Automator to make Aliases

So I posted this in another forum but I guess it was the wrong one…
I'd like to use automator to make a folder action that once a day automatically scans a folder on my HD and makes aliases for all it's contents in another folder on my HD.
I've got the basics working ok. When it runs it makes the aliases all right. The only problem is, it will make an alias for a file that already has an alias. Is there a way to tell automator not to make an alias for a file that already has an alias?

So far in my automator folder action I have my action folder selected and I put in the command to "Get Folder Contents". Next I'd put in the script to check those contents, thats where it gets a bit fuzzy as I'm not sure what info "Get Folder Contents" would pass to the script and how to use that info to compare to the contents of the old folder with that of the new folder. Once I find out what files don't already have aliases I would pass those back to automator and "New Alias" action. Again I'm not sure what the script would pass back. Can the script pass back a list of files that need aliases?

Similar Messages

Can't Make Aliases - Permissions Issue?

I recently replaced two internal drives with 750 GB SATA drives. Did a clean install of OS X 10.5 from DVD to one of the drives, updated to OS X 10.5.8, and (manually, not auto-update) installed all of the Apple-indicated updates available. Because of previous issues which appeared to be related to permissions/privileges issues, I checked the permissions settings (via Get Info) of each of the Apple-installed applications in the Applications and Utilities folders. All but one of these indicated settings to be:
system Read & Write
admin Read & Write
everyone Read only
The exception was for System Prefs.app, where the settings were:
system Read & Write
everyone Read only
wheel Read & Write (wheel? What's that?)
I was able to create aliases for any and all of these applications.
I then installed the latest HP driver package for my HP 3970 scanner (Photosmart Studio1.0), and checked the permissions status for each of the nine applications produced. Seven of the applications indicated settings to be:
system Read & Write
admin Read & Write
everyone Read only
The exceptions here were:
HP Scan Pro:
rnewby (Me) Read & Write
everyone Read & Write
(unknown) Read & Write
HP Uninstaller:
rnewby (Me) Read & Write
everyone Read & Write
wheel Read & Write
I was able to create aliases for any and all of these applications.
I then installed (in the Utilities folder) CleanApp 3.2.0, with permissions at:
rnewby (Me) Read & Write
admin Read only
everyone Read only
and was able to create an alias of it.
I then installed BIAS Peak LE and an update (to v5.21), with permissions at:
system Read & Write
(unknown) Read & Write
everyone Read & Write
At this point, an attempt at producing an alias of Peak LE failed and produced the message:
"The operation could not be completed because you do not have enough access privileges"
I also noted that with Peak LE selected in the volume window, that the File/Make Alias menu item was greyed-out (inaccessible).
When I went back to attempt making aliases of some of the Apple applications, I found that some of them would now not produce an alias, sometimes producing the same error message and sometimes just doing nothing at all. Which ones are involved seems to be purely arbitrary. Repairing Permissions in Disk Utility had no effect. I've re-run the whole installation process from scratch and wind up the same.
I've looked through the Discussions relating to Permissions problems and such but can find nothing of this nature. All I have here is a bare bones setup of OS X applications, plus three second-party applications, and all of a sudden a problem with a basic function: aliasing. With the possible exceptions of a few Name items ("wheel" and "(unknown)") I don't see any permission entries in Get Info that should prevent me from producing aliases. Can anyone see anything that should be denying me the permissions to proceed?

Jeffrey,
Thanks for your input. While your response is correct, my real concern has to do with why I was able to make aliases of applications in the Applications folder initially, and then a short time later could no longer do so... as if something had caused a change in the Make Alias (menu) command. I am wondering why something like that would happen, and whether it might involve something that may cause additional problems further downstream.

Can't make aliases

i just noticed that some of my apps won't let me make aliases, which is super-annoying. i tried changing the owner from system to me (and i've got admin rights) but that didn't help. is there something wrong with my mac?

How do you try to make aliases? Usually, the best way is to Command-Option-Drag the item to wherever you want the alias. The "Make Alias" menu item makes an alias in the same folder as the original. If you don't have write-permission in that folder, it won't work.

I am trying to use automator to make a simple app that when I open it, it comes up with a dialog box that asks for a link that you want to download. and it will download it for you using the curl -O shell script in Terminal. How would I do it?

I want this so I can just download anything I want by just having the link and I have made a few things with shell scripts in automator before, just never anything where i need to input a value into the shell script.

Easy:

Copying folder of files to external drive only makes aliases (OSX 10.5.8)

I'm copying of folders, subfolders and files with picture and video files from a machine (Dual G4) with OSX 10.5.8. They need to be accessible to a windows machine so I've formatted an external hard drive with FAT 32.
When I drag the folder in question to the external drive I would expect it to copy the folder with folders with subfolders and files intact. However, what I get is the top level folder with the files immediately in that folder copied correctly but the sub-folders are only aliases. When I drag the folder to the external drive it goes through the motions of copying (shows a copy dialogue, takes several minutes to copy the 10Gb of data).
The files are all under 100mb and no folder with contents is over 1Gb. If I drag and drop the individual files from the subfolder, they copy fine.
Any ideas? Is there an osx behaviour setting that I'm missing?

Hi Bob,
Any illegal MS-Dos characters in Folder names, filenames...
" * / : < > ? \ [ ] |

Using Automator to make a new contact in Address Book

Hello.
I would love to create a service that allows me to, for example, highlight text in Safari, the choose a service that would create a new contact in Address Book based on that text.
Anyone know how to do this?
Thanks.

this can possibly work but could be tricky to do.
an address can have several lines for street address, several phone numbers and you'd have to figure out how to parse all the information correctly and also get rid of any extraneous stuff that may be selected along with the address. i confess I don't know quite how to do it. It might be possible though. snow leopard does have address recognition built in so it does it somehow.
try asking in the AppleScript forum under OS X technologies.

Is it possible to automate software instrument parameters in a MIDI region? And alias the region with the automation?

I am trying to track down a detail about how automation works in Logic Pro X.
What I want to know is:
1. Can I draw control-point curves (and smoothly bend them) in a MIDI region to automate a software instrument parameter (and/or smart controls)?
2. Can a region containing this automation be aliased and reused around the timeline (without the automation points being duplicated)?
If this is possible, can someone please post a couple of screenshots - a MIDI region with MIDI Draw automating (for example) the cutoff of an ES M, and screenshots of aliases around the timeline?
thanks!!
H

First, I'd recommend going to Track>other>new with same instrument. This gives you a blank lane to make a region with no notes.
Now, there are two strategies: do some track automation and then convert it to region. You can go into the local view menu and find the option to view MIDI automation and still adjust it. Now you can make aliases of that region. You need to be careful of accidentally writing new track automation, which is easy to do and can happen if you have 'move automation with regions' on for instance. If you make sure and delete all the track auto for this parameter you should be good (the line should be barely visible black, if it is highlighted in color, that means there is at least one active node at the beginning). If the parameter freaks out, instead of following your curve, you can bet there is track automation fighting with the region automation, you might need to tell the automation menu in the track header to show the parameter in question. None of this is a big deal and after doing it once you'll see.
The other strategy is to assign a controller to a parameter (or use the quick MIDI things on certain instruments - you mentioned ES2, which has that) and you can use the hyper draw in the piano roll. The view tip from the first strategy still works so you can edit the automation in the arrange. I prefer the first strategy because the knob you are automating will still move.
If you go to audio tuts plus (something like that) you can find a tut on the first method that's a few years old, and from Logic 9. Basically the same, you just have to look through different menus for everything.

Automated AppleScript not working...

Hi all,
I was trying to create a simple AppleScript to use in Automator to make any selected file visible or invisible.
The AppleScript is first supposed to get the path of the selected file/folder, and than use a Shell Script writte to to toggle by the SetFile command the visibily property of the file.
Here is try:
on run
tell application "Finder"
copy selection to theSelected
set outputPath to {}
copy (POSIX path of theSelected) to outputPath
do shell script "SetFile -a V " & outputPath
end tell
end run
The script is compiled, but when asked to run returns an error such as "Can't make «class docf» "file.txt" of «class cfol»..." etc.
Any clue?

As previously mentioned, vanilla AppleScript has dialogs for choosing either files or folders, but not both. Automator has a Finder action to allow choosing both as well as getting folder contents (nothing invisible though), so you might look at plugging those into a shell scrpt.
I also dug out a script that uses a choose from list dialog to allow choosing files and folders at the same time. I tweaked it a little to allow for invisibles and to return the contents of folders selected - it is fairly well documented, so you should be able to take it from here:
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px; height: 335px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #FFDDFF;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
on run -- example
ChooseStuff from (choose folder default location (path to home folder) with invisibles)
log result
end run
to ChooseStuff from SomeFolder
creates a list of folders and files to choose from
parameters - SomeFolder [alias]: the folder to list
local objects - Tool [script]: contains utility routines
returns [list]: a list of aliases
script Tool -- local utility handlers and properties
property FileHeader : "Choose File:"
property FolderHeader : "Choose Folder:"
to MakeList(Title, Content)
makes a list of items, with added formatting to extract them later
parameters - Title [text]: a title for the items
Content [list]: a list of content items
returns [list]: a list of the formatted items
set {TempTID, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, return & tab}
set TheItems to paragraphs of ((Title as Unicode text) & return & tab & Content)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to TempTID
return TheItems
end MakeList
end script
set ItemList to {}
-- format the files and folders into a list
tell application "System Events" to tell (SomeFolder as reference) -- invisibles
-- tell application "Finder" to tell (SomeFolder as reference) -- no invisibles
if (count folders) > 0 then set ItemList to ItemList & Tool's MakeList(Tool's FolderHeader, name of folders)
if (count files) > 0 then set ItemList to ItemList & Tool's MakeList(Tool's FileHeader, name of files)
end tell
-- present the dialog
if (count ItemList) is 0 then return ChooseStuff from (choose folder with prompt "There are no items in " & POSIX path of SomeFolder & " - please choose another folder:" default location SomeFolder with invisibles)
set Choice to (choose from list ItemList with prompt "Choose from " & POSIX path of SomeFolder & ":" OK button name "Select" cancel button name "Change Folder" with multiple selections allowed and empty selection allowed)
if Choice is false then return ChooseStuff from (choose folder default location SomeFolder with invisibles)
set Choice to Choice as Unicode text
-- seperate the items in the result
set TempTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
repeat with AnItem in {Tool's FolderHeader, Tool's FileHeader}
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to AnItem
if (count Choice's text items) > 1 then
set Choice to Choice's text items
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
set Choice to Choice as Unicode text
end if
end repeat
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tab
set Choice to rest of Choice's text items
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to TempTID
-- output the selected items
tell application "System Events" to tell (SomeFolder as reference) -- invisibles
-- tell application "Finder" to tell SomeFolder as reference -- no invisibles
set ItemList to {}
if (count Choice) > 0 then repeat with AnItem in (get name of items)
if AnItem is in Choice then if class of item AnItem as text is "folder" then -- get contents
repeat with AnotherItem in (get name of items of folder AnItem)
set the end of ItemList to (SomeFolder & AnItem & ":" & AnotherItem) as text as alias
end repeat
else
set the end of ItemList to (SomeFolder & AnItem) as text as alias
end if
end repeat
end tell
return ItemList
end ChooseStuff
</pre>

SRM 7.0: Authorisation object? Aliases for services in java portal?

Here's how we did in old SRM 5.0 system (the old and working scenaio):
In SRM 5.0 we employed S_ICF object to determine, whether a particular user who has just logged in to a system via web using a particular alias - is authorised to use this service.
We want external and internal users to use different ways to get into system. We have two aliases:
for internal users: http://srm5.domain.com/srmint
for external users: http://srm5.domain.com/srmext
We make aliases using transaction SICF:
/srmext
/srmint
to service /default_host/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/bbpstart
For alias /srmext we set field SAP Authoriz. = EXT.
For alias /srmint we set field SAP Authoriz. = INT.
We make 2 roles, both containing just a S_ICF auth object with differend values of field ICF_VALUE, an appropriate role to a user. If a particular user logs in to the system using an alias matching to the authorization value set in his role, he gets in, otherwise he gets an error upon logon. So that his logon is only successful if he used the right alias in URL (provided correct login name and password of course).
Question. How do we apply similar scenario in new SRM7?
Is there an authorisation object for java portal in SRM 7.0 - similar to S_ICF object for ABAP portal in SRM 5.0?
Is it possible and how to make an aliases to java portal, or otherwise automatically detrermine at runtime upon logon, which way (which URL or using some parameter in address line) the user has logged in?

This question has been answered by the following blog:
/people/ulli.hoffmann2/blog/2009/10/07/srm-70-running-it-without-the-portal

Is there a way to make Time Capsule back-up its contents to an external hdd connected to it's usb port.

     I wanted to know if there is anyway i could automatically backup my time capsule to an external drive connected to it's usb port. I tried using automator to make it copy newly added files into the external but it didn't seem to work as i had hoped and i wanted to know if anyone had any experiences in using other programs to copy the contents of one folder in the TC to another folder in a drive externally connected to the TC and also keep the contents of both folders up to date.
    In short, I am basically trying to make a "raid 1" and i know that TCs dont support raid natively so thats why i asked if anyone knows of a program that could do it from the mac side.
                                                                                                     Thanks.

Carbon copy cloner might work.. expect it to be very slow.. especially if you are using wireless.
There will be various rsync shareware available.. but like your experience getting it to actually work is loads of fun.. or NOT.

Can't make alias in Applications folder

Something has suddenly changed on my MacBook Pro (running 10.5.1), and I can't create an alias for anything in the Applications folder. If I do "Command-L", nothing happens. "Make Alias" on the File menu is grayed out. I am logged in as an Admin.
I've run Repair Permissions a few times, but that doesn't fix it. When I do "Get Info" on the Applications folder, I see permissions for _unknown, (unknown), and everyone. I don't see a listing for admins. I don't remember what used to appear before this problem started. The permissions for the Applications folder appear as drwxr-xr-x+.
Does anyone know a solution to this problem?
Thanks for any help.
Peter

Ok, I tried adding "admin" and "system". I unlock the panel, but when I click the "+" to add a user, the Finder closes completely, the screen goes blank except for the wallpaper, and then the icons and windows come back. I wonder if my OS install is damaged?
I was able to change the permissions on "Everyone" (which is already in the user list for Applications) to "Read & Write". This allows me to make Aliases. Not a good long-term solution, though.
I think I'll try re-installing Leopard and then reinstalling all the updates, and see if that brings back the correct users and permissions for the Applications folder. I hope it will also fix the problem I have with Finder crashing when I try to add users and permissions for an item.
Thanks,
Peter

BP aliases table BKK21, visible in UI

Hi
I am a CRM functional consultant. Now we have requirement to make BP aliases visible in UI. Through configuration I am able to make aliases tab visible in GUI (transaction BP). But corresponding Component/View is not available for UI. Please guide me how can I add it.
Thanks & Regards
Hitsm

Hi Hitesh,
We would need custom development for that.
Regards,
Harshit

Safari 4 breaks Automator apps

MBPro 10.5.7 Safari 4.0.2 Automator 2.0.3
Simple case: Apple's own "Tab Left", "Tab Right" speakable commands no longer work. They worked fine with Safari 3.x.x These files are located in ~/Library/Speech/Speakable Items/Application Speakable Items/Safari.
Other case: Every day I have a primary Safari window with several tabs. I had an Automator "Watch Me Do" app for this repetitive setup. It worked fine in Safari 3.x.x but fails in the middle with Safari 4. I have tried re-creating the "Watch Me Do" using Safari 4 but get the same (non) result.
Any suggestions?

In your second case do you mean that you are opening the same web pages every day in a series of tabs? If so that should still work. I've been doing that almost every day. Here's my current workflow that works with Safari. I am currently running 4.0.3 but it works with the earlier version as well.
1. Get Specified URLs
2. Display Webpages in Tabs.
To make this work use this version of the Display webpages in tabs action http://raoli.com/projects/automator/ Also make sure that you have tabbed browsing enabled in Safari.

Why Should I Use Automator?

I've had my MacBook for six days now, and am beginning to dig a little deeper into everything it offers. Obviously, I've found Automator. I'm a student and am lost as to exactly what the real purpose of this "Automator" is. Thank you in advance!
Here is my Question: Can anyone give me a specific example of why this is important to me and what use I could get out of it?

renaming files is great with automator!
i used automator to make a "rename file" plugin for my contextual menu. now, if i right click on a file, i see "rename file" in the menu. this is not such a big deal, BUT if i select one hundred files, i can right click on them as a group and rename them sequentially, instantaneously. REALLY useful when you are uploading a ton of photos that arent in iPhoto...
so automator helps you make quick work of tasks that would otherwise take forever because they are so boooooooring to do one at a time...
When u think AUTOMATOR, think BULK.
The Unofficial Apple Weblog has cool tutorials for Automator and Applescript. Take a look, you will get cool ideas:
http://www.tuaw.com/tag/Automator/

How to make multi alias at once ???

Is there a way to make an alias to all the files in a particular folder at once ?
A more advances task would be to make alias to all files in a folder and the folders sub-folders with the extension .MP3. Is there a way to do that ?

To make aliases to files of a given type in a folder's entire contents, enter this into the Script Editor in the /Applications/AppleScript/ folder:
tell application "Finder"
repeat with this_item in entire contents of folder "items"
if name extension of this_item is "mp3" then
make alias in folder "Created aliases" to this_item
end if
end repeat
end tell
Everything in quote marks can be customized except for the Finder in the first line; to specify a path, use colons to separate each element. For example, System:Library:CoreServices. Using a path is necessary when the folder isn't on the desktop. To do this with all items, delete the lines above and below the one starting with make.
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Automator to make Aliases

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