Applescript and Aperture - examples etc?

I've programmed a lot, but not in Applescript. Does anybody know of a good, diverse collection of Applescripts for Aperture? The actions available in Automator don't handle what I need.
(One script I want: I'm still trying to find a decent way to coordinate Aperture libraries on the big-screen iMac at home and the MBP I carry back and forth to work and into the field. It would help to have an automatic flag reminding me whether I had changed the library, or a project, on one machine, and therefore need to go through the long process of export/import. [I can remember, but I can also forget!])
If I had some examples, I think I could figure out how to do this and other tasks. The Google hits I get focus on Automator, which doesn't have a wide enough variety of low-level actions to be very useful.
Any pointers much appreciated.

Oh well hey, of course I do -- a straight computer-to-computer Ethernet cable seems to provide about 11Mbps, at least ten times faster than Airport.
That makes my question even more eager: Do you have (does anyone have) a sample command-line for using rsync to synchronize two Aperture libraries?
As I understand it, the idea would be a quick way to update one library from the other -- NOT to meld competing sets of edits. Right? But it should be quick, because of rsync's ability to detect and transfer (inside the library's package) only changed items. Is that right?
Is anybody using this?

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Applescript and Aperture

Unlike all of the other questions I've been able to find regarding Aperture and Applescript, I'm not (yet) interested in scripting export. I'm trying to do some import functions.
Specifically, I have a hierarchical filesystem setup that I'd like to mimic in Aperture. I can recursively examine the filesystem, but I haven't found a way to create folders/subfolders in Aperture (I can't use Projects, because my filesystem hierarchy has more than 20,000 pictures in it). The idea is that I'll have nested subfolders in Aperture, with the leaf nodes being projects containing my pictures.
It's likely that my current scheme is less than ideal (the folder structure should probably be converted to tags instead), but I want to use Aperture to help me impose a new scheme.
In any case, every variant I've tried on "create subfolder ..." has failed, but the error messages are cryptic. I was hoping there was a reference somewhere that my Googling has missed. I welcome any advice (even if it's "You can't/shouldn't do that!")
Thanks!

I'm wondering why you would need Applescript at all - unless i'm not understanding correctly. Can't you use the "Import - Folders into a Project" ?
This is from page 111 of the manual:
If you’ve spent time organizing your images into a meaningful hierarchy on your
computer and you want to keep that organization, you can import a folder of images
as a project or drag it directly into the Projects panel. When you import a folder of
images or drag it into the Projects panel, the folder becomes a project and any
subfolders become albums within the project.
And
When importing folders of images into Aperture, carefully plan how you
want your images organized before you begin. The top-level folder containing images
becomes a project containing all the images in the subfolders as well. This means that
if you import a folder with thousands of images contained within its subfolders,
Aperture will create a project with thousands of images. You can import a maximum
of 10,000 master images into a project. If you have over 10,000 images to import into
Aperture, consider importing the subfolders individually instead. Each subfolder will
then become its own project.
Wouldn't this work?

I have on my MacBook both iPhoto and Aperture and want to purchase iPhoto for iPad. If I do so, will I be able to see all my MacBook iPhoto progress (places, faces, events, etc) on the iPad app ? Via icloud or some other feature tht work like PhotoStream?

I have on my MacBook both iPhoto and Aperture and want to purchase iPhoto for iPad. If I do so, will I be able to see all my MacBook iPhoto progress (places, faces, events, etc) on the iPad app ? Via icloud or some other feature tht work like PhotoStream?

If I do so, will I be able to see all my MacBook iPhoto progress (places, faces, events, etc) on the iPad app ?
just some notes in addition to Ralphs answer: Your iPad is very useful to browse and show off your photos, i.e. the Retina iPad. You can sync to the iPad via iTunes or using the Photo Stream or a shared Photo Stream. But if you can browse and store all your photos on the iPad, will depend on the available storage on your iPad. Using iTunes you can sync events, albums, faces stacks, places stacks to your iPad. Not many metadata tags will transfer however.
See the iPhoto help on what iPhoto can actually do:
iPhoto Help: What is iPhoto? http://help.apple.com/iphoto/ipad/1.1/#blnkd2e20226
Regards
Léonie

How Do I Run AppleScripts In Aperture?

I want to copy the Version Name to the Object Name field without having to manually type it for each image...
Here is the script I am attempting to run:
tell application "Aperture"
set selectedImages to the selection
repeat with i in selectedImages
set tName to name of i
set value of IPTC tag "ObjectName" of i to tName
end repeat
end tell
(I copied the script from this thread: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=4458642.)
I enabled the Script Menu to appear in the Finder Menu Bar, but that is as far as I have been able to get. I tried selecting a couple of images in Aperture, then selected Batch Change/IPTC Basic. I then selected the script in the Script Menu and clicked "OK." Nothing appears to get transferred in the two selected image files metadata. I also tried running the script without going to Batch Change and Still No Go...
I think that my problem has to do with this step from the linked thread, but I am unclear as to what it means:
4. IMPORTANT! You must use Batch Change to put a value into the Object Name tag (such as " "), until you do so the tag doesn't exist for those images and therefore cannot be altered.
I have been through the Aperture Manual, Apple Aperture Digital Workflow book, etc. but I have been unable to figure out how to make this work.
Message was edited by: MisterMojo
Message was edited by: MisterMojo

Since you have OS 10.5.8, do you also use an older Aperture version? Most people have latest OS and Aperture, so you might get more answers if we knew what your version of Aperture is...
Well, I am running OS 10.6.2 and Aperture 2.1.4
I found the script you posted to be non-functional. After digging around and some Googling, I came up with the following script that works for me. Keep in mind you are using a different OS version, but my point is, with some research and trial&err you should be able to do the same. I don't know anything about scripting, all I did was read into its meaning and substitute some terms. I basically stole the code and changed a couple of variables...
tell application "Aperture"
copy selection to theSel
repeat with theImg in theSel
tell theImg
set MyVersionName to (get value of other tag "VersionName" of theImg)
make new IPTC tag with properties {name:"ObjectName", value:MyVersionName}
end tell
end repeat
end tell
Notice how the script temporarily (?) creates a variable called MyVersionName, as a place to hold the value copied over from VersionName. Apparently scripts ignore the spaces in field names. It then uses the value from MyVersionName to fill in the ObjectName. The script is set to repeat for each image selected, one by one. I don't know why it's written like that, but it works.
The above script works for both single and multiple selections of images. Pase it into AppleScript Editor, run it, save it in the Aperture folder which is a straight shot from the Save As... menu in the AppleScript Editor. (Users> {you}> Library> Scripts> Applications> Aperture)
In the ASEditor's Preferences, make sure to check boxes so the scripts appear in the menu bar. Close the Editor. Back to Aperture, your (appropriately-named) script should show up from a drop-down at the menu bar under the AppleScript icon. Test it on a couple of inages. Mine works.

Photo Sweeper and Aperture Duplicate Detection

Hi all
just a quick question. I have tons of duplicates coming into my Aperture library, basically due to my imports coming from my backup disks which have multiple backups of multiple time points and who knows what is in any of them.
I have looked at the duplicate detector in Aperture, but couldn't find how it worked. As I am a web dev, I have several assets that are the same image but in different formats and different resolutions, etc. My concern is that an automatic duplicate detector wont tell the difference here, which would be bad! I have Photo Sweeper as well - does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle duplicates like this? I'd love a simple way to clean my library, but still be able to use multiple resolutions.
Actually, on that point, Im not actually sure how to use Aperture to handle this scenario - having multiple resolutions of the same image - any suggestions?

I would keep the larger as long as storage space wasn't an issue and if it was I'd look at increasing storage before deleting the larger file.
Think of it this way the larger files contains more data, more data means not only a better image (even if you cannot see a difference on the monitor) but also more options when you go to edit the image.
Cropping is just one obvious example. A larger file will give you more options when it comes to cropping the image.
You can always create the smaller from the larger, you can;t go the other way. Once you delete the larger file the data is lost for good.

PS Shadow and Aperture Shadows

I hope and describe this correctly.
I shoot in Raw with a Canon 30D. I was using iPhoto until recently when I purchased the new 24" iMac. Before I would import all my pics into iPhoto then open one I wanted to adjust in photoshop. It would open the raw in Photoshop and let me adjust the shadows up or down then crop and etc.
However in Aperture I import my pics from my Camera and I attempt to do exposure and Shadow adjustment in Aperture prior to opening it in Photoshop. This is were my problem is.
I shoot photos of babies and alot of times I have black background, daddy has black shirt and babie is in his arms. The final product goal is to see nothing but the baby. However in Aperture I can not deepen the shadows like I could in PS. The shadow slider starts out at 0.0 and will only let me recover the dark areas not make them darker. If I use exposure setting it alters all the photo.
What am I missing? I am providing a link to my gallery for the sole reason if you want to see an example of what I am after with the shadows.
http://www.studioainsley.com/-/studioainsley/gallery.asp?cat=37578&pID=1&row=5&p hotoID=2663283&searchTerm=
Thanks
iMac 24" Mac OS X (10.4.7) Aperture 1.1

You're confusing the controls between the two programs (ACR and Aperture).
You were using ACR in Photoshop to process your raw files. In that software the shadow slider is the black point.
In Aperture the black point can be set via the Levels control. The shadow control you refer to in Aperture is for recovering shadow detail (like the shadow/highlights tool in Photoshop).

Need help with applescript and Xcode 4.3.2

I'm trying to write my first application that will involve a GUI. I can code applescript using script editor with a bit of effort, but I'm want to have users input more than one piece of information in the pop up. So, I download xcode, create my first applescript cocoa project go to MainMenu.xib and add a bunch of labels, text fields and buttons. Looks fairly nice... Go to start it and... nothing (well the window pops up, but it doesn't do anything). Unfortunately, I haven't figured out how to link the window to the applescript... So, how do I...
* Have the applescript prepopulate data in the text fields and pulldowns
* Once the user changes the data in the fields tell the applescript
* Tell the window to close and pass the control back to the applescript once either the cancel or submit button is pressed.
More detailed...
* What's an outlet and how do I use it here? Which of the 18 outlet(s) do i use for this?
* What's a property (referenced on one of the web pages I saw around applescript and cocoa) and do I need them here?
Looking at the documentation with xcode, there isn't a lot about xcode and applescipt. Looking at the web, the top links are a few years old. So, links to good relevent documentation would be very nice as well as direct answers to the questions
Thanks,
Scott

I'm not sure why you are closing it, but the NSApplication class is what keeps track of the windows. If you don't want to connect the window to an outlet from the interface editor, you can use something like
set theWindow to current application's NSApplication's sharedApplication's mainWindow()
...and from there you can use whatever NSWindow methods, for example
theWindow's performClose_(me)

Is it possible to see the photo details (CMD+I for e.g. Aperture, ISO etc.) in fullscreen view?

Based on http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1308132?tstart=0 I decided to add each question seperately:
Hello, I'm quite interested in buying Lightroom 5.2. I tried the RC which ran out now. Yet, I have a several questions that I can't really find good conclusive answers to, that I'd like to get answered before buying LR. Please don't write maybe like this or that (assumptions), since I don't want to start my whole workflow and then realize that I have to change everything around, so please answer, if you know for sure that something works and you are, preferably, using that method too.
Is it possible to see the photo details (CMD+I for e.g. Aperture, ISO etc.) in fullscreen view?

Note that if you invoke Full Screen Preview (F) from Grid Mode, then Cycle Info Display (I) doesn't work at all, no matter how many times you press "I":
http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/cylce_info_display_doesnt_always_wor k_in_full_screen_preview
It appears that Adobe originally designed Full Screen Preview to be a special viewing mode of the underlying mode. So if you invoke Full Screen Preview from Grid Mode, Cycle Info Display doesn't work and the arrow keys work with selections just as they do in regular Grid Mode, not as in Loupe Mode. But according to employee Becky Sowada, Adobe is reconsidering this design; see the 9/17 thread in this topic:
http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/full_screen_preview_works_incorrectl y_with_selections

Capabilities of Photos App and Aperture

I see a lot of discussion about the new Photos app as being a replacement for Aperture, but most of these discussions seem to ignore many of the key capabilities which make Aperture important to many professionals. And the idea that many of these have been removed but will reappear sometime in the future is ridiculous--nobody could run a business using a tool like that. Are you supposed to go out of business until the time in the future when Apple reintroduces the feature you depended on?
I'm also a little skeptical about how "modern" the app is and what a "streamlined interface" it has if it lacks many key features that already existed in the present software and which professional photographers and heavy Aperture users counted on. It's easy to "streamline" an interface if you just remove functionality. What many of the "reviewers" do not seem to understand is that it could take a year of more of heavy work to reconstruct an existing Aperture library with all that it contains because it is not just a hierarchical collection of pictures with keywords.
If you've been looking at Photos, maybe you can fill in some of the gaps in knowledge of features.
--Will Photos retain the edits of Photos in an Aperture library? Pros may have tens of thousands of photos (or more) with edits done over the past 8 years. Suggesting all of these need to be redone is kind of ridiculous. And why would any photographer ever trust an Apple product again if a corporate move resulted in that!
--If some "tools" are missing, then all of them might as well be missing as far as importing an Aperture library since you wouldn't really know which of your tens of thousands of pictures which had been edited were affected. You couldn't trust the "versions" in your library as some would be missing some of the edits. Is there a list of which "tools" are missing? Almost all of them are pretty heavily used by large numbers of people.
--I hear that the "Curves" tool is missing. What? This is one of the most heavily used tools of all, and one that was added to Aperture because of popular demand. What happens to all the edits done with the Curves tool? Do they disappear, making the library of edits useless? What possible reason would there be for removing something that important?
--Does Photos feature a Web journal which allows collections of photos to be output as Web pages to be shared with clients or others?
--Can I exports groups of files in any size and format (RAW, jpeg, TIFF, PNG., etc.)? You have to be able to do this for the product to be of any use to a professional at all.
--Can I take advantage of multiple monitors to do things like show sets of photos and controls on one monitor and a full-screen image on the other?
--I've hear the flags feature is gone. Why? What happens to all the images I've flagged through the years for one reason or another? Are pros supposed to go through 100,000 images they have stored in their library and flag them all again?
--I've heard that "Stacks" is missing. For professional sports photographers, that is essential. You take bursts of images, you want them stacked on import so it's easy to pick the best from a burst and quickly get rid of the best. Why on earth would this be removed? It was one of the key selling points in early Aperture marketing and a heavily used feature.
--Does the new app show the focus points, hot and cold areas, etc. on the pictures if so desired?
--What happens to books, smart albums, Web journals, projects, folder, albums, etc. One heck of a lot of time has gone in to creating all of these.
--Can I search using any metadata, keyword, etc.?
--Can I customize my display to see the metadata I want in a particular situation. I certainly don't want to see all of it, but there are key fields which may be especially important.
--How long would it take to "import" an Aperture library of, say, 500 gigabytes, into Photos? Would this would require another storage medium to store the new library as well as the old? I'm a little wary here, as the Aperture to Aperture 3 upgrade took 24 hours or more for many people.
--Is iCloud storage of photos really practical for professionals who may have libraries of a terabyte or more? How exactly would all of this information migrate into the cloud? Who's got the bandwith for that?
Anyone who could do a proper comparison of Aperture and Photos, from the perspective of a sophisticated Aperture, and not just gush about how it's an improvement on iPhoto, would be much appreciated. I haven't been able to figure much out from what I've seen so far.

The app is in beta and we're not allowed comment. That's standard policy. What you can glean from reading around the web is the same that we can. My read on what I've seen: It's a step-up for iPhoto uses but for Pro users it's time to look elsewhere. It's not a robust Pro tool.

Best Practice for Installation of Both Leopard and Aperture 2 upgrade.

I've finally bought the bullet and purchased both Leopard and Aperture 2.0 upgrade. I've tried searching for a best practice to install both, but haven't been able to find one--only trouble shooting type stuff. Any suggestions, things to avoid, etc would be greatly appreciated. Even a gentle shove to a prior thread would be helpful. . . .
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
Steve

steve hutchcraft wrote:
I've tried searching for a best practice to install...
• First be really sure that all your apps work well with 10.5.3 before you leave 10.4.11, which is extraordinarily stable.
• Immediately prior to and immediately after every installation of any kind (OS, apps, drivers, etc.) got to Utilities/Disk Utility/First Aid, and Repair Permissions. Repairing Permissions is not a problem fixer per se, but anecdotally many folks with heavy graphics installations (including me) who follow that protocol seem to maintain better operating environments under the challenge of heavy graphics than folks who do not diligently do so.
• When you upgrade the OS do a "clean install."
• RAM is relatively inexpensive and 2 GB RAM is limiting. I recommend adding 4x2 GB RAM. One good source is OWC: http://www.owcomputing.com/.
• After you do your installations check for updates to the OS and/or Aperture, and perform any upgrades. Remember to Repair Permissions immediately prior to and immediately after the upgrade installations.
• If you are looking for further Aperture performance improvement, consider the Radeon HD 3870. Reviews at http://www.barefeats.com/harper16.html and at http://www.barefeats.com/harper17.html.
Good luck!
-Allen Wicks

Applescript and automator

I have studyed html for 3 days and wordpress for 3 days , word , excel for 5 days, and llustrator and photoshop 13 yeas ago for 6 months.
and still now its so hard to understand some how.
but I am in need of understading now with the printed documents from my computer.
and I wonder , so there are many defferent way to communicate with anyone out side of the world, right?
like I know email , fax, facetime,
but there are other way now I think because of the documents I found.
and also with applescript and automator can do anything possible like even the child can click one and start conecting etc..
I have the copy from its ,
does anyone have time to explain me what it is?
It's not that of teenager who doesn't want paretns to know or else,
but I am quite serious for my situations.
Please Help !
Mac OS snow leopard to lion to moutain lion,,,,,
but I don't know when it started yet.

Using JavaScript to script System Events wouldn't be any better, since it uses the same Apple Events mechanism (how well it uses it is another topic). To hold down a key you would need to use something that has access to the deeper system APIs, most likely using Xcode.
And yes, your code snippet will press the arrow key 5 times (I am guessing that the missing space in key code is a typo). You can place the cursor in a bunch of text in another application such as TextEdit, and use your script to activate it before performing the key codes to get a better idea of what is happening (trying to reposition the cursor in the Script Editor will reveal a bug with the delay command).

Show Current Date in Year Format (and now - 1, etc.)

Our form has some column headers that need to change each year, the headings are current year (2010) + previous 3 years. Am trying to programatically add the titles to eliminate modifying the form just to change the year, but not finding how to accomplish, and was checking out some date samples found, but no success yet. My question is 2 part - how/where do I put code, I don't need the user to enter anything, just want a column header. This example below is where I copied the idea from a sample and tried to adjust, it's on the calculate event of a date/time field, and I get an error message that says 'the display pattern "date-{MM/DD]" is incompatible with the object's data format. Define a compatible Display pattern. This display pattern error is the 2nd part of the question. How do I display only the 4 digit year?
year1.rawValue
= num2date(date(), "YYYY")
How do I accomplish this - am newbie on this! Thank you very much!

A: Show Current Date in Year Format (and now - 1, etc.)

1) I typically use a hidden field to capture the current date on the layout:ready event.
2) If year1 is a date object your script is valid but you are probably missing the display pattern date{YYYY} on year1.
If year1 is a text field you could could capture current year in a hidden field as
// form1.page1.currentYear::ready:layout - (FormCalc, client)
$.rawValue = Num2Date(Date(), "YYYY")
where currentYear has the display pattern date{YYYY} and add
this.rawValue = form1.page1.currentYear.rawValue;
to the calculate event of year1.
Steve

Can I use both iPhoto and Aperture on the same library?

I like some of the features of iPhoto (like faces and places) but prefer to work in Aperture for its rich tool content. Is there any way I can use both iPhoto and Aperture on the same library? Or, import images from Aperture into iPhoto?
Thanks much!
John

I think you may have answered a question I have with the above, but to be sure here is what I would like to do. I currently have iPhoto09 with about 50,000 pictures in it, which seems too much for it to manage. I would like to use Aperture, which I understand is better for managing a large number of photos, but still have iPhoto available to make slide shows, etc. for our AppleTV. Would the process you described above work for that?
Thank you

Use both iPhoto and Aperture with one library-best practice?

I'd like to use both iPhoto and Aperture, but have both programs use/update just one photo library. I have the latest versions of both programs, but was wondering if the optimum approach would be to:
a)point Aperture to the existing iPhoto library and use that as the library for both programs
or
b)import the entire iPhoto library into a new Aperture library, delete the iPhoto library, and point iPhoto to use the Aperture library.
I should point out that up to now I've been using iPhoto exclusively, and have close to 20K photos in the iPhoto library, tagged with Faces, organized into various albums, etc; if that makes a difference...
Appreciate any advice!
Thanks,
Dave

Thanks Frank! I'll try it that way.
Appreciate the help!

Best way to use BOTH iPhoto and Aperture?

I have been using iPhoto for 2 years and Aperture for one day! I'd like to continue using iPhoto for snapshots (where i can do minimal editing, tagging etc) but use Aperture when I need more robust management (editing hundreds of vacation photos and creating multi media slideshows).
What is the best way to do this?
Do I import everything into iPhoto and then import selected files / folders again into Aperture - which would mean 2 copies on my hard drive of anything I import into Aperture. I rather not use that much hard drive space if there is a better option.
Thanks for any advice.

You might want to take a look at this thread which address many of the same issues you're asking about here. In it I described how I made the switch from iPhoto to Aperture. It may be of some use to you.
Having bought Aperture, does iPhoto still have its uses?
regards

Applescript and Aperture - examples etc?

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