Applescript to take a file name element to change Date Created

Question

This so beyond me but I have been led to believe is can be done. Can anyone help me please?
I have thousands of archive files. ALL of these files' names start with the date in dd-mm-yy format. eg. 31-01-11 File Name.pdf or 25-12-09 Filename-02.pdf
I would like to be able to drag a folder onto an application and for that app to search through the folder and all sub-folders, for these files and change the files' Date Created to the date at the start of the filename.
This feels so easy to type but I fear much more complicated to do however I do thank you very much in anticipation for your help.
Best wishes
John

Answer 1

Hello
Here's something you might try if the problem is still open.
It uses SetFile(1) command in Developer Tools, which you need to have intalled.
cf.
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/m an1/SetFile.1.html
It can set creation date to any date between 1970-01-01 to 2038-01-18 inclusive.
Simple check for date in file name is implemented so that error log is written to a log file on desktop when given date is considered invalid or SetFile raises error.
One thing to note.
It will process both files and directories under given directory tree in order to process package file. But it is not smart enough to leave the package contents alone, which means if a package contains a file or directory with name matching the pattern, it's creation date will be also changed.
Minimally tested under OSX 10.2.8 at hand.
But NO WARRANTIES of any kind. Please use it on test folder first.
Good luck,
H
--SCRIPT
on open aa
main(aa)
end open
on run
open ((choose folder) as list)
end run
on main(aa)
list aa : alias list of source directories
set logf to (path to desktop)'s POSIX path & "creationdate_error_log" & (current date)'s time & ".txt"
repeat with a in aa
set a to a as alias
if (a as Unicode text) ends with ":" then -- directory
set p to a's POSIX path's text 1 thru -2 -- posix path without trailing /
set sh to "path=" & p's quoted form & ";
logf=" & logf's quoted form & ";
find "$path" -name '[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]-[0-9][0-9]*' -print0 | while read -d $'\0' f;
do
fn=${f##*/};
dd=${fn:0:2}; ((d=10#$dd));
mm=${fn:3:2}; ((m=10#$mm));
yy=${fn:6:2}; ((y=10#$yy));
if [[ ($d -ge 1 && $d -le 31) && ($m -ge 1 && $m -le 12) && ($y -ge 70 || $y -le 38) ]]; then
if [[ $y -ge 70 ]]; then
cc=19;
else
cc=20;
fi
res=$(/Developer/Tools/SetFile -d "$mm/$dd/$cc$yy 00:00" "$f" 2>&1);
if [[ -n $res ]]; then
echo "# $res ; failed for : $f" >> $logf;
fi
else
echo "# invalid date in name : $f" >> $logf;
fi
done"
do shell script sh
end if
end repeat
end main
--END OF SCRIPT