'Hint Movies' automator action problem

Hi there,
I've been trying to come up with a workflow to hint some movies - but I can't get Automator to run the action properly. I want it to grab a bunch of MP4 files, hint them, and save them somewhere.
Here's my workflow:
Ask for Finder Items *
->
Hint Movies *
->
Copy Finder Items *
However, although I seem to be able to get the files hinted, the step which saves the files failes. The log notes that : "the action "Copy Finder Items" was not supplied with the required data".
Is there any way I can fix this workflow?
Thanks.

I solved the QT batch process issue. Looking more closely at the affected files, their properties were not correctly set. They were recognized as QT movies, correct extension, but the creator/file type codes were not correctly set as the file were originally compressed on a windows machine.
using FileType app, I set all files to:
Creator: TVOD
File Type: Moov
and it works perfectly. Finally!

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Automator action to move a specific file type to a folder..

've started shooting pictures in raw and jpg format. After I grab the pics from my camera, I'd like to put the raw files in a separate folder.
I've played around a little but can't figure it out-- so I dunno if it's possible. Is there a way I can make an automator action where I enter or select the folder and run the action. It then makes a folder named RAW and moves all of a certain file type to the RAW folder. Is this possible with automator?
I'd like it to make a folder named RAW inside the current folder I'm in or have selected.
I think I figured this out using filter finder items, and move to specific folder, but I think I need to learn how to use variables for this to work how I want it. Do I need variables or is there another way?

the following script should do it provided your Raw image files have extensions "raw" (do they?). If they have another extension, modify next to the last line accordingly.
tell application "Finder"
set theFolderName to "Raw"
set curFolder to (folder of the front window as alias)
-- Determine whether the specified folder exists
if folder theFolderName of curFolder exists then
set theFolder to folder theFolderName of curFolder
-- Create a new folder, if it doesn't exist
else
set theFolder to make new folder at curFolder with properties {name:theFolderName}
end if
move (every file of curFolder whose name extension is "raw") to theFolder
end tell
Save the above script as an application using Script editor. To use it, select the folder you want to work on and run the script.

Find Create Move -- Automator Help~

Here is what I want to do...
I have a folder with 1000+ files. I want to create a folder with a filename, and move all files associated with that name to a newly created folder.
So. I've created a follow automator action.
Find Finder Items
Where: a specified folder location
Whose: name - contains - XYXYX
New Folder
Name: XYXYX
Where: Desktop
Move Finder Items
To: (New Path - Variable)
^
^
When I do this, it selects all files contain XYXYX in the filenames, then COPY to a folder named "XYXYX" which is created on the Desktop.
Honestly, I'm not even sure how "New Path" variable works in this Automator. But, somehow, I got this almost working the way I wanted, except that I have to input both Finder Name AND New Folder Name.
Ideally, I would just input XYXYX once, then Find / Create / Move automatically.
Can anyone help??

You can save to and get from whatever variables you have created - the "New Path" is just the default name for a new variable that is going to contain file paths.
The problem with inputting your XYXYX value just once is that the *Find Finder Items* action doesn't accept variables. You might check out this article to try and get it to take variables, otherwise a *Run AppleScript* action (or just an AppleScript) could be used.

Trouble Cleaning Up At The End of an Automator Action

So my automator action currently downloads a file (a .dmg), mounts it, copies its contents to Applications, and then... I then want to unmount the dmg and throw the dmg away. However, by this point I no longer have the references to these two items:
download file -> mount file -> copy items
I'd like to be able to get back to the downloaded file so I can trash it, but there's no way to "store" its name or reference or anything. Any ideas? Unfortunately I can't just do a search for it since its name is often different.
Thanks in advance!

ineedadifferent...
Try adding the following steps at the end of your current workflow. Steps 1-4 are Finder actions; step 5 is an Auomator action:
1) *Get Specified Finder Items* -- in the Open dialog navigate to your Macintosh HD > Users > +your name+ > Desktop. Select the Desktop folder and hit Open. Leave the Options unchecked.
2) *Get Folder Contents* -- Leave both "Repeat for each subfolder found" and the Options unchecked.
3) *Filter Finder Items* -- Whose: Name Extension - Is equal to - dmg. Leave the Options unchecked.
4) *Move to Trash*
5) *Run AppleScript* -- your script might look like this:
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder" to eject (every disk whose local volume is true)
return input
end run
Good luck!
Andrew99

Cannot add content to iTunes U using Woolamloo Automator Action

We cannot use the Woolamloo Automator action to add any content to our iTunes U site recently. Ex: We created a workflow using “Get iTunes U XML” , “Find Sections in iTunes U XML” and “Add divisions into iTunes U” actions, the returned result was the section handle to which the division was expected to be added and the the log said “ Get iTunes U XML completed, Find Sections in iTunes U XML completed, Add Divisions into iTunes U completed, Workflow completed”, however, no division was added to the section actually. It’s the same with other adding content actions. But we had no problem with deleting actions.
Meanwhile, we cannot access the iTunesU webservices, either. When we try “curl https://deimos.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/API/ShowTree/nd.edu.roothandle?credentials=(administrator credential)&identity=(identity)&time=(time)&signature=(signature)&x=true”, the result is : “Forbidden. You don’t have permission to access this document on this server”. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

Yes, we still have this problem.
We believe the shared secret and credentials are correct because we can get the site XML via Woolamaloo Automator action.
We also attached the debug suffix in the script and the result was "Because the received signature and time were valid, the received identity and credentials were accepted by iTunes U." And we can use the same signature to log in to our iTunes U site. But when performing the HTTP GET request, we got the "request is forbidden" error.
Thanks for your help, we do appreciate.

Script/Automator action/CSS to change text encoding?

As an expat Israeli, I read an Isareli newspaper online every day. Most pages on their site <http://www.haaretz.co.il> display fine with the text encoding set to Default. Some, though, forget that Hebrew is written right-to-left, and insist on displaying everything backwards, which makes it a bit hard to read.
To get such a page to display correctly I need to change the text encoding to Hebrew (Windows). However, it gets a bit boring to go to the View menu, scroll down to Text Encoding, then scroll down again to Hebrew (Windows), especially when I have to do it several times a day.
So, I thought automating this procedure would be the way to go. Problem is I cannot find either Automator actions or Applescript Dictionary items that relate to text encoding.
Skating on thinner ice, I think a style sheet could help tell Safari to display a page with the right text encoding, but:
1. I have no idea how to write such a style sheet.
2. When I looked at the source HTML of a page that displays correctly, and one that doesn't, I find that both include the following tags:
charset=windows-1255 (inside a larger META tag), and
<META HTTP-EQUIV="CONTENT-Language" CONTENT="he">
These are the tags that, I thought, would allow me to distinguish between a "good" page and a "bad" one. But if both contain the same tags...
Any ideas on how I can automate this text encoding switch?
TIA,
Gidi
iMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I agree with you that the authors are doing something
not exactly kosher. But if I will complain, I know
their knee-jerk response: Ahhh, you're using a
Mac...
I don't see how a windows browser could display it correctly either. Win-1255 has to be logical order, and they probably have some guys composing articles in visual order and then copy/pasting them into the Win-1255 pages without paying attention.

Sharing Automator Actions?

I created a simple automator action. For those with VirusBarrier Plus, you'll note that it cannot watch folders, just scan them or do schedule scans. This means it can't scan everything you download.
Until... I made a simple automator action. When a file is added to your downloads folder (Folder Action), it runs the command line scanner for VirusBarrier, and repairs anything that's found.
It's incredibly simple, here's the command that gets called from the folder action:
/Applications/VirusBarrier\ Plus.app/Contents/MacOS/escanner -r ~/Downloads/
My question is: is it safe to upload the workflow to a site for sharing? Does an action contain any personal information? WIll someone be able to just download it and save it and have it work, or would they have to move it to their workflow folder themselves?

There isn't any personal information in an Automator workflow or application, unless you put something in one of the actions, for example a comment in a Run AppleScript action.
You would need to use something like an installer script with the download in order to have it just work, since the workflow will need to be moved to the user's ~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions folder, and the Folder Action will need to be enabled and attached to the desired folder. These things are done automatically by Automator when creating and saving a Folder Action workflow, so since there is just the one action, it might be just as easy to post your script somewhere with instructions on how to build the rest of the workflow.

Execute Applescript fails when run as part of Automator action

I have an automator action whose first step is an Execute Applescript to drive a spaces switch:
_Execute Applescript_
<pre>on run
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "2" using {control down}
end tell
return true
end run</pre>
When I click the "Run" button in the upper left of the Execute Applescript window in Automator, the script runs and the screen switches spaces.
But, if I run the whole Automator Action, it always fails on this first action. I think it's because I'm not handling input and parameters correctly, but I can't figure it out. If I add them ( On Run {input, parameters} ) then the Applescript itself does not work and also still does not work when I run the whole Automator action.
Can someone help me get the syntax right on this?
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All I can get out of the Automator interface is "Action Failed". The second action is a Pause [15] seconds, but I'm certain it never gets there. When the Automator action fails, the applescript does not produce any result. Spaces does not switch. But again, if I click the "run" button in Automator's Execute Applescript window, the applescript will produce results and switch to spaces 2.
I originally got instructions here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1206636&tstart=134
When I couldn't get it to work, I posted a thread here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1378261&tstart=30
Which prompted me to add the OnRun wrapper, still have problems, and finally post on this forum instead of that one because is seems to be a very automator-specific problem.
Thanks for any help,

Looking for an example of using Automator action in an Applescript

Does anyone have an example of how to use an Automator action in an Applescript? I want to use the Automator action that creates a note for an iPod and then sends it to the iPod inside an Applescript (I want to be able to loop through all of the text files in a folder). Any examples would be helpful. Thanks.

Hi Mike
You could save the workflow as an application and then write a simple script that tells the application to launch multiple times.
But you'll find it many times faster to do it the other way round, and run a looping AppleScript from a single Automator action.
(Your iPod must be set up in disk mode.)
set ipod_name to "Name of your iPod goes here" -- edit this line and put the name of your pod in inverted commas
tell application "Finder" to set ipod_ready to exists disk ipod_name
if ipod_ready then
set text_folder to (choose folder with prompt "Choose the folder containing notes for your iPod.")
set file_names to list folder text_folder without invisibles
repeat with file_name in file_names
set file_path to text_folder & file_name as string
if file type of (info for file_path) is "TEXT" then
tell application "Finder"
move file file_path to folder "Notes" of disk ipod_name
end tell
end if
else -- ipod not mounted
display dialog "Mount your iPod first!" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon caution giving up after 5
end if
Copy and paste this into a Run AppleScript action, edit to supply the name of your own ipod, and see how it goes.
Hope this helps,
H

Automator Action "Import Audio Files" error message

I use this automator action daily when it is activated via an alarm time in iCal. It is the 3rd workflow run in a series of 7 worlflows to create audio files while I'm at work (I record XM programming for use later on my iPod). Since I upgraded to OSX Lion yesterday, I'm getting a new error message I've never seen and I can't find any info on it. Can anyone help? The error message in a popup dialogue box is:
The action “Import Audio Files” encountered an error.
Check the actionʼs properties and try running the workflow again.
Under the Log for the workflow I get this message:
The operation couldn't be completed. (OSStatus error -1712.) (-1712)
The imported audio file does actually get inputted into iTunes and converted properly via iTunes, but the error creates two problems. One is the source file isn't deleted after the action runs (which is a checkbox option in that particular action). This isn't a big deal, because I can create another workflow seperately to delete the file, so I'm not as concerned with that. The major problem is that the error dialoge box displays and the sebsequent workflows that are scheduled to run right after this one can't run becasue Automator is occupied with the error message.
I'm looking for any advice I can find, I've been using this series of workflows for a long time without issue, but seems like everytime there is a new OS I have to go through the geriatrics of figuring out what slight changes apple made to the Automator actions.
Thanks for reading,
Chris

Hi,
I just solved the problem pretty easily: earlier, on Snow Leopard, automator had to be set to work in 32bit instead of 64bit otherwise there has been a lot of error messages.
I tried to do the same with iTunes on Lion and, oh miracle, it works:
close iTunes then go to Applications -> right click on iTunes -> read informations -> check the box to run the app in 32bits and restart iTunes and .... that's it.
I work in a local radio in Belgium and I rely on automator on an everyday basis to download then add prerecorded broadcasts to iTunes to be aired with Lion server and I was stuck since a few weeks because of that problem. Now I can finally work again :-)
English is not my native language so please forgive me for my mistakes ... :-)
Apple RULES (but you already know that )

Debugging Automator actions

Hi All - I'm new to Cocoa and XCode. For my first project I started to write an Automator action - I figured a small action would be a good place to start. My problem is that the debugger is not behaving as I expect it. When I click Build and Go and then run my action in Automator, the debugger reports this in the console window:
Cannot access memory at address 0x8
Cannot access memory at address 0x8
(gdb) continue
Current language: auto; currently objective-c
2008-11-04 16:16:00.654 Automator[1264:6c63] * -[NSCFDictionary addObject:]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x592b00
XCode does not display any stack trace, variables etc that I expect to see. Am I doing something wrong or can't the debugger track automator actions?
Thanks
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Thank you, Welles. I've never used Automator either, but this looks like a great opportunity to explore it.

Automator Actions for Pages

I just checked in Automator, and I can't find a single Pages Automator action.
With how useful it could be I can't fathom why there wouldn't be some built in.

I don't know about third-party actions created for them, but Automator does show some actions from Keynote. There no actions from Pages or Numbers in Automator when I review the listing.
Actions for Keynote include (21 total):
Add Chart to Slide
Add File To Slide
Add Slide to Keynote Presentation
Change master of Keynote slide
Close Keynote Presentation
Create Image Slide
Delete Slide
Extract Notes
Make New Keynote Presentation
Move Keynote slide
Open Keynote Presentations
Print Keynote Presentation
Quit Keynote
Save Keynote Presentation
Set Slide Title
Set Transition for Slide
Show Next Keynote Slide
Show Previous Keynote Slide
Show Specified Keynote Slide
Start Keynote Slideshow
Stop Keynote Slideshow
In general, actions are usually a part of the application, so no need to install separately unless the actions are supplied afterwards.

Automator Actions for Numbers '09

Anyone know where to find a zip with a bunch of automator actions? I've got a bunch of actions for Excel, but want to move over to Numbers and easily automate a bunch of formatting tasks.
Thanks!

As far as I know, Apple didn't deliver such items.
I'm not sure that the interface is really available.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 5 février 2009 22:22:33)

Woolamaloo Automator Actions 1.3 now ready for download

The Woolamaloo Automator Action set, version 1.3 is ready for download. You can find the actions here:
http://itunes.uic.edu/automator/Woolamaloo%20Automator%20Actions.dmg.zip
There are now eleven actions in the Woolamaloo set:
Upload Items to iTunes U
Get Daily Report Logs from iTunes U
Get iTunes U XML
Find Courses in iTunes U XML
Find Groups in iTunes U XML
Find Tracks in iTunes U XML
Find RSS Feeds in iTunes U XML
Delete Courses in iTunes U
Delete Groups in iTunes U
Delete Tracks in iTunes U
Merge Track Data into iTunes U
I have made a mighty effort to fix every user interface bug I could find in the actions ... and I've made a number of tweaks I hope people will find useful (case insensitive searches, you can only specify log data searches for the appropriate days).
In addition to a manual:
http://itunes.uic.edu/automator/Woolamaloo%20Automator%20Actions%20Manual.pdf
I've also includes a set of sample workflows that show how every action can be used. You can easily modify the workflows, or add to them, to suit your needs.

Hi, just a quick message about Woolamaloo for Windows and a big shout-out to Stephen Landau at CUNY for discovering the issue I'm about to describe.
Woolamaloo for Windows uses a well-established .NET method whenever it attempts to open an iTunes U URL. Essentially, Woolamaloo asks your default web browser to open an iTunes U URL (it actually does pretty much the same thing on a Mac, just in a Cocoa way) ... but for this to work, Windows has to "trust" Woolamaloo. This is not a problem when you launch Woolamaloo on a local drive ... but it can be a problem when launching Woolamaloo on a network drive. Some sites restrict what an application hosted on a network drive can do (one app opening a URL in another might look "suspicious").
So if you find Woolamaloo throws what appears to be a "security exception", check where you're running it from. If you're running Woolamaloo from a network drive, try running it from a local drive, if your site allows it, and see if the exception goes away. If not, lemme know. For my part, I will fix Woolamaloo to do something nicer than bail with an exception.

Where's my automator actions? Missing!

When I upgraded to Tiger, I installed it on a new hard drive and then moved my old accont over to it. The account that was created with the installation can make automators actions, but the imported account (the one I use) has blank lists when I open automator: no actions at all.
I had a bit of time today, so I re-installed 10.4 and updated to 10.4.3 hoping that would fix the problem, but no go. Still no actions at all in this account.
Any idea how to get my missing automator actions?

Hi there,
The way that you have installed Tiger has not helped...you would have been better using you 2nd drive todo a backup (just in case) then do an Archive and Install...
...this would have preserved your data, and installed all the 'relevant bits'.
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regards
Ric

'Hint Movies' automator action problem

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