Folder action starts twice

This is wicked frustrating. All I'm creating is a simple automator action. It consists of 2 items - the "Run Shell Script" and a Growl Notification. In the shell script there is a single line to call a perl script.
I saved this as a folder action, and every time I drop something into it everything runs twice. I see the growl notification twice as well as in a log file that is written by the perl script.
The really frustrating part is that it was working 100% correctly, I removed an unnecessary "Get Specified Finder Items" step in the very beginning, and now it is doing this running twice thing. It still does it after I Time Machine restored back to the copy that was originally working. I have also right clicked the first action and told it to ignore input.
I've tried deleting everything, deleting and disabling the folder action so I would be starting clean from scratch. I recreated the script and it's still running twice. A different folder action works fine.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Message was edited by: mcewen98

At one point there were 2 copies, one called {name}.app and another just {name}. I'm not sure how that happened, but I fixed it before posting. There are 2 scripts in Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions now, but they are named differently and are for 2 different things. The other one works fine.
I think I may be on to something. If I remove the "run shell script" action, leaving only the growl action, save, and test, then the message is only displayed once. When I add the "run shell script" action (regardless of what the shell script actually runs - right now I'm only telling it to echo "test") I get the message twice.
Also, whenver I test within Automator it works correctly. The problem only happens when I exit out and then drop something into the folder using the finder. I also checked the folder action configuration. There are 2 folders listed, the one having the problem has a single script. If I edit the script the path to the .app is correct. This is the file that I'm editing in Automator.
Message was edited by: mcewen98

Similar Messages

Folder Action Start up - beach ball of death

The subject says it all. I can't turn on folder actions because it always ends like this. Does this work for anyone?

Are these Folder Actions ones that you have created, or the standard actions provided by the system? Automator saves Folder Actions that you create as workflows (packages) stored here with normal permissions and user/group ownership as you. If you tried to roll your own outside of Automator, it may be the source of your problems, whether by location or permissions, or more bad luck.
homedir/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions/
Here is what works via example:
I wrote a UNIX Bash shell script that converted specific types of files based on their extension into html files. This script also called on AppleScript to show an alert dialog listing the illegal files (if any) that were also detected. I wanted to attach this script to a Desktop folder so that I could drag and drop n-files for conversion.
I launched Automator and chose Folder Action. Then I choose Utilities > Run Shell Script. Dragged the latter onto the Automator workspace to the right. The settings for this action looked like the following (click to enlarge):
At the top you see the folder that I will attach the action too. And on the right, I chose input as arguments, because my shell script is reading from its command line.
The full shell script is pasted into the action. The normal shell shebang invocation is removed under these circumstances. Then you tell Automator to save the Folder Action, and exit automator.
Now, you right-click on the target folder, and at the bottom of the menu, is the Folder Actions Setup...
For mine, this is what the dialog should look like.
The Actions folder is irrelevant as it is a test folder for actions. I called my Desktop folder - file2html, and the Folder Action that Automator saved, was called file2html.workflow.
And here is the shell script that went into the folder action:

Problem running multiple folder actions at the same time

Hi,
Does anyone have some experience running multiple folder actions at the same time?
I've written a Applescript folder action that processes some files. When adding some files, the script starts and all goes well. The processing of each file takes a few minutes, but all files are processed correctly.
However, when adding some new files to the dropfolder, while the folder action is all ready processing other files dropped a few minutes earlier, the process that is all ready running immediately aborts and the folder action is relaunched on the new files, leaving the old files for what they are...
The same problem occurs with multiple folders, each having a folder action attached. When dropping files in "Folder A", the script starts processing. But if someone droppes files in "Folder B", The script of folder A aborts, and the script of folder B starts processing. When adding more files to the folders, the result is the same. In some casses, when the last dropped files are processed, the os continues where the operation was aborted on the previous files. But this not always happens. To make things worse, when you remove the items from the folders afterwords, the folder actions starts running again on items no longer present in the folder !!!!
Does anyone know how I can prevent the folder action being aborted when new files are dropped and placing the new files in "Hold", until the previous files are processed? How can I prevent a folder action being aborted when a item is dropped into another folder?
I've written a small script to test this behaviour. Just create one or more folders and attach the script below. Drop a item into the folder, wait a few seconds and drop another one in the same or another folder. To monitor what happens please check the console.
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
          set FolderName to this_folder as string
          set ItemName to added_items as string
          repeat with theIncrementValue from 1 to 15
delay 2
                    do shell script ("logger \"Folder: " & FolderName & " - Item: " & ItemName & " - Step: " & theIncrementValue & "\"")
          end repeat
          do shell script ("logger \"Folder: " & FolderName & " - Item: " & ItemName & " - Done...\"")
end adding folder items to
Thanks for any feedback.

That is pretty much the way Folder Actions work, especially since AppleScript is not multi-threaded. If you are using them as some intermediate step in a workflow, you might rethink the way you are handling the files (for example, use a droplet instead). Other options would be using launchd to watch a path or a shell script on a different thread.

2 issues - both related to folder action in 10.8.5

Since I upgraded earlier this year to a MacPro 10.8.5, I have a constant issue with the folder actions. When I click on a folder, the machine fast forwards to subfolders or contents, that I do not want or need. There is nothing smooth or easy flow to the misbegotten beast.   Worse, its jerky and disconcerting.
I turned off the setting for Spring-loaded folders and windows, ions ago, but still get the jerky psycho trip behavior.
The second issue is, twice this morning, as I was transferring music from CDs to the computer, the folders cease to work. Click on them and it is as though no content. This occurs on different CDS - all commercial made by music-industry manufacturer.
Close all programs. Ran disk utility to repair permissions. Then went to the Apple symbol on menu bar and clicked on Restart.
The screen becomes gray and a black circle spins, spins, and spins……    I reach down and hold inward, the start button on computer, and computer shuts down.
I push again to restart. For a few songs, it works, and then repeat the above.
Each time I check the system profile diagnostic and states it passed inspection. I have not received any error messaged.

An upate to the above.
I just noticed that the header on window (when I open the hard drive), it has a large question mark (?) and then a Preview icon to the right of it. When I clicked on the Preview icon, a document created last February opened. I then clicked on the question mark, and an error message popped up stating "The Item Can't Be Found."
Is my hard drive biting the dust?

Folder Action to Launch Perl Script

Hello.
I wrote a perl script which I wanted to execute when a file was dropped into a folder. I added a folder action with a very simple applescript:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
do shell script ¬
("perl /Users/Alexander/Library/Scripts/gte2.pl")
end adding folder items to
The folder action didn't do anything, any thoughts on what I'm doing wrong? Note, the perl script works fine when I run it from the terminal.
thanks.

Thanks Camelot, I appreciate the help. My script below is trying to read data from a file in folder in my system. So I will try your suggestion, I didn't realize the environment and path my be different.
Regards Alex
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
#This program is to convert files from gamin running GPS watch to text file which can be loaded into excel.
# To make executable, remember to set: chmod u+x <file>
#set all the flags. Note the flags are used to stop the matching
$i = 1; $k = 0; $start = "no";
#Open data file and find values
open(DATA,"/Users/Alexander/Alex's Misc/Health/Garmin_Conversion/run.tcx") || die "Couldn't open file*\n";
#read in the data line by line until "end of file"
while (<DATA>){
#start parsing for information to keep
if (/.<Id>./) {
@Idline=split(/>/);
@Idbeat=split(/T/,$Idline[1]);
$Id=$Idbeat[0];
if (/.<Track>./){
$start = "yes";
if ($start eq "yes"){
if (/.<Time>./) {
@timeline=split(/T/);
@timebeat=split(/Z/,$timeline[2]);
$Time[$i]=$timebeat[0];
elsif (/.<LatitudeDegrees>./) {
@HRline=split(/>/);
@HRbeat=split(/</,$HRline[1]);
$Latitude[$i]=$latbeat[0];
elsif (/.<LongitudeDegrees>./) {
@longline=split(/>/);
@longbeat=split(/</,$longline[1]);
$Longitude[$i]=$longbeat[0];
elsif (/.<AltitudeMeters>./) {
@altline=split(/>/);
@altbeat=split(/</,$altline[1]);
$Altitude[$i]=$altbeat[0];
elsif (/.<DistanceMeters>./) {
@distline=split(/>/);
@distbeat=split(/</,$distline[1]);
$Distance[$i]=$distbeat[0];
elsif (/.<Value>./) {
@HRline=split(/>/);
@HRbeat=split(/</,$HRline[1]);
$HR[$i]=$HRbeat[0];
$i++;
} #string matching
} #if start flag is yes
} #while data loop
close (DATA) || die "couldn't close file.\n";
#write all data to file in space delimited format
open (NEWFILE, ">/Users/Alexander/Alex's Misc/Health/Garmin_Converted/$Id run") || die "can't create file.\n";
$Time[0]="Time"; $Latitude[0]="Latitude"; $Longitude[0]="Longitude"; $Altitude[0]="Altitude"; $Distance[0]="Distance"; $HR[0]="HR";
print NEWFILE "0 $Time[0] $Latitude[0] $Longitude[0] $Altitude[0] $Distance[0] $HR[0]\n";
for ($j = 1; $j <= $i; $j++) {
$k=$j+1;
print NEWFILE "$j $Time[$j] $Latitude[$j] $Longitude[$j] $Altitude[$j] $Distance[$j] $HR[$j]\n";
} #for j loop
close (NEWFILE) || die "couldn't close newfile.\n";
#This is the end of the program

Unzip/Unstuff Folder Action

I wanted to set up a folder in which a file would automatically unzip/unstuff once it is done downloading from an FTP site, and V.K. in the Automator board showed me this applescript:
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;" title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
property DELAYTIMESECONDS : 5 -- How long to wait between checking file size.
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving theItems
repeat with f in theItems
set oldSize to 0
set newSize to -1
-- When newSize equals oldSize, it means the copy is complete because the size hasn't changed.
repeat while newSize ≠ oldSize
-- Get the file size.
set oldSize to size of (info for f)
delay DELAYTIMESECONDS
-- Sample the size again after delay for comparison.
set newSize to size of (info for f)
end repeat
-- Do your processing here on file f.
tell application "Finder" to open f
-- thats where my processing should start for each file
end repeat
-- Or start processing here to wait for all files to be complete.
end adding folder items to</pre>
I attached it to a folder, and it works, but only on the first file. If I let multiple files download concurrently, the script never kicks in for the second, third, etc. file. Can the applescript be modified so that it hits every file that is, eventually, saved to the folder?

The problem is that the folder action gets triggered the minute something gets added to the folder. This works when everything is added at once, but if there is much of a time delay between adding items there can be a problem, since repeatedly firing off the same folder action script on the same folder with different items doesn't seem to work very well.
Another thing to try would be to just look at the folder itself to stop changing size. After the folder has stopped changing size (presumably because the files have finished downloading), all of the files would then be processed. The items would need to be moved somewhere during the processing, so that the next time the folder action is triggered, it would just be processing the new items (if the processing just gets all of the files, a sub folder could be used).
The following folder action is similar to what you were using, it just looks at the folder size.
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
font-weight: normal;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px; height: 340px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #FFEE80;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving theItems
if (WaitForFilesToCopy into thisFolder for 60) then
tell application "Finder"
set theItems to (files of thisFolder) as alias list -- get a new item list
end tell
repeat with anItem in theItems
-- do stuff with anItem
end repeat
else
-- the downloads didn't happen in time
end if
end adding folder items to
to WaitForFilesToCopy into TheFolder for TimeToWait
waits up to the TimeToWait for files to be copied/downloaded to TheFolder
the test is based on the size of the folder not changing after several seconds
the rough TimeToWait may need to be adjusted if copying several files/folders
parameters - TheFolder [mixed]: the folder to check
TimeToWait [integer]: a maximum timeout value in seconds
returns [boolean]: true if copy/download finished, false if timeout
set {Possible, Interval} to {false, 3} -- change the check interval as desired
set CurrentSize to size of (info for TheFolder) -- get initial size
repeat (TimeToWait div Interval) times -- check every Interval seconds
delay Interval
set NewSize to size of (info for TheFolder) -- recheck size
if (NewSize is equal to CurrentSize) then
if Possible then -- no change since last time
return true -- success
else -- one more time...
set Possible to true
end if
else -- update size & Possible switch
set {CurrentSize, Possible} to {NewSize, false}
end if
end repeat
return false -- fail (timeout)
end WaitForFilesToCopy
</pre>

Folder action to find and replace text and change line feeds

I want to use a folder action to find and replace text and change Mac carriage returns to DOS line feeds inside text files.
The text to be replaced is: "/Users/wim/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Music" (without the quotes)
This text has to be removed (i.e. replaced by an empty string)
The text occurs many times within each file.
The files are playlists exported from iTunes in the M3U format (which are text files). They contain Mac carriage returns. These need to be changed to DOS line feeds.
I have found the following two perl commands to achieve this:
To find and replace text: perl -pi -w -e 's/THIS/THAT/g;' *.txt
To change carriage returns to line feeds: perl -i -pe 's/\015/\015\012/g' mac-file
I know that it's possible to make a folder action with Automator that executes a shell script.
What I want to do is drop the exported playlists in M3U format in a folder so that the folder action will remove the right text and change the carriage returns.
My questions are:
Is it possible to make a folder action that executes command line commands instead of shell scripts?
What is the correct syntax for the two commands when used in a folder action shell script? Especially, how do I escape the slashes (/) in the string to be removed?
Thanks for your help

Ok, I've include an applescript to run a shell command. The applesript command quoted form makes a string that will end up as a single string on the bash command line. Depending on what you want to do, you may need multiple string on the bash command lines. I've included some information on folder actions.
It is easier to diagnose problems with debug information. I suggest adding log statements to your script to see what is going on. Here is an example.
    Author: rccharles
    For testing, run in the Script Editor.
      1) Click on the Event Log tab to see the output from the log statement
      2) Click on Run
    For running shell commands see:
    http://developer.apple.com/mac/library/technotes/tn2002/tn2065.html
on run
    -- Write a message into the event log.
    log " --- Starting on " & ((current date) as string) & " --- "
    -- debug lines
    set desktopPath to (path to desktop) as string
    log "desktopPath = " & desktopPath
    set unixDesktopPath to POSIX path of desktopPath
    log "unixDesktopPath = " & unixDesktopPath
    set quotedUnixDesktopPath to quoted form of unixDesktopPath
    log "quoted form is " & quotedUnixDesktopPath
    try
        set fromUnix to do shell script "ls -l " & quotedUnixDesktopPath
        display dialog "ls -l of " & quotedUnixDesktopPath & return & fromUnix
    on error errMsg
        log "ls -l error..." & errMsg
    end try
end run
How to set up a folder action.
1) right click on folder. click on Enable folder actions
2) Place script in
/Library/Scripts/Folder Actions Scripts
3) right click on folder. click on attach folder action
pick your script.
Create a new folder on the desktop & try.
You can put multiple folder actions on a folder. There are other ways of doing this.
Here is my test script:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving dropped_items
    repeat with dropped_item_ref in dropped_items
       display dialog "dropped files is " & dropped_item_ref & " on folder " & this_folder
    end repeat
end adding folder items to
How to make the text into an AppleScript program.
Start the AppleScript Editor
/Applications/AppleScript/Script Editor.app
In Snow Leopard it's at: /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript Editor
Copy the script text to the Applescript editor.
Note: The ¬ is typed as option+return. ption+return is the Applescript line continuation characters.
You may need to retype these characters.
Save the text to a file as an script and do not check any of the boxes below.

Folder Actions script no longer runs on new file creation

Hope this isn't trivial.......first time posting here...hopefully in the right place.I'm not a total Mac OS X newbie...and surely no techie, either. Dabbled a wee bit with Automator and scratchin' my head on this one. Help, please!
Any idea why folder actions not running when a new file is saved? A simple add-color-label script created in Automator was workin' fine before I did a Snow Leopard-to-Leopard downgrade clean-install & account migration from external HD (TimeMachine) backup. Folder actions are enabled and script runs only if I start it with Automator Runner. Previously, it would label the file as soon as I saved it....now it needs a manual start. Is this default behavior in Leopard? Or am I missing something or doin' something wrong? Or is this a consequence of downgrade? I was sure I had the same script workin ok in my original Leopard install - though possibly un-modified at that time.
I have no clue why, but the new version I created recently (cpl wks ago?)worked the first time I added a new file but not thereafter...and in that instance it only labelled the file in Finder upon quitting Preview (file is a Grab saved as pdf).
The reason for the downgrade was compatibility problems with Photoshop CS4 on SL (OS & app all updated yet crashin' at the drop of a hat) - maybe due to lack of RAM? (only 1GB). Saw quite a few posts regarding SL running CS4 problems, so now I'm back to running 10.5.8 ..again.. and PS actually runs smooth like it did before.
Maybe these console messages are a help......or am I barkin' up the wrong tree?
6/11/11 7:44:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/Folder Actions Dispatcher.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Dispatcher[91] CPSGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 7:44:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/Folder Actions Dispatcher.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Dispatcher[91] CPSPBGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 7:44:54 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/AppleScript Runner.app/Contents/MacOS/AppleScript Runner[264] CPSGetFrontProcess(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 8:19:12 PM Automator Runner[415] Error while processing arguments
6/11/11 8:20:31 PM /Applications/AppleScript/Folder Actions Setup.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Setup[420] CPSGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 8:20:31 PM /Applications/AppleScript/Folder Actions Setup.app/Contents/MacOS/Folder Actions Setup[420] CPSPBGetProcessInfo(): This call is deprecated and should not be called anymore.
6/11/11 8:20:32 PM [0x0-0x5b05b].com.apple.systemevents[421] com.apple.FolderActions.enabled: Already loaded
And for that matter....why does Automator throw these messages? All apps (except iWork '08 apps) and OS are up to date.
- Just a few of the many actions not loaded:
6/11/11 7:48:25 PM Automator[294] The action “Start iTunes Visuals” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 7:48:25 PM Automator[294] The action “Stop iTunes Visuals” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 7:48:25 PM Automator[294] The action “Update iPod” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 7:56:33 PM Automator[294] name = name was not found
6/11/11 7:56:33 PM Automator[294] name = name extension was not found
6/11/11 7:56:33 PM Automator[294] name = file type was not found
6/11/11 8:00:29 PM Automator Runner[339] Error while processing arguments
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Import Files into iTunes” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Add Songs to iPod” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Add Songs to Playlist” could not be loaded because the application “iTunes” is the wrong version.
6/11/11 8:00:30 PM Automator Runner[339] The action “Apply SQL” could not be loaded because the application “Xcode” was not found.
Do I need to wipe the drive again and re-install everything?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Apologies if this seems long-winded.

Folder Actions are set up a bit differently in Leopard (they use an AppleScript wrapper), and several actions have been updated to use new technologies available in Snow Leopard. Looking at some of your console logs, it looks like some actions or workflows were just copied over from Snow Leopard. When changing versions like that, you should rebuild the workflows so that they link to the correct actions, and check added actions for any dependencies (an action won't be loaded if it requires resources that are not available).
Resaving your Folder Action workflow as a Folder Action Plug-in should do the trick.

How to monitor contents of sub-folders in a Folder Action?

Hello. I am wondering how I might read a folder's contentModDate within Terminal, i.e. from the command line and/or within a Folder Action.
This is the situation: I am running Periscope Pro (PP) for motion-detected videos, which by default, places them within the user's ~/Movies/com.zipzapmac.Periscope-Pro folder. Within that folder, PP creates a folder with it's name based upon (a) machine name and (b) primary MAC address. For example, we'll pretend this folder is called MacPro(001122334455). Then within that folder, as PP is running in motion-detection mode, it creates a new folder based on the current date and then, within that, places videos when motion is detected. Very straight-forward and it works just fine.
What I would like to do is have a folder action that (a) detects when any new folder or file is created within MacPro(001122334455) and (b) sends me a text-message via Apple Mail.
If the MacPro(001122334455) folder is empty, I can create a Folder Action that will detect the creation of a sub-folder when the first motion-detected video is created and that successfully sends me a text-message, BUT if a second video is created later within the same date-named folder, I will not get a message. I would get a text-message on the following day as a new folder is created within MacPro(001122334455) that signals the first motion-detected video of the day, but again not subsequent videos on the same day.
The text-message via Apple Mail I have easily scripted via Applescript and it works flawlessly.
Since Folder Actions only work upon a single pre-defined folder and not on sub-folders, I can never get automatically notified via text-message of second/third/fourth/etc. motion-detected videos as they're created... only the first one of each day.
So, I'm wondering whether there's a different way, perhaps through launchd that I might script this process. I'm thinking that if the contentModDate value of the MacPro(001122334455) folder could be read, compared with the last known value, and then---if different---execute the Applescript. OR PERHAPS I'm going about this all wrong and you might have another, better idea?
I'm open to suggestions.
-- David (da2357)

Well, I found a solution that does not use a Folder Action. Since Folder Actions will only work upon the specified folder and not upon the contents of any sub-folders, I needed a different solution.
First, I launched Terminal and created a new file called monitorPeriscope. I set executable permissions (chmod 700 monitorPeriscope). The contents of the file:
#!/bin/bash
# monitor the size of a specified folder and
# when the size increases, run an applescript
# copyright 2013, david dot allie at me dot com
# you are welcome to use this script, but please attribute authorship.
# CONSTANTS
WATCHFOLDER="/users/xadmin/movies/com.zipzapmac.Periscope-Pro"
SIZEFILEONE="/users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizeone"
SIZEFILETWO="/users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo"
MYAPPLESCRIPT="/users/xadmin/documents/dropbox/programming/applescript/motion_de tected_text.scpt"
# START
# calculates current size of watchfolder, saves to sizefiletwo, then
# performs a diff operation, result which is evaluated in if statement,
# and if different, runs applescript, and copy sizefiletwo to sizefileone
du -h -k -d3 -c $WATCHFOLDER | awk 'END{print}' | awk '{print $1}' > $SIZEFILETWO
diff --brief $SIZEFILEONE $SIZEFILETWO
if [ $? -eq 1 ]
then
    osascript $MYAPPLESCRIPT
    cp -f $SIZEFILETWO $SIZEFILEONE
fi
exit 0
Next, I created the following Applescript, replacing Some User, [email protected] and the text address of [email protected] below with my real values.
using terms from application "Mail"
tell application "Mail"
set theName to "Some User"
set theAddress to "[email protected]"
set theContent to "Motion detected in OFFICE."
set newMessage to make new outgoing message
tell newMessage
make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {name:theName, address:theAddress}
set visible to true
set sender to "[email protected]"
set subject to "ALERT "
set content to theContent
send newMessage
end tell
end tell
end using terms from
Next, using the touch command, I created /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo and /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo as needed for the bash shell script (touch /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizeone and touch /users/xadmin/.bin/foldersizetwo).
Next, still in Terminal, I navigated to ~/Library/LaunchAgents and created the following plist using nano, which I named com.xadmin.monitorPeriscope.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
          <key>Disabled</key>
          <false/>
          <key>Label</key>
          <string>com.xadmin.monitorPeriscope</string>
          <key>ProgramArguments</key>
          <array>
          <string>/users/xadmin/.bin/monitorPeriscope</string>
          </array>
          <key>RunAtLoad</key>
          <true/>
          <key>StartInterval</key>
          <integer>900</integer>
</dict>
</plist>
Finally, all that was needed was to log out and then log back in. Once I launched the Periscope Pro app and started the motion-detection mode, I left my office... and within fifteen minutes I received a text message indicating that motion had been detected in my office. In the plist above, I set a StartInterval of 900 seconds, which corresponds to 15 minutes. I can reduce it down to 300 seconds (5 minutes) without it adversely affecting performance, but I'm going to leave the setting where it is for now.
So, I solved my own problem and I'm pleased with the results.
-- David

Help Needed: Automator Applescript for Folder Action - Encode Video

Hi !
I have created an Automator Applescript for a Folder Action to do the following:
When a new video file is moved to the target folder (i.e. Download of Vuze is done), automatically launch the Applescript Action that does the followin g(Applescripted):
1) Using "run shell script" and FFMPEG on a UNIX command line, determine Width/Height, Framerate, Bitrate
2) Calculate encoding parameters (slightly reduced bitrate, reduced Aspect etc.)
3) Using "run shell script" with ffmpeg on the command line and the calculated parameters to encode the video file
At the same time, the action is written to a log file so I know if a file is recognized, when encoding started etc.
It works fine if I save this Action as an .app, make an alias on the Desktop and drop video files on it.
It also works fine if I attach the script to a folder as a folder action and drag a video file in there.
However, when I attach the script as a folder action to the Vuze download folder, it encodes only some video files, i.e. if there was a download of 5 files, chances are good that it will not encode 1 or 2 files out of those 5.
If for example a second download finishes while the encoding for the first download is still going on, sometimes the second file starts encoding after the first encode finishes, sometimes it does not, the file does not make the log file at all, i.e. the folder action missed it or the automator action dropped it because it was still encoding. Still, sometimes it happens, sometimes not.
As I need a solution that is 100% accurate, I would like to ask if there are any ideas on how to do this better maybe? As I am not an Applescript Guru, I would need some help to know what works and what doesn't and what the syntax is.
My main idea right now:
Similar to how ffmpegX works with its "process" application, have a second script (as .app) that receives the files to be encoded from the automator action and puts them in a queue, then proceeds to encode this queue while the main automator action is free to receive the next file.
Writing this second app is quite straightforward (a modified version of my current script) but I have some questions I need help with:
1) How do I call another applescript from within an existing applescript that launches the new applescript in a new process?
2) How do I pass parameters to this new applescript?
3) In case of this "Queueing" Idea, once I called the external applescript the first time, how do I make sure when I call next time, that I don't open a second instance of this script but rather pass another queue item to the original instance to be processed?
Or in general: Is there a better way to achieve this automatic encoding solution that I have not thought about?
Alternatively:
Does anyone know how to call the "process" application that comes with the ffmpegX package with the correct parameters to use as a queueing / processing tool?
Thanks!
Joe
Message was edited by: Joe15000
Message was edited by: Joe15000

To do this, I created an Automator workflow with an Applescript snippet to change the 'media kind'.
Here is the 'Run Applescript' workflow step code:
on run {input, parameters}
          tell application "iTunes"
                    set video kind of (item 1 of input) to movie
          end tell
          return input
end run
Prior to this running, I have an 'Import Files into iTunes' workflow step.
You can switch out 'movie' with: 'TV show', 'music video', or anything in ITLibMediaItemMediaKind.
Good luck,
Glenn

Folder Actions will not work - tried everything

Recently Folder Actions simply stopped working on 10.6.4. They worked fine before then recently just stopped working.
I've tried everything I can think of, including:
1. completely removing enabling & disabling & enabling folder actions through the setup app.
2. trashing folder actions plist files in user domain and relaunching
3. disabling related launchd processes with lingon
4. trashing launch agents in user domain and also trying to unload them in terminal
5. trying to kill the folder actions dispatcher process in activity monitor (just relaunches, as it should)
6. emptying system caches including dyld shared cache using cocktail
7. doing most of the above and restarting
It's driving me nuts. Any other ideas?
here's some entries from syslog:
8/2/10 9:31:37 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 6 seconds
8/2/10 9:37:29 AM Folder Actions Setup[4403] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 9:43:37 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[309]) Exited: Killed
8/2/10 9:46:23 AM [0x0-0x3a03a].com.apple.systemevents[360] com.apple.FolderActions.enabled: Already loaded
8/2/10 9:52:07 AM Folder Actions Setup[1083] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 9:52:16 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 7 seconds
8/2/10 9:53:02 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 1 seconds
8/2/10 9:56:18 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/10 10:00:58 AM Folder Actions Setup[2190] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 10:01:01 AM com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[2236] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.FolderActions.folders
8/2/10 10:01:30 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
8/2/10 10:01:42 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[269] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 9 seconds
8/2/10 10:05:03 AM sudo[2622] lryter : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/lryter ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl unload -w /Users/lryter/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
8/2/10 10:10:25 AM Folder Actions Setup[676] * WARNING: Method selectedRowEnumerator in class NSTableView is deprecated. It will be removed in a future release and should no longer be used.
8/2/10 10:10:27 AM com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[680] launchctl: Couldn't stat("/Users/lryter/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist"): No such file or directory
8/2/10 10:10:27 AM com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[680] nothing found to unload
8/2/10 10:10:38 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[268] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 8 seconds
8/2/10 10:13:17 AM sudo[943] lryter : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/Users/lryter ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl unload -w /Users/lryter/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
8/2/10 10:14:01 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[268] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 4 seconds
8/2/10 10:14:14 AM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[268] (com.apple.FolderActions.folders) Throttling respawn: Will start in 1 seconds

I finally go Folders Action to work, after being unable to use it even for a simple beep for years now.
Here is what I did:
1. Changed permissions to 755 for the following folder and two contained files (note that 775 didn't work for me)
~/Library/LaunchAgents/
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist
2. Changed the following lines within ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist (using TextWrangler)
from:
<key>OnDemand</key>
<false/>
to:
<key>OnDemand</key>
<true/>
Prior to the permissions changes within #1 above, the value of <true/> kept getting changed back to <false/> by something in the system... and though
there was improvement by the permissions changes, the following console message appeared until false was changed to true.
com.apple.FolderActions.enabled[4127] launchctl: Error unloading: com.apple.FolderActions.folders
At this point true is staying true, and not being changed by unknown forces to false, and the above message is not appearing.
3. The only other thing I did prior to #1 and #2 above, was to run the script (unsaved),
tell application "/System/Library/CoreServices/Folder Actions Dispatcher.app" to tick
This little tell line caused something to occur where my Folder Action surprised me and worked for the first time though it took about 30 seconds and was erratic,
sometimes performing, sometimes not, though if I would do move something into the folder to trigger the action that should occur, and did not occur, then at the point
running the above tell line or script would cause the action to occur.
4. At this point I don't fool with the tell line or script from #3, and it seems that systemevents has gotten involved, as well as launchd, and with my simple Folder Action script
I'm getting the folder action within 10 seconds compared to 30 to 45 if ever seconds.
5. This is still too early to tell if this is the wonder pill I've needed since Leopard, and now Snow Leopard (and maybe Tiger as well: I forget when I even tried Folder Actions).
There was a time when I moved things around, so that the items normally found in the former AppleScript folder, were placed elsewhere in subfolders, so I don't know if that lead to this...
because I could get Folder Actions to work on Macs in the Applestore, but not my own Mac. Watching the console messages was helpful. I don't think it's a big concern that
deprecated messages are found sometimes. That's a just a normal part of the constantly rebuilding of things that goes on. It's more like a reminder that we've got an upgraded
OEM part were going to start using, and the older part won't be available after such and such date, so program accordingly, and in the meantime drive.

How to set up Automator Folder Actions?

I have set up and sucessfully tested a workflow which sends any file found in a particular folder to the "paperless" app, then moves all files to a different folder called "Archived attachments".
HOWEVER as a folder action, nothing happens when a file is put into the folder. The file just sits there in the folder.
To create a folder action I opened "new folder action" in Automator, then dragged and dropped the working workflow file into the workspace, then set "Folder Action recieves files and folders added to" the appropriate folder, let's call it "Attachments".
Just to complicate things, the files are placed into the "Attachments" folder using an applescript that captures all pdf mail attachments. This applescript works succesfully.
So, where could I be going wrong?
The working workflow "Attachments.workflow" consists of:
Get Specificed Finder Items
Make Sequential
Get Folder Contents
Open Finder Items
Get Folder Contwents
Label Finder Items
Get Folder Contents
New Dated Folder
The erronious Folder Action consists of:
Run Workflow (Attachments)
In folder actions setup:
"Enable Folder Actions" is ticked
"PDF Attachments" folder is ticked
"Attachments_folder.workflow" script is on.

I'm confused. You showed two Automator actions with the same name, one was a folder action one wasn't.
Are you sure the correct Automator action (the one that is a folder action) is attached to the folder?
If when the Folders Action setup window is opened and you select Articles_Folder.workflow and then edit script are you getting the right workflow?
Assuming you do I would start off very simply. Try this:
It will label green screen shot image files saved to the Desktop.
See if this works for you.

Downloads Folder Action

Hello,
I found a simple shell script that will help keep my Downloads folder organized by modification date. I used Automator to create a Finder Plug-In that's nothing but a Run Shell Script action: touch "$." Works great. I saved it as a folder action and attached it to my Downloads folder, but it won't work as a folder action. I added a Wait for Files to Copy action (testing with a pdf extension and download), and it still doesn't work. I tried to attach it to a dummy folder on my desktop that I directed Safari to save downloads to, still wouldn't work. I've saved it as a script, and attached it to the folder as a script, no joy. Will someone please help me with this. It should be very simple, I just want the items to be touched without having to touch each one myself.
I have checked permissions on my user folder and Downloads folder, also deleted ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.FolderActions.enabled.plist and com.apple.FolderActions.folders.plist, logged out/in, disabled and re-enabled folder actions. Also, I have another folder action attached to my Downloads (Unquarantine), and it seems to work fine.
Thanks in advance for any help,
Jess

I'm closing this question because the folder actions somehow work now. I must have shut down/started up enough times, or done something inadvertently to kick it into gear. I frequently have to check to make sure the folder actions are enabled, but other than that, my script works like a charm! Thanks for giving this your attention.
Jess

Create folder action in automator

I want to create a folder action that will move downloaded website backups into a specific folder.
I cribbed the automator folder action shown below from Macworld
The Folder Action appears not to work when left to just monitor the folder.
However, if I force the Action to run from within automator it works, albeit with an error message at the beginning saying that you can't execute the action from within Automator. Still it finds the file and moves it to the intended destination.
By way of checking this I looked at the "Set Up Folder Action" by right clicking on the downloads folder. After clicking there is a long delay but when the panel opens there is no content, see second image below. I tried clicking the + button to add the "Downloads" folder but after a long delay the "Open" dialog closes and nothing has appeared in the panel. I assume that any folder action should show up in this panel, but I've no experience in using it.
Any suggestions as to a problem with the Action or why the panel is blank and why I can't attach the Action using this setup panel?
Thanks
Folder Action
Note: Path and File have been omitted.
Note: OS X 10.10.2
Folder Action Setup

I'm confused. You showed two Automator actions with the same name, one was a folder action one wasn't.
Are you sure the correct Automator action (the one that is a folder action) is attached to the folder?
If when the Folders Action setup window is opened and you select Articles_Folder.workflow and then edit script are you getting the right workflow?
Assuming you do I would start off very simply. Try this:
It will label green screen shot image files saved to the Desktop.
See if this works for you.

Using Automator Folder Actions

I have an automator folder action that runs to take any pdf file dumped in to the folder, send to the printer and then delete it.
How do I make this run on a server that I'm not logged in to (effectively as a service), so that if a pdf file is generated somewhere on the network (maybe even a PHP script on a web site hosted on this server) and copied to this folder it still auto prints to the network printer?

I'm using a hot folder to import to Aperture as well, and also had the same problems when I try to configure it.
I solve it by creating an action in Automator that will copy all the images from the memory card to a temp folder when a card is inserted in the card reader. At the end of the action all the files inside the temp folder are moved to the actual hot folder, as you said this is almost instant so works perfectly.
So basicly the workaround is the following:
Card inserted - Image capture starts and copy all the images to a temp folder - Images then move to Aperture's hot folder - Aperture gets all the images.

Folder action starts twice

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