Folder Action to Launch Perl Script

Question

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.

Answer 1

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