Make Alias Folder Action

I am trying to write a folder action to take care of company time sheets. I can write one to duplicate them but, I would prefer to make an alias instead. I make new time sheets with a spreadsheet and when they are ready they are saved to a folder in Users:xxx:Documents:Time Sheets. When added to this folder I would like an alias left in a folder on the desktop. I tried this:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
tell application "Finder"
make new alias (added_items) to folder "Macintosh HD:Users:xxxx:Desktop"
end tell
end adding folder items to
but it doesn't work. Could someone point me in the right direction.
Mac Mini 1.66 CoreDuo Mac OS X (10.4.9) G3 iMac
Mac Mini 1.66 CoreDuo Mac OS X (10.4.9) G3 iMac

Using 'path to Desktop' or 'path to Desktop from user domain' will make the script more portable, since it will get the path to the desktop of whatever user is running the script. You can also get rid of the outer 'tell Finder' block - most of the time if there is only one statement you can skip the 'end tell'. For example, the following are equal:
<pre title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor" style="font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: 10px; padding: 5px; width: 720px; color: #000000; background-color: #E0E0E0; overflow: auto">tell application "Finder"
make new alias file to these_items at MyFolder
end tell
tell application "Finder" to make new alias file to these_items at MyFolder
</pre>
G4 Digital Audio 1.4GHz Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Similar Messages

Can't Drag (or make alias) Folder from Home Documents into Documents

I have a folder called Documents in Finder's sidebar... and also one under my name (home)... they match up pretty well, but there is one folder in my home>documents file that I cannot get to drop into the Documents file in my sidebar. Why is this? I've made an Alias of the folder and dropped it to my Desktop and then tried dragging it into the Documents folder, but that didn't work either.
On more thing... my Documents file in the dock SHOWS this folder. It even shows the alias. I click "open in finder" but STILL, neither folder appears.
Message was edited by: Brad Baxter

Uh, that's what I'm saying... it should contain the same stuff (because it is an alias), but it doesn't.

How to make Folder Action work on file, subfolder content change?

Hi!
I looking for information in how to make a Folder Action, Work Flow or any action from Automator to work on file change and not only on deletion, moving or insertion. What I want to know is if it's possible to trigger some script or app while monitoring a folder and its contents, files and subfolders, changes. Meaning that when I have a file that has its contents updated the action will be triggered like an txt file that I only insert a new line in it, for example.
Is there any solution that is not third party? Is there an internal Mac OS X solution that would work on Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion?

i have same problem. i would like to move automatically saved Word backup copy to another folder, but the folder action doesn't recognize the save as a new file that needs to be acted upon.

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.

Customize Folder Action and Email script

I have been adapting the below script so if I drop a file on the script, the file will be emaild to the default address. But, I can't figure out how to customize the two below easy tasks into this script. Thanks for any help out there!
1. A file is moved into folder1 triggers the script.
2. After the file is email'd I would like it to be moved into folder 2. I have found a script in this forum that moves the file, but I don't know where to add it.
on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theAddedItems
tell application "Finder"
move theAddedItems to folder "G5:Users:camille:Desktop:folder2:"
end tell
end adding folder items to
The Send File Script that I have been adapting (concept and initial coding by Paul Van Cotthem):
property this_folder : "G5:Users:camille:Desktop:folder1"
property emailAddress : "[email protected]"
global sendAction
on open fileList
-- If one prefers to test for folders before the files are created, the enable this code.
repeat with filePath in fileList
if (filePath as string) ends with ":" then
display dialog "Please drop only files, not folder." buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon 0
return
end if
end repeat
enterAddress()
repeat with filePath in fileList
set filePath to filePath as string
if filePath does not end with ":" then -- it's a file
tell application "Finder" to set fileName to name of item filePath
tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
-- This code is faster, but if the user trashed the attached files before sending them, Entourage cannot send the attachtments.
make new outgoing message at out box folder with properties {recipient:emailAddress, subject:fileName, attachment:filePath}
-- This code is slower, but attached files are saved into Entourage's message database immediately.
set theSubject to "File attached: " & fileName
set newmsg to make new draft window with properties ¬
{recipient:{address:emailAddress, recipient type:to recipient}, subject:theSubject, content:theSubject, attachment:filePath}
send newmsg
end tell -- Entourage
end if -- file or folder?
end repeat -- filePath
end open
on run
enterAddress()
end run
on enterAddress()
display dialog "Send to:" buttons {"Cancel", "Send now"} with icon note ¬
default button 2 default answer emailAddress giving up after 2
set dialogResult to result
set sendAction to button returned of dialogResult
set emailAddress to text returned of dialogResult
end enterAddress
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
G5 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Go ahead and put that chunk of code on a new line at the very bottom of your script. Then between the on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theAddedItems line and the tell application "Finder" line, insert the word open on a line by itself.
By putting the term "open" there you are telling the script to run all the code in the "on open" block when triggered by the folder action handler. To make the folder action active you'll need to save the droplet in your ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts folder, and then you'll need to attach it to something by control-clicking the desired folder and/or using the Folder Action Setup Utility to connect script to folder.

Help with iTunes & Finder Folder Action

My iTunes library has both a TON of albums and a TON of one-off mp3s such as remixes or singles. I'm trying to figure out a way to make two smart playlists and need help.
Playlist One is a smart playlist of 250 of the most recently added one-off tracks, compiled by looking for #single in my .mp3 comment fields.
Playlist Two is a smart playlist of the 25 last ALBUMS I added to iTunes, compiled by looking for #album in my .mp3 comment fields.
For Playlist One I'd like to use Automator and make a folder action to:
- Watch my 'Downloads' folder for downloaded .mp3 files.
- Add those .mp3 files to iTunes, letting iTunes copy to music folder.
- Delete the original file from the 'Downloads' folder.
- In iTunes, add '#single' to the Comment field of added .mp3.
For Playlist Two I'd like to use Automator and make a folder action to:
- Watch my 'Downloads' folder for downloaded .rar and .zip files.
- Open/Unzip those .rar and .zip files.
- Then look for SUBFOLDERS containing .mp3 files in my 'Downloads' folder.
- Add those .mp3 files to iTunes, letting iTunes copy to music folder.
- Delete the folder from the 'Downloads' folder.
- In iTunes, add '#album' to the Comment field of added .mp3.
Can anyone help me with this? Please?

Better yet, an Applescript that can be used as a folder action to watch the Downloads folder and:
1) Open .mp3s in iTunes and append #single to track Comments, then delete original .mp3s.
2) Open .zip and .rar archives, parse then unarchived folder for .mp3 files, add them to iTunes, append #album to track Comments, then delete original folder of .mp3s.
2a) Bonus points if the script adds the .mp3s to itunes in descending order based on file name track numbers (track 10, track 9, track 8...).

From script to Folder Action?

Sample script:
tell application "Finder"
set List1 to {"VNG", "COW", "SIN", "CVR", "CRM"}
set List2 to {"VNG", "SIN"}
set MissingList to {}
repeat with i from 1 to count of List1
if item i of List1 is not in List2 then
set end of MissingList to item i of List1
end if
end repeat
display dialog MissingList as text
end tell
Works, gives me what I want - answer as "COW, CVR, CRM"
I make a Folder Action from it, like this:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
tell application "Finder"
set List1 to {"VNG", "COW", "SIN", "CVR", "CRM"}
set List2 to {"VNG", "SIN"}
set MissingList to {}
repeat with i from 1 to count of List1
if item i of List1 is not in List2 then
set end of MissingList to item i of List1
end if
end repeat
display dialog MissingList as text
end tell
end adding folder items to
Attach it to the folder, try - the answer comes as ""COWCVRCRM", without separating items in a list.
Why?
And, BTW, when I work with script I can see an Event Log in a Script Editor, but when Folder Action works - is there any way to see a Log?
Thank you in advance for any help!
Vera

It may be that displaying the dialog via Script Editor instead of whatever app is frontmost when your folder action is triggered causes the difference. It's been known to happen. Try this in place of your code to display the dialog (untested code).
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #FF0000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ffff99;
overflow: auto;">
set {oldDelims, my text item delimiters} to {my text item delimiters, {", "}}
display dialog (items of MissingList) as text
set my text item delimiters to oldDelims</pre>
As for seeing your events, you can write code that can send some of it to a file on the desktop but you won't get all of it, mostly just error info. The best way I know of is to use [Script Debugger|http://www.latenightsw.com/sd4/index.html|http://www.latenightsw.com/s d4/index.html] from Late Night Software Ltd. It may seem expensive initially but it's worth every penny you'll spend on it. Note: the SD download is completely functional for 20 days after installation so you can give it a good workout. Its debugging environment will allow you to step through every line of code, see your variable results for each line and also concurrently view the event log.

Folder Actions not working

I'm trying out folder actions for the first time, and I cannot get an action to trigger.
I regularly use Automator, and I've saved a script as a Folder Action plug-in attached to a folder. I've tried this with several different scripts.
For example, I've got a script that just displays a message. It works fine if I save it as an app, so I save it as a Plug In>Folder Action. If I select, say, my documents folder, I right click>more>attach a folder action. I then select my script. If I open the Folder Actions Setup, my script is listed as attached to my documents folder. However, if I drop a file into the Documents folder, nothing happens.
Am I correct in thinking that the script should run when a file is dropped into the folder (and if I'm wrong, how would you do this?), or have I missed something?
I'm using 2x 2,8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Mac, OsX 10.5.6.
Cheers
Steve

In the Finder (Mac) Help, every user may read:
*+Running an automation when a folder is changed+*
+Folder actions let you run automations when a folder is modified. For example, you could run an AppleScript or an Automator workflow whenever something is added to a dropbox folder.+
+To use folder actions, you attach a folder action script or workflow to a folder. When the folder is opened, closed, or modified, the automation will be activated automatically.+
+Your script must include a handler for each folder action command used.+
+To make a folder action scripts available to all users of your computer, put them in the Folder Action Scripts folder located at:+
+Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/+
+To make the scripts available only to the current user, put them in the home folder at:+
+~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/+
*+To enable folder actions:+*
+1. Open Folder Actions Setup in the Applications/AppleScript folder.+
+2. Select Enable Folder Actions.+
+3. Click the ╋ button below the Folders with Actions list and choose the folder containing the folder actions.+
+4. Click the ╋ button below the Script list and select the desired scripts, then click Attach.+
My guess is that you missed one of the four steps.
Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE vendredi 5 juin 2009 17:09:05)

Applescript - Folder Actions Setup

trying to make a folder action to move anything dropped in a folder to shared folder on another device. code as follows:
set destFolder to (":" & (path to desktop as string) & "Workflows:Sheetfed:")
display dialog destFolder
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
          try
                    tell application "Finder"
move added_items to destFolder
                    end tell
          end try
end adding folder items to
Nothing happens.
Note: I added the display to see the path when I was hand running.
Do I need to use posix path for this, or maybe use command line?? Not sure what's best - easiest - most reliable
Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.
I have this:
set destFolder to (":dx1070:Workflows:Sheetfed:")
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
          try
                    tell application "Finder"
move added_items to folder destFolder
                    end tell
          end try
end adding folder items to
But still not doing it yet.
Took off the leading colon on destFolder ie ":dx1070:Workflows:Sheetfed:", still no.
Any more help would be great!

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

Can I make a custom folder action that auto-shares images?

Is it possible to create a custom Folder Action where any images I drop into there are auto shared to Flickr? I have my Flickr account setup in Mountain Lion already.

I think there will be no out of the box solution but with Automator I think you could accomplish this task.

Make Folder Actions Moveable?

Is it possible to send a folder with folder actions applied to it to another computer, WITHOUT losing the folder actions in the process? Specifically, i wrote a script to password-protect a folder, and want to send that folder to someone without them having to re-apply the script and save it on their computer in the specific place. Is this possible? if so, how?

Also, think of the security implications of this... some malicious user persuades you to download a folder to your machine - maybe even part of a software installation process. No problem, you think, you can't be affected by just opening a folder, can you?
If that folder had an embedded Folder Action, they could do almost anything to your machine as soon as you opened the folder, dropped something in it, etc.
:: shudder ::

Creating a simple Folder Action

Hello, I am trying to make a simple folder action.
Well first off I have all my applications stored in the "application" folder (Mac MD>Applications) and I have aliases to all the apps stored in a separate application folder in which I have arranged the apps by type. One folder I have is called "new apps" (Mac HD>Users>Me>Applications>New Apps) it contains obviously new applications I have downloaded and have yet to try out.
*What I want to do is whenever I drag a new application to the new apps folder I want it to 1) make an alias of that application and then 2) move the application to my actual "applications" folder.
I went to automator and selected "New Aliases" and selected the new apps folder for its location to be made, and then followed it by "Move Finder Item" and selected my applications folder. I then saved it as a folder action attached to my new apps folder... It doesn't work. Yes folder actions are enabled. Is there something else I need to do for the folder action to actually pass the new files added into the folder into the script? thank you much
Sean

Spotlight can search for a color label but you must make that an active search criterion. Open a new Smart Folder in the Finder. Click on the + button to the right of the Save button. From the drop down menu that displays "Kind" select Other. Scroll down the list until you find the "File label" entry and then check the box to the right of the item. Click Close button. Now you should see the drop down menu has the "File label" selection followed by the color options. Select the "Green" color.
Now, Spotlight will find files with a green label, but it may not display folders with the green label. I've not tested that. If it does not locate folders with a green label, then you will need to set the color of the files in the green labeled folders to the green label.

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

Need help creating a folder action for creating folders based on filenames.

I want to create a folder action that will monitor a folder and every time a file is added to the folder it will create a directory using the filename (minus the extension) and move the file the that directory

on run {input, parameters} -- create folders from file names and move
set output to {} -- this will be a list of the moved files
repeat with anItem in the input -- step through each item in the input
    set {theContainer, theName, theExtension} to (getTheNames from anItem)
    try
      set destination to (makeNewFolder for theName at theContainer)
      tell application "Finder"
        move anItem to destination
        set the end of the output to the result as alias -- success
      end tell
    on error errorMessage -- duplicate name, permissions, etc
      log errorMessage
      # handle errors if desired - just skip for now
    end try
end repeat
return the output -- pass on the results to following actions
end run
to getTheNames from someItem -- get a container, name, and extension from a file item
tell application "System Events" to tell disk item (someItem as text)
    set theContainer to the path of the container
    set {theName, theExtension} to {name, name extension}
end tell
if theExtension is not "" then
    set theName to text 1 thru -((count theExtension) + 2) of theName -- just the name part
    set theExtension to "." & theExtension
end if
return {theContainer, theName, theExtension}
end getTheNames
to makeNewFolder for theChild at theParent -- make a new child folder at the parent location if it doesn't already exist
set theParent to theParent as text
if theParent begins with "/" then set theParent to theParent as POSIX file as text
try
    return (theParent & theChild) as alias
on error errorMessage -- no folder
    log errorMessage
    tell application "Finder" to make new folder at theParent with properties {name:theChild}
    return the result as alias
end try
end makeNewFolder
This script almost does what I need except for the fact that it screws up on files with periods in them
for example
1.2.3.4.txt
will create the directorys 1, 2, 3, and 4 instead of 1.2.3.4

Make Alias Folder Action

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