line until "end of file"
while (<DATA>){
#start parsing for information to keep
if (/.<Id>./) {
@Idline=split(/>/);
@Idbeat=split(/T/,$Idline[1]);
$Id=$Idbeat[0];
if (/.<Track>./){
$start = "yes";
if ($start eq "yes"){
if (/.<Time>./) {
@timeline=split(/T/);
@timebeat=split(/Z/,$timeline[2]);
$Time[$i]=$timebeat[0];
elsif (/.<LatitudeDegrees>./) {
@HRline=split(/>/);
@HRbeat=split(/</,$HRline[1]);
$Latitude[$i]=$latbeat[0];
elsif (/.<LongitudeDegrees>./) {
@longline=split(/>/);
@longbeat=split(/</,$longline[1]);
$Longitude[$i]=$longbeat[0];
elsif (/.<AltitudeMeters>./) {
@altline=split(/>/);
@altbeat=split(/</,$altline[1]);
$Altitude[$i]=$altbeat[0];
elsif (/.<DistanceMeters>./) {
@distline=split(/>/);
@distbeat=split(/</,$distline[1]);
$Distance[$i]=$distbeat[0];
elsif (/.<Value>./) {
@HRline=split(/>/);
@HRbeat=split(/</,$HRline[1]);
$HR[$i]=$HRbeat[0];
$i++;
} #string matching
} #if start flag is yes
} #while data loop
close (DATA) || die "couldn't close file.\n";
#write all data to file in space delimited format
open (NEWFILE, ">/Users/Alexander/Alex's Misc/Health/Garmin_Converted/$Id run") || die "can't create file.\n";
$Time[0]="Time"; $Latitude[0]="Latitude"; $Longitude[0]="Longitude"; $Altitude[0]="Altitude"; $Distance[0]="Distance"; $HR[0]="HR";
print NEWFILE "0 $Time[0] $Latitude[0] $Longitude[0] $Altitude[0] $Distance[0] $HR[0]\n";
for ($j = 1; $j <= $i; $j++) {
$k=$j+1;
print NEWFILE "$j $Time[$j] $Latitude[$j] $Longitude[$j] $Altitude[$j] $Distance[$j] $HR[$j]\n";
} #for j loop
close (NEWFILE) || die "couldn't close newfile.\n";
#This is the end of the program

Processing a File (From a Folder Action) Through an AppleScript

I have a Folder Action enabled which automatically uploads images placed in a folder to a FTP server. It works great when I'm at home on my own network, but if I'm somewhere with a firewall that prohibits connecting to my FTP server (i.e. work) or if I am not connected to the internet, the folder action will still run but my images will never get uploaded.
I've attached a screenshot of my workflow. The folder action gets the image added to the folder, copies the original to a different folder, and then scales the image down to a smaller size before uploading it. I'm using the upload workflow action from Transmit.
I figured I could use an AppleScript to check whether or not my computer can reach the ftp server and then wait until it was connected to run the rest of the workflow if it can't reach the server:
repeat with i from 1 to 86400
    try
        do shell script "ping -o ftp.examplewebsite.com"
        exit repeat
    on error
        delay 5
        if i = 86400 then error number -128
    end try
end repeat
The only problem is, I'm pretty inexperienced with AppleScript and am not really sure how or where to insert it into my workflow to get the image to "pass through" the AppleScript. Currently, whenever I include this AppleScript in my workflow, before the Upload action, for example, the image ends up not getting passed through the AppleScript and it doesn't get uploaded as a result.
Hopefully this a fairly simple question and someone can help me out, or if there's an easier way to delay running a folder action until I can connect to the server someone will let me know. I can clarify anything if necessary.

Good job
I just saw this…
applescript in automator - stop a workflow
It kills the workflow based on a test, so I tried this…
Here is the text if you want to copy & paste. It will fail on Apple.com & stop the workflow. Success should allow it to continue.
on run {input, parameters}
try
set pinged to do shell script "ping -c 3 -q apple.com "
if pinged is equal to 0 then
return input
end if
on error
error number -128 -- exit by user-cancel
end try
end run
on run {input, parameters}
   display dialog "Rest of script will now continue..."
return input
end run

Unzip/Unstuff Folder Action

I wanted to set up a folder in which a file would automatically unzip/unstuff once it is done downloading from an FTP site, and V.K. in the Automator board showed me this applescript:
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;" title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
property DELAYTIMESECONDS : 5 -- How long to wait between checking file size.
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving theItems
repeat with f in theItems
set oldSize to 0
set newSize to -1
-- When newSize equals oldSize, it means the copy is complete because the size hasn't changed.
repeat while newSize ≠ oldSize
-- Get the file size.
set oldSize to size of (info for f)
delay DELAYTIMESECONDS
-- Sample the size again after delay for comparison.
set newSize to size of (info for f)
end repeat
-- Do your processing here on file f.
tell application "Finder" to open f
-- thats where my processing should start for each file
end repeat
-- Or start processing here to wait for all files to be complete.
end adding folder items to</pre>
I attached it to a folder, and it works, but only on the first file. If I let multiple files download concurrently, the script never kicks in for the second, third, etc. file. Can the applescript be modified so that it hits every file that is, eventually, saved to the folder?

The problem is that the folder action gets triggered the minute something gets added to the folder. This works when everything is added at once, but if there is much of a time delay between adding items there can be a problem, since repeatedly firing off the same folder action script on the same folder with different items doesn't seem to work very well.
Another thing to try would be to just look at the folder itself to stop changing size. After the folder has stopped changing size (presumably because the files have finished downloading), all of the files would then be processed. The items would need to be moved somewhere during the processing, so that the next time the folder action is triggered, it would just be processing the new items (if the processing just gets all of the files, a sub folder could be used).
The following folder action is similar to what you were using, it just looks at the folder size.
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
font-weight: normal;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px; height: 340px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #FFEE80;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving theItems
if (WaitForFilesToCopy into thisFolder for 60) then
tell application "Finder"
set theItems to (files of thisFolder) as alias list -- get a new item list
end tell
repeat with anItem in theItems
-- do stuff with anItem
end repeat
else
-- the downloads didn't happen in time
end if
end adding folder items to
to WaitForFilesToCopy into TheFolder for TimeToWait
waits up to the TimeToWait for files to be copied/downloaded to TheFolder
the test is based on the size of the folder not changing after several seconds
the rough TimeToWait may need to be adjusted if copying several files/folders
parameters - TheFolder [mixed]: the folder to check
TimeToWait [integer]: a maximum timeout value in seconds
returns [boolean]: true if copy/download finished, false if timeout
set {Possible, Interval} to {false, 3} -- change the check interval as desired
set CurrentSize to size of (info for TheFolder) -- get initial size
repeat (TimeToWait div Interval) times -- check every Interval seconds
delay Interval
set NewSize to size of (info for TheFolder) -- recheck size
if (NewSize is equal to CurrentSize) then
if Possible then -- no change since last time
return true -- success
else -- one more time...
set Possible to true
end if
else -- update size & Possible switch
set {CurrentSize, Possible} to {NewSize, false}
end if
end repeat
return false -- fail (timeout)
end WaitForFilesToCopy
</pre>

Folder action to find and replace text and change line feeds

I want to use a folder action to find and replace text and change Mac carriage returns to DOS line feeds inside text files.
The text to be replaced is: "/Users/wim/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Music" (without the quotes)
This text has to be removed (i.e. replaced by an empty string)
The text occurs many times within each file.
The files are playlists exported from iTunes in the M3U format (which are text files). They contain Mac carriage returns. These need to be changed to DOS line feeds.
I have found the following two perl commands to achieve this:
To find and replace text: perl -pi -w -e 's/THIS/THAT/g;' *.txt
To change carriage returns to line feeds: perl -i -pe 's/\015/\015\012/g' mac-file
I know that it's possible to make a folder action with Automator that executes a shell script.
What I want to do is drop the exported playlists in M3U format in a folder so that the folder action will remove the right text and change the carriage returns.
My questions are:
Is it possible to make a folder action that executes command line commands instead of shell scripts?
What is the correct syntax for the two commands when used in a folder action shell script? Especially, how do I escape the slashes (/) in the string to be removed?
Thanks for your help

Ok, I've include an applescript to run a shell command. The applesript command quoted form makes a string that will end up as a single string on the bash command line. Depending on what you want to do, you may need multiple string on the bash command lines. I've included some information on folder actions.
It is easier to diagnose problems with debug information. I suggest adding log statements to your script to see what is going on. Here is an example.
    Author: rccharles
    For testing, run in the Script Editor.
      1) Click on the Event Log tab to see the output from the log statement
      2) Click on Run
    For running shell commands see:
    http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html
on run
    -- Write a message into the event log.
    log " --- Starting on " & ((current date) as string) & " --- "
    -- debug lines
    set desktopPath to (path to desktop) as string
    log "desktopPath = " & desktopPath
    set unixDesktopPath to POSIX path of desktopPath
    log "unixDesktopPath = " & unixDesktopPath
    set quotedUnixDesktopPath to quoted form of unixDesktopPath
    log "quoted form is " & quotedUnixDesktopPath
    try
        set fromUnix to do shell script "ls -l " & quotedUnixDesktopPath
        display dialog "ls -l of " & quotedUnixDesktopPath & return & fromUnix
    on error errMsg
        log "ls -l error..." & errMsg
    end try
end run
How to set up a folder action.
1) right click on folder. click on Enable folder actions
2) Place script in
/Library/Scripts/Folder Actions Scripts
3) right click on folder. click on attach folder action
pick your script.
Create a new folder on the desktop & try.
You can put multiple folder actions on a folder. There are other ways of doing this.
Here is my test script:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving dropped_items
    repeat with dropped_item_ref in dropped_items
       display dialog "dropped files is " & dropped_item_ref & " on folder " & this_folder
    end repeat
end adding folder items to
How to make the text into an AppleScript program.
Start the AppleScript Editor
/Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor.app
In Snow Leopard it's at: /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor
Copy the script text to the Applescript editor.
Note: The ¬ is typed as option+return. ption+return is the Applescript line continuation characters.
You may need to retype these characters.
Save the text to a file as an script and do not check any of the boxes below.

Creating a simple Folder Action

Hello, I am trying to make a simple folder action.
Well first off I have all my applications stored in the "application" folder (Mac MD>Applications) and I have aliases to all the apps stored in a separate application folder in which I have arranged the apps by type. One folder I have is called "new apps" (Mac HD>Users>Me>Applications>New Apps) it contains obviously new applications I have downloaded and have yet to try out.
*What I want to do is whenever I drag a new application to the new apps folder I want it to 1) make an alias of that application and then 2) move the application to my actual "applications" folder.
I went to automator and selected "New Aliases" and selected the new apps folder for its location to be made, and then followed it by "Move Finder Item" and selected my applications folder. I then saved it as a folder action attached to my new apps folder... It doesn't work. Yes folder actions are enabled. Is there something else I need to do for the folder action to actually pass the new files added into the folder into the script? thank you much
Sean

Spotlight can search for a color label but you must make that an active search criterion. Open a new Smart Folder in the Finder. Click on the + button to the right of the Save button. From the drop down menu that displays "Kind" select Other. Scroll down the list until you find the "File label" entry and then check the box to the right of the item. Click Close button. Now you should see the drop down menu has the "File label" selection followed by the color options. Select the "Green" color.
Now, Spotlight will find files with a green label, but it may not display folders with the green label. I've not tested that. If it does not locate folders with a green label, then you will need to set the color of the files in the green labeled folders to the green label.

Plug-in/Folder Actions no work, Drop App works

I've been trying to get the automator actions from here (http://www.apple.com/pro/techniques/automator/) to work. I save the plug-in and activate it as a folder action script. When a new item is added the the folder the contains the action script, the script runs but does nothing.
I save the action script as a drop application, and it works as expected.
I would really rather have the folder action working. Is there something I need to do to get it to work?
Karl

IT WORKED! I had to create the entire file and folder structure and then put ACR 3.7 in there, but it worked.
Thanks again, Jim!

Folder Actions script no longer runs on new file creation

Hope this isn't trivial.......first time posting here...hopefully in the right place.I'm not a total Mac OS X newbie...and surely no techie, either. Dabbled a wee bit with Automator and scratchin' my head on this one. Help, please!
Any idea why folder actions not running when a new file is saved? A simple add-color-label script created in Automator was workin' fine before I did a Snow Leopard-to-Leopard downgrade clean-install & account migration from external HD (TimeMachine) backup. Folder actions are enabled and script runs only if I start it with Automator Runner. Previously, it would label the file as soon as I saved it....now it needs a manual start. Is this default behavior in Leopard? Or am I missing something or doin' something wrong? Or is this a consequence of downgrade? I was sure I had the same script workin ok in my original Leopard install - though possibly un-modified at that time.
I have no clue why, but the new version I created recently (cpl wks ago?)worked the first time I added a new file but not thereafter...and in that instance it only labelled the file in Finder upon quitting Preview (file is a Grab saved as pdf).
The reason for the downgrade was compatibility problems with Photoshop CS4 on SL (OS & app all updated yet crashin' at the drop of a hat) - maybe due to lack of RAM? (only 1GB). Saw quite a few posts regarding SL running CS4 problems, so now I'm back to running 10.5.8 ..again.. and PS actually runs smooth like it did before.
Maybe these console messages are a help......or am I barkin' up the wrong tree?
6/11/11 7:44:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/Folder Actions Dispatcher.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Dispatcher[91] CPSGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 7:44:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/Folder Actions Dispatcher.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Dispatcher[91] CPSPBGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 7:44:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/AppleScript Runner.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleScript Runner[264] CPSGetFrontProcess(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 8:19:12 PM Automator Runner[415] Error while processing arguments
6/11/11 8:20:31 PM /Applications/AppleScript/Folder Actions Setup.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Setup[420] CPSGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 8:20:31 PM /Applications/AppleScript/Folder Actions Setup.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Setup[420] CPSPBGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 8:20:32 PM [0x0-0x5b05b].com.apple.systemevents[421] com.apple.FolderActions.enabled: Already loaded
And for that matter....why does Automator throw these messages? All apps (except iWork '08 apps) and OS are up to date.
- Just a few of the many actions not loaded:
6/11/11 7:48:25 PM Automator[294] The action “Start iTunes Visuals” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 7:48:25 PM Automator[294] The action “Stop iTunes Visuals” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 7:48:25 PM Automator[294] The action “Update iPod” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 7:56:33 PM Automator[294] name = name was not found
6/11/11 7:56:33 PM Automator[294] name = name extension was not found
6/11/11 7:56:33 PM Automator[294] name = file type was not found
6/11/11 8:00:29 PM Automator Runner[339] Error while processing arguments
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Import Files into iTunes” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Add Songs to iPod” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Add Songs to Playlist” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Apply SQL” could not be loaded because the application “Xcode” was not found.
Do I need to wipe the drive again and re-install everything?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Apologies if this seems long-winded.

Folder Actions are set up a bit differently in Leopard (they use an AppleScript wrapper), and several actions have been updated to use new technologies available in Snow Leopard. Looking at some of your console logs, it looks like some actions or workflows were just copied over from Snow Leopard. When changing versions like that, you should rebuild the workflows so that they link to the correct actions, and check added actions for any dependencies (an action won't be loaded if it requires resources that are not available).
Resaving your Folder Action workflow as a Folder Action Plug-in should do the trick.

ITunes 10.5 breaks automator folder action

Just like itunes10 did
osx 10.6.8
itunes 10.5
automator folder action with itunes tasks no longer works after 10.5 update.
Is it the version check again?

Unfortunately, it seems that this is a cross-platform problem between iTunes 10.5 and all NAS disks. Shared libraries on network drives worked fine under 10.4.1, but now there is just an endless loading cycle with no error message or time-out. There is a bit more about it in this thread.
Martin

Folder action delay until done

I run a video encoding software called Episode Engine, and what it does is while encoding a video, it kicks out a temporary file in the output folder with a file size of 0. It does not actually update the filesize until encoding is complete.
What I want to do is set a folder action to an output folder (which receives up to 5 videos at a time from encoding) that uploads the file automatically to a Transmit (FTP Client) favorite. I also want to account for the fact that I may drop large files in this folder as well, which could take time, but dont stay at 0 file size until the transfer is done. The part I'm having trouble with is delaying the transmit action until the file is done encoding. What I currently have does not work. And I dont know any way to monitor a folder action workflow, so I'm not sure where it's failing. Any recommendations?
p.s. We're still running 10.6.8 on this computer (I know, I know...)
property DELAY_TIME_SECONDS : 5 -- How long to wait between checking file size.
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving theItems
     repeat with f in theItems
                         set currSize to 0
                         set oldSize to 0
                         set newSize to -1
                         repeat while currSize is 0
                                        delay 2
                                        set currSize to size of (info for f)
                         end repeat
                         repeat while newSize is not equal to oldSize
                                        -- Get the file size.
            set oldSize to size of (info for f)
            delay DELAY_TIME_SECONDS
             -- Sample the size again after delay for comparison.
                                        set newSize to size of (info for f)
                         end repeat
     end repeat
end adding folder items to

Folder Actions has some built in support for recognizing 'busy' files, but it's not too intelligent. It works well with Finder moves and copies, not so well with other things. There are three ways I can think of to solve this problem.
Tweak your script with a test for temp files so that it skips them. This may cause secondary headaches (e.g. you skip a temp file, but Lightroom finishes the job in the ten second throttle period so the creation of the the file(s) you want to move is missed by folder actions), but there's no way to tell unless you try.
Drop Folder Actions and set up a QueueDirectories launch agent. This would wait for items to be added to the folder then move and delete them - you write the script to idle until temp files are done processing.
Forget about immediate gratification and write a LaunchAgent that will sync the folders hourly using rsync.
Which would you prefer?

Folder actions no longer works after migration

The script below was working perfectly on an iMac G4. I use it as a type of print spooler for a DOS application that runs in Dosbox for OS X (also works for OS9 apps). I just send the file to the monitored folder and the script prints the contents and deletes the file from the folder.
I moved to an iMac G5 and used Setup Assistant to transfer my system (no lectures please...). Configure Folder Actions indicates that the script is enabled for the particular folder. However the Folder Action is no longer triggered when I add files to the monitored folder. I have tried repairing permissions, recompiling the script, deleting the folder and creating a new one...
Is this a quirk of migration?
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
delay 20 -- time for job to finish?
repeat with each_item in added_items
tell application "Printer Setup Utility" to open each_item
delay 40 -- time before file is deleted from folder
tell application "Finder" to delete each_item
tell application "Printer Setup Utility"
quit
end tell
end repeat
end adding folder items to

Michael,
That script seems to work here.
You could check whether the script is actually attached by using the Folder Actions Setup utility which is located here:
~/Applications/AppleScript
This utility gives you all the folders and their attached scripts in one window.
You might also want to check to see whether locating your script in the following location helps:
~/Library/Scripts/FolderActions
as that is where the utility wants them to go when you are attaching a folder action script to a folder.

How to monitor contents of sub-folders in a Folder Action?

Hello. I am wondering how I might read a folder's contentModDate within Terminal, i.e. from the command line and/or within a Folder Action.
This is the situation: I am running Periscope Pro (PP) for motion-detected videos, which by default, places them within the user's ~/Movies/com.zipzapmac.Periscope-Pro folder. Within that folder, PP creates a folder with it's name based upon (a) machine name and (b) primary MAC address. For example, we'll pretend this folder is called MacPro(001122334455). Then within that folder, as PP is running in motion-detection mode, it creates a new folder based on the current date and then, within that, places videos when motion is detected. Very straight-forward and it works just fine.
What I would like to do is have a folder action that (a) detects when any new folder or file is created within MacPro(001122334455) and (b) sends me a text-message via Apple Mail.
If the MacPro(001122334455) folder is empty, I can create a Folder Action that will detect the creation of a sub-folder when the first motion-detected video is created and that successfully sends me a text-message, BUT if a second video is created later within the same date-named folder, I will not get a message. I would get a text-message on the following day as a new folder is created within MacPro(001122334455) that signals the first motion-detected video of the day, but again not subsequent videos on the same day.
The text-message via Apple Mail I have easily scripted via Applescript and it works flawlessly.
Since Folder Actions only work upon a single pre-defined folder and not on sub-folders, I can never get automatically notified via text-message of second/third/fourth/etc. motion-detected videos as they're created... only the first one of each day.
So, I'm wondering whether there's a different way, perhaps through launchd that I might script this process. I'm thinking that if the contentModDate value of the MacPro(001122334455) folder could be read, compared with the last known value, and then---if different---execute the Applescript. OR PERHAPS I'm going about this all wrong and you might have another, better idea?
I'm open to suggestions.
-- David (da2357)

Well, I found a solution that does not use a Folder Action. Since Folder Actions will only work upon the specified folder and not upon the contents of any sub-folders, I needed a different solution.
First, I launched Terminal and created a new file called monitorPeriscope. I set executable permissions (chmod 700 monitorPeriscope). The contents of the file:
#!/bin/bash
# monitor the size of a specified folder and
# when the size increases, run an applescript
# copyright 2013, david dot allie at me dot com
# you are welcome to use this script, but please attribute authorship.
# CONSTANTS
WATCHFOLDER="/users/xadmin/movies/com.zipzapmac.Periscope-Pro"
SIZEFILEONE="/users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizeone"
SIZEFILETWO="/users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo"
MYAPPLESCRIPT="/users/xadmin/documents/dropbox/programming/applescript/motion_de tected_text.scpt"
# START
# calculates current size of watchfolder, saves to sizefiletwo, then
# performs a diff operation, result which is evaluated in if statement,
# and if different, runs applescript, and copy sizefiletwo to sizefileone
du -h -k -d3 -c $WATCHFOLDER | awk 'END{print}' | awk '{print $1}' > $SIZEFILETWO
diff --brief $SIZEFILEONE $SIZEFILETWO
if [ $? -eq 1 ]
then
    osascript $MYAPPLESCRIPT
    cp -f $SIZEFILETWO $SIZEFILEONE
fi
exit 0
Next, I created the following Applescript, replacing Some User, [email protected] and the text address of [email protected] below with my real values.
using terms from application "Mail"
tell application "Mail"
set theName to "Some User"
set theAddress to "[email protected]"
set theContent to "Motion detected in OFFICE."
set newMessage to make new outgoing message
tell newMessage
make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {name:theName, address:theAddress}
set visible to true
set sender to "[email protected]"
set subject to "ALERT "
set content to theContent
send newMessage
end tell
end tell
end using terms from
Next, using the touch command, I created /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo and /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo as needed for the bash shell script (touch /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizeone and touch /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo).
Next, still in Terminal, I navigated to ~/Library/LaunchAgents and created the following plist using nano, which I named com.xadmin.monitorPeriscope.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
          <key>Disabled</key>
          <false/>
          <key>Label</key>
          <string>com.xadmin.monitorPeriscope</string>
          <key>ProgramArguments</key>
          <array>
          <string>/users/xadmin/.bin/monitorPeriscope</string>
          </array>
          <key>RunAtLoad</key>
          <true/>
          <key>StartInterval</key>
          <integer>900</integer>
</dict>
</plist>
Finally, all that was needed was to log out and then log back in. Once I launched the Periscope Pro app and started the motion-detection mode, I left my office... and within fifteen minutes I received a text message indicating that motion had been detected in my office. In the plist above, I set a StartInterval of 900 seconds, which corresponds to 15 minutes. I can reduce it down to 300 seconds (5 minutes) without it adversely affecting performance, but I'm going to leave the setting where it is for now.
So, I solved my own problem and I'm pleased with the results.
-- David

Help Needed: Automator Applescript for Folder Action - Encode Video

Hi !
I have created an Automator Applescript for a Folder Action to do the following:
When a new video file is moved to the target folder (i.e. Download of Vuze is done), automatically launch the Applescript Action that does the followin g(Applescripted):
1) Using "run shell script" and FFMPEG on a UNIX command line, determine Width/Height, Framerate, Bitrate
2) Calculate encoding parameters (slightly reduced bitrate, reduced Aspect etc.)
3) Using "run shell script" with ffmpeg on the command line and the calculated parameters to encode the video file
At the same time, the action is written to a log file so I know if a file is recognized, when encoding started etc.
It works fine if I save this Action as an .app, make an alias on the Desktop and drop video files on it.
It also works fine if I attach the script to a folder as a folder action and drag a video file in there.
However, when I attach the script as a folder action to the Vuze download folder, it encodes only some video files, i.e. if there was a download of 5 files, chances are good that it will not encode 1 or 2 files out of those 5.
If for example a second download finishes while the encoding for the first download is still going on, sometimes the second file starts encoding after the first encode finishes, sometimes it does not, the file does not make the log file at all, i.e. the folder action missed it or the automator action dropped it because it was still encoding. Still, sometimes it happens, sometimes not.
As I need a solution that is 100% accurate, I would like to ask if there are any ideas on how to do this better maybe? As I am not an Applescript Guru, I would need some help to know what works and what doesn't and what the syntax is.
My main idea right now:
Similar to how ffmpegX works with its "process" application, have a second script (as .app) that receives the files to be encoded from the automator action and puts them in a queue, then proceeds to encode this queue while the main automator action is free to receive the next file.
Writing this second app is quite straightforward (a modified version of my current script) but I have some questions I need help with:
1) How do I call another applescript from within an existing applescript that launches the new applescript in a new process?
2) How do I pass parameters to this new applescript?
3) In case of this "Queueing" Idea, once I called the external applescript the first time, how do I make sure when I call next time, that I don't open a second instance of this script but rather pass another queue item to the original instance to be processed?
Or in general: Is there a better way to achieve this automatic encoding solution that I have not thought about?
Alternatively:
Does anyone know how to call the "process" application that comes with the ffmpegX package with the correct parameters to use as a queueing / processing tool?
Thanks!
Joe
Message was edited by: Joe15000
Message was edited by: Joe15000

To do this, I created an Automator workflow with an Applescript snippet to change the 'media kind'.
Here is the 'Run Applescript' workflow step code:
on run {input, parameters}
          tell application "iTunes"
                    set video kind of (item 1 of input) to movie
          end tell
          return input
end run
Prior to this running, I have an 'Import Files into iTunes' workflow step.
You can switch out 'movie' with: 'TV show', 'music video', or anything in ITLibMediaItemMediaKind.
Good luck,
Glenn

Chained Folder Actions

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