Creating Nested Aliases

Question

Hi
I am fairly new at AppleScript. I set up quite a few macs for colleagues, and I am trying to develop a script which automates the creation of folders of aliases for the Dock. Currently I manually create a folder called Dock Aliases. Inside this I creates folders called Applications, Graphics, Network, Utilities etc. Finally, I create aliases to all the main applications, graphics programs, network stuff etc (I aim to define these within the script), and copy them to their relevant folders inside Dock Aliases. The alias name is then stripped from the aliases. For each of the folders I copy an appropriate icon from an application - eg Disk Utility's icon is a nice icon for the Utilities folder I created inside the Dock Aliases folder. Finally, I drag these folders of aliases to the dock, and when I click and hold on them, I get nice pop up menus to all the programs I want.
I routinely do this manually, but for standard configurations of Macs - which we have, this could be Applescripted quite nicely.
I've got as far as creating a folder called Dock Aliases on the desktop, but now I'm stuck trying to create the folders within it. I've tried a lot of combinations with no success. My code so far is:
tell application "Finder"
set docksfolder to make new folder at desktop with properties {name:"Dock Aliases"}
set sourcefolder to (path to desktop folder) & "Dock Aliases" & ":" as string
set appsfolder to make new folder at location sourcefolder with properties {name:"Applications"}
set appsfolder to make new folder at location sourcefolder with properties {name:"Graphics"}
-- etc for the other folders
end tell
Questions:
1. How do I create folders within my Dock Aliases folder on the desktop.
2. How do I create an alias of say Text Edit and copy it to the Applications folder I have created in my dock aliases folder
3. I'm pretty good on editing aliases out of file names
4. What about copying the icon from say Disk Utility to become the custom icon of the Utilities folder within Dock Aliases?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Regards
Dave

Answer 1

Hello
The second script contained also several mistakes (misplaced try-end try pairs).
Here is a working copy.
set sourceFolderName to "Dock Aliases" -- Master folder.
set folder_List to {"Applications", "Graphics", "Network", "Utilities"} -- Sub-folders, of master folder.
tell application "Finder"
try -- Allows 'sourceFolderName' to currently exist.
set docks_folder to make new folder at desktop with properties {name:sourceFolderName}
end try
set source_Folder to (((path to desktop folder from user domain) as string) & sourceFolderName & ":")
repeat with i in folder_List -- Create sub-folders of sourceFolderName
try -- Allows 'source_Folder & i' to currently exist.
make new folder at folder source_Folder with properties {name:i}
end try
try
if (i contains "Network") then
-- Obtain only 'Internet location' files of current user's 'Favorites' folder.
set application_List to (every item of item (((path to library folder from user domain) as string) & "Favorites:") whose kind contains "Internet Location")
else
-- Obtain all applications of folder 'source_Folder & i'
set application_List to every application file of entire contents of item (((startup disk) as string) & i)
end if
on error
set application_List to {}
end try
if application_List is not {} then
repeat with j in application_List -- Cycle through list of applications.
-- Add alias of each source_Folder & i' application to respective 'sourceFoldername' sub-folder.
try
make new alias at folder (source_Folder & i) to (j as string)
end try
end repeat
end if
end repeat
end tell
From my point of view it would be better to replace every occurence of "as string" by "as Unicode text" because the Finder is now using this encoding.
For english speaking users it's not a problem but for those with languages using accented chars, it would be useful.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 16 août 2006 17:11:18)