More Automator Actions ... Happy Monday ... again!

Sorry, I was too tired to write documentation and sample workflows (I will do that soon!), but I wanted to post more iTunes U Automator actions. There are now nine actions in total ... with more on the way!
You can find a (Mac OS X) disk image here:
http://itunes.uic.edu/woolamalo-automator-actions.dmg.zip
The new actions are:
Find Tracks in iTunes U XML
Find Groups in iTunes U XML
Find Courses in iTunes U XML
These take iTunes U XML (handily provided by the action posted earlier, Get iTunes U XML). You can search in different ways ... by name or artist, etc.
In addition, you get:
Delete Tracks from iTunes U
Delete Courses from iTunes U
Delete Groups from iTunes U
Given a set of handles, one per line, these delete the targets from iTunes U. You can get a list of handles by using one of the "Find" actions. How handy is that?
I'll work on the adds or merges next ... whichever seems simpler. Also I will probably do an action to find all permissions (with delete, add, and merge to go with).

That's pretty cool! Thanks!
Any idea why I might be getting the following output from my Get XML action? I am using the exact same information (shared secret, Admin credential, and Site URL) as for the other actions (that work just fine)...
<html>
<head>
<title>403 Forbidden</title>
<meta name="generator" content="Indigo">
</head>
<body>
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access this document on this server.
</body>
</html>

Similar Messages

Automator Actions for iTunes U ... Happy Monday Everyone!

I was inspired by Apple's Steve Hayman (the other, other Steve) to create a set of Automator actions for iTunes U. The first three are done and I have posted them:
http://itunes.uic.edu/woolamaloo-automator-actions.dmg.zip
The three actions are:
Upload Items to iTunes U -- takes a set of files from a previous action, uploads the content to iTunes U, given a target URL in which to place the content ("Copy iTunes URL" in iTunes and paste in to say where you want stuff to go).
Get iTunes U Daily Report Logs -- yes, now you can script logs!
Get iTunes U XML -- returns site XML, minimally, mostly, and maximally ... or just the XML from a handle. Send the results to a file, explore it at your leisure ... or modify the results to change your site.
More to come (promises, promises) ... but I wanted to get this out there for those who might find this useful. Oh yeah, I did include the briefest of brief manuals plus some sample workflows to give you an idea of how to use the actions.
Enjoy!

That's pretty cool! Thanks!
Any idea why I might be getting the following output from my Get XML action? I am using the exact same information (shared secret, Admin credential, and Site URL) as for the other actions (that work just fine)...
<html>
<head>
<title>403 Forbidden</title>
<meta name="generator" content="Indigo">
</head>
<body>
Forbidden
You don't have permission to access this document on this server.
</body>
</html>

More than one parameter in "Run Web Service" automator action?

Hi,
any one know how to send to parameters to a web service with the "Run Web Service" automator action?
i tryed
{paramA:"foo",paramB:"bar"}
but didn't work, the service seem to get only the first one
Thanks a lot
updated: actually that works, but not {USER:"foo",PASSWORD:"baR"}. it takes the user but not the password. Any idea?
PowerBook G4 Mac OS X
(10.4.6)

Can you share some specs on the service in question? To send a struct you need to make sure your labels match on the server side. Enclosing them in |pipes| will avoid terminology conflicts. You may also need to specify each struct in its own curly brackets, e.g. {{|USER|:"foo",|PASS|:"bar"}}
HTH

How can I edit an Automator action for Word?

I'm running Word 2008 on a Macbook Pro, Mac OS 10.5.
Word comes with a selection of Automator actions, including one to find and replace text in Word. I often want to convert standard numerals to old-style numerals, which are part of the extended glyphs set in fonts I use. Automator will allow me to set up ten find/replace actions (for the numbers 0-9) that successfully replace all the numerals with old-style numerals. But it only does it for the main body of the document, not for the footnotes. I need to be able to do it for all the footnotes.
I thought I might find a workaround by adding an AppleScript to my workflow, which would shift the focus in Word to the footnotes and rerun the find/replace actions. I mapped the menu item View/Footnotes to the keystroke command-) and inserted this AppleScript into the Automator workflow:
tell application "Microsoft Word"
tell application "Microsoft Word" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Microsoft Word"
keystroke ")" using command down
end tell
end tell
end tell
But the find/replace actions simply repeat what they'd done before, converting the numerals in the main body but not in the footnotes. I then thought that perhaps I should have an AppleScript to do the find/replace itself, once the footnotes have been selected, so I created the following (command-H accesses the find/replace dialog box in Word 2008):
tell application "Microsoft Word"
tell application "Microsoft Word" to activate
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Microsoft Word"
keystroke "H" using command down
keystroke "1"
keystroke tab
keystroke ""
end tell
end tell
end tell
The character after the fourth keystroke command is the glyph for old-style numeral 1. For some reason Word reinterprets this as the letter a. So using AppleScript I can only replace the numerals 1-9 with the letters a-i.
I'm pretty hopeless at even this very basic level of programming, but I presume that there's something in the Automator action 'Find and replace in Word' that specifically tells it not to look anywhere but the footnotes. I also presume it's possible to insert a command to tell it to operate on the footnotes (and headers and footers: everywhere!) too.
Does anyone know a way to edit an Automator action? I'm willing to experiment and fiddle with one until I find a way that works, if nobody knows the exact changes that I'd need to make, but I just don't know how to edit an Automator action in the first place. A bit of googling suggests that I could do it in XCode, and that that is bundled with my Mac, but I don't have it.
This all used to work when Office used to allow VBA (and I was using a horrible Windoze machine). Maybe someone would prefer just to find a way of creating a solution our of the old code, so here's one part of what I used (to change the number 1):
For Each aStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
With aStory.Find
.ClearFormatting
With .Replacement
.ClearFormatting
End With
.Execute FindText:="1", ReplaceWith:=ChrW(63281), _
Format:=True, MatchCase:=True, Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End With
Next aStory
Thanks in advance for any help.

Thanks to all three contributors for their generous help so far. Mac people are lovely.
BDAqua's suggestion wouldn't work, I think, because copying footnote text into another application and then back into Word would lose all the associations between footnote references in the body and the footnotes themselves. I wish I could do what Klaus1 says, but Word 2008 won't allow the creation of Macros any more. They've shut off support for their creation. Nice MS. red_menace's suggestion seems very plausible and I'll look into a way of mapping the old style numerals to specific keystrokes. That might do it.
Reflecting on what you all said, I looked again through Word's help menus and eventually got pointed towards this page of 'help': <http://tinyurl.com/6398l6>. This is completely impenetrable for me, though it does compare a VBA script for Word 2004 to an AppleScript. This encourages me to hope that it should be possible to translate my original VBA script (part of which I included in my first message) into AppleScript, though I don't know how to do it because I don't really understand the language in the first place (the VBA script was put together by someone else).

Using Automator action/workflow to create a poster in iPhoto

I'm using Jim Heid's Mac iLife 'lifeposter' idea [which comes from Mike Matas] and I keep getting a message taht says "the workflow was saved with an older version of 'get Selected items' some behavior may have changed. and also another ref. 'import files into iPhoto" -- I didn't find a more recent Automator action 'Create Thumbnail Poster" online nor updated information at Matas's blog or Heid's book...any suggestions for how to fix this? I last used it a few years ago and would like to use it again.

Unless you got a message about it, the original Create Thumbnail Poster may work with the version of iPhoto that you have. As for the other actions, they sound like standard actions that have just been updated - you can open the older application and recompile it using the newer actions.

"Import Files into iTunes" automator action not working

I'm having an issue with a simple automator action, "Import Files into iTunes". It's the only thing I have in the workflow but when I drop audio files onto the application, the action encounters an error. In trying to figure out what was amiss, I read that there was a version number conflict after iTunes 10, so I followed the instructions here but they did not fix the issue. Does anyone have a suggestion on what to try or how to diagnose the issue? I'm running Yosemite (10.10.2) and iTunes 12.1.0.50. Thanks for the help!

Yeah, I'd happy provide details if I saw them. The message itself just says, "The action “Import Files into iTunes” encountered an error." Is there a way to get more information on the error?
Thanks!

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.

IPhoto Automator actions = broken and useless

It's already been established that in order for iPhoto's most useful action, "get selected iPhoto items", to work in 10.4.3, you have to install a third-party fix.
Today, I discovered that when the action is run on a Raw file, it retrieves a jpeg preview copy of the file instead of the actual image. For example, if I dragged a Raw photo from iPhoto to my desktop, I would see DSC_0038.nef (or whatever) on my desktop. But if I make an Automator workflow that copies a photo to the desktop, I end up with DSC_0038.jpeg.
This means it is impossible to make a useful workflow with Raw files and iPhoto.
If anyone knows of a fix, it would be most appreciated.

Paul:
You might post your question in the Automator forum. There's probably more Automator users there that can help.
G4 DP-1G, 1G RAM, 22 Display, 2-80G HD, QT 7.0.3P Mac OS X (10.4.3) Canon S400, i850 & LIDE 50, Epson R200, 2G Nano

Can't create new file automator action

I'm trying to create a new Automator action that prompts the user to choose a new file. The Action is similar to the "Ask for Finder Items" actions except that it asks the user to choose a new file and not one that already exists.
I chose to write it in applescript:
script PicknewFile
property parent : class "AMBundleAction"
on runWithInputfromAction_error(input, anAction, errorRef)
return choose file with prompt "Where do you want to save it?"
end runWithInputfromAction_error
end script
When I try and run it, I get the following error message in the Xcode console.
[Switching to process 10606]
Program received signal: “EXCBADACCESS”.
[Switching to process 10606]
sharedlibrary apply-load-rules all
No memory available to program now: unsafe to call malloc
Data Formatters temporarily unavailable, will re-try after a 'continue'. (Not safe to call dlopen at this time.)
kill
Does anybody know when this happens?
Thanks,
Scott

Looks like I was wrong. I created a brand new project in Xcode and all I did as add "choose file name" to the applescript. It still gets a "EXCBADACCESS". I also tried a 'display dialog "Error"' in my applescript and it does the same thing.
Here is the script the fails. Everything else in the project is default.
script ChoosenewFile
property parent : class "AMBundleAction"
on runWithInputfromAction_error(input, anAction, errorRef)
-- Add your code here, returning the data to be passed to the next action.
display dialog "Error"
return input
end runWithInputfromAction_error
end script
In the debugger, this is the stack:
#0 0x91184917 in objc_msgSend
#1 0x63707472 in ??
#2 0x16c01e36 in DecodeAEDescInternal
#3 0x16c02b4b in DecodeObjectSpecifier
#4 0x16c01c24 in DecodeAEDescInternal
#5 0x16c022bb in DecodeAEList
#6 0x16bccdd0 in ASExecuteEvent_PushSendStackFrame
#7 0x16bccfcc in ASExecuteEvent
#8 0x918026cb in callComponent_4444
#9 0x16bc3d4a in AppleScriptComponent
#10 0x917efcb6 in CallComponentDispatch
#11 0x972455df in OSAExecuteEvent
#12 0x00339ffe in +[BAObjectProto invokeScriptHandler:forObject:args:error:]
#13 0x0033a363 in -[BAObjectProto invokeScriptHandler:args:error:]
#14 0x0033b581 in -[BAObjectProto forwardInvocation:]
#15 0x92f760c4 in __forwarding__
#16 0x92f75bf2 in _forwarding_prep_0__
#17 0x000718af in -[AMAction runWithInput:loopParent:]
#18 0x00070d2f in -[AMWorkflowRunner runAction:withInput:loopParent:]
#19 0x000c60a8 in -[AMWorkflowRunner runAction:]
#20 0x0013261d in -[AMRunActionOperation main]
#21 0x9094d34c in -[__NSOperationInternal start]
#22 0x9094cfe0 in ___startOperations_block_invoke2
#23 0x91caa7b8 in dispatch_call_block_andrelease
#24 0x91c9c97e in dispatch_workerthread2
#25 0x91c9c401 in pthreadwqthread
#26 0x91c9c246 in start_wqthread
Any more advice would be appreciated.
Scott

LMS4 Syslog automated action anomaly

LMS 4.2.1 on W2K8 R2
I just want to send an email for any sev 1 or 2 syslog messages received. I set up an automated action that looks like this:
Automated Action Summary
Name:
Critical Events Email
Devices:
State:
Enabled
Parameters:
TO=[email protected], SUB=LMS4 Syslog AA, TEXT=
Action Type:
Email
Messages:
*-*-1-*:* *-*-2-*:*
Yet I seem to be getting emails triggered by messages from ASA devices that are not severity 1 or 2, like:
%ASA-session-4-106023
%ASA-auth-3-109023
%ASA-auth-6-109001
Am I doing something wrong, or is there some sort of bug I am hitting? I can't believe that I am the first person to try this.
Thanks,
-Jeff

I do not know what exactly you have done so far but in your situation I would enable the following debugs:
open that file in a text editor
NMSROOT\MDC\tomcat\webapps\rme\WEB-INF\classes\com\cisco\nm\rmeng\csc\data\Collector.properties
and change the debug level from Info to Debug:
    DEBUG_LEVEL=DEBUG
also enable SyslogAnalyzer debugging here:
Admin > System > Debug Settings > Config and Image Management Debugging Settings
    Set Application Logging Levels >> SyslogAnalyzer (scroll down)
        set Syslog Analyzer and Syslog Analyzer User Interface from INFO to DEBUG
in a DOS box check the status of the following processes (the should be started) and restart them:
    pdshow SyslogAnalyzer SyslogCollector
    pdterm SyslogAnalyzer SyslogCollector
    pdexec SyslogAnalyzer SyslogCollector
    pdshow SyslogAnalyzer SyslogCollector
When the issue happens again check the following log files and post them on the forum:
    NMSROOT\log\SyslogCollector.log
    NMSROOT\log\AnalyzerDebug.log

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?
Thanks!

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,

Execute Applescript in Automator: fails when running Automator action

I am trying to get a simple Automator action to switch spaces every so often. I'm following directions found on MacScripter. The Applescript runs and works on it's own, or when I run the applescript from inside the Execute Applescript window of Automator. But when I run the automator action, the Execute Applescript action fails. Here's the Applescript code I've entered into the Execute Applescript window:
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "2" using control down
end tell
Again, this runs and does what it should if I click the Run button in the Execute Applescript window of the automator action. It fails when I run the whole automator action. This Execute Applescript is the first action in the automator sequence.
What am I missing?
Thanks!

Are you using the Run AppleScript action's run handler? The parameters are used to connect the action to Automator:
<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: #FFDDFF;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into an Automator 'Run AppleScript' action">
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "System Events"
keystroke "2" using control down
end tell
return input
end run
</pre>

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 )

Aperture Automator Actions

I have looked at the default Automator actions that Apple has provided to us. On the following site 12 Actions are listed. However when looking at Automator I only see 9 actions.
http://www.automator.us/aperture/
Apple provides developers with Xtools to create Automator Actions.
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/AutomatorC oncepts/Articles/DevelopAction.html
I have programming knowledge but not with Macs, Automator, Applescripts or Coca applictions. Are there sites that have or will soon have free automator actions for Aperture?
Do People think that 3rd Party Automator Actions will be able to accomplish some of the shortcomeing that Aperture has at this moment.
Everybody has given a list and some of the things I wonder about is:
1) Renaming Files inside of Aperture.
2) Storing IPTC information in the Image itself instead of just the Database.
3) Exporting the Original RAW file with IPTC information.
I am sure we all have many more, but these I do have a question about right now.
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)
PowerMac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

I think there is a bug in there somewhere because there are quite a few with the same error in Automator.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1229958&tstart=0
I have found that it will work on my PowerPC but not on my Intel machine. Not much help has come forward from Apple on this one.

Custom actions - automated action -

Custom actions - automated action - how do I stop each file in a batch from popping up onto the screen as it processes? I used to be able to process files in the background as I worked on other things, but now the screen pops up as each file in a batch is processed.

I'm not so sure. I was asking because the way things are set up is different with the last three versions of Acrobat. If you provide more information about what the action is set up and what version you're using, it might help.

More Automator Actions ... Happy Monday ... again!

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