Filter image files in finder against txt/xls file

Question

I'm looking for a solution to the following scenario:
I have a folder that contains over 15,000 images (jpgs).
I receive a request from a customer for 200 of those images. (This list exists in txt/xls format only.)
Is there a way to filter the images and extract (in a new folder) only the 200 out of 15,000 image files that my customer needs without manually searching for them one at a time?
The list of items requested will change with every customer, so I'll need it to be flexible whenever I receive a new list of items requested. I'm not sure if this is something that can be done with Automator or AppleScript.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!!

Answer 1

well, ok, here's a basic script that you'll need to adjust to your needs. Note that it expects a text file with one file name per line.
set imagePolderPath to "~/Main Image Folder"
set destinationFolderPath to "~/Destination Folder"
-- choose the text file with the list of names
set listFile to POSIX path of (choose file)
-- the following assumes the list file is a text file with one image name per line
set dataList to paragraphs of (read listFile as «class utf8»)
tell application "System Events"
          repeat with thisFileName in dataList
  -- I've used 'begins with' since I don't know whether you'll get these file names with or without extensions. This could in aberrant cases result in unwanted files being included.
  move (files of folder imagePolderPath whose name begins with thisFileName) to destinationFolderPath
          end repeat
end tell
the as «class utf8» bit is there in case you have non-English file names (applescript will misread uft8 characters).
Note that if your only goal is to create a zip file, that can be done straight from the script without moving files.