Needed: Script for exporting iPhoto albums into a file structure

Question

Hello all! I have no experience with AppleScript, but I heard it should be possible to write a script which helps to copy/export a iPhoto album structure into an according directory structure. Does anybody already have such a script?
Thx for any information on that!

Answer 1

Thomas,
I have created an AppleScript along with the TextCommands OSAX that duplicates all of the albums in iPhoto to a folder called "Albums" on the desktop. It is quite slow because of the need to open an Info window in Finder to get the path to the original photo but gets the job done.
If you wish it could be modified to provide an ability to select individual albums for duplication. Let me know if you are interested in the latter. I am also seeing whether the album structure can be created directly in a burn folder so that CDs/DVDs can be rapidly burned.
TextCommands is donationware and available at the following location:
http://osaxen.com/files/textcommands1.0.1.html
and should be placed in the following location for the AppleScript to see it:
~/Library/ScriptingAdditions/
click here to open this script in your editor<pre style="font-family: 'Monaco', 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; overflow:auto; color: #222; background: #DDD; padding: 0.2em; font-size: 10px; width:400px">property PathToDesktop : path to desktop as string
property PathToPictures : path to pictures folder as string
property PathToiPhotoLibrary : PathToPictures & "iPhoto Library"
property PathToiPhotoAlbums : PathToiPhotoLibrary & ":Albums"
property PathToCopiedAlbums : PathToDesktop & "Albums"
tell application "Finder"
activate
set theCopiedAlbumsFolder to duplicate folder (PathToiPhotoAlbums as alias) to desktop
set theAlbums to folders of folder PathToCopiedAlbums
set theExtraneousFiles to files of folder PathToCopiedAlbums
delete theExtraneousFiles
repeat with anAlbum in theAlbums
repeat with anAlias in anAlbum
-- need to use GUI access to grab the path to the original photo
open information window of anAlias
tell application "System Events"
tell process "Finder"
-- grab the path to the original file
set PathToTheOriginalPhoto to value of static text 2 of scroll area 1 of window 1
end tell
end tell
close window 1
-- need to remove some extraneous material and convert to AppleScript path format
tell application "TextCommands"
split PathToTheOriginalPhoto using {":", "../"}
set PathToTheOriginalPhoto to item 4 of the result
set PathToTheOriginalPhoto to search PathToTheOriginalPhoto for "/" replacing with ":"
set PathToTheOriginalPhoto to (PathToiPhotoLibrary & ":" & PathToTheOriginalPhoto) as alias
end tell
(* unfortunately there seems to be bug in duplicate file to another folder so must use a copy, , delete the alias, move, and clean up name of copied file sequence to accomplish the equivalent *)
-- duplicate the original in the original album folder
set theCopiedPhoto to duplicate PathToTheOriginalPhoto
-- Delete the alias in the Copied Album
delete anAlias
-- Move the copied photo to the Copied Album
set theCopiedPhoto to move theCopiedPhoto to anAlbum
-- Remove the "copy" from the photo names
set NameOfPhoto to name of theCopiedPhoto
tell application "TextCommands"
set name of theCopiedPhoto to search NameOfPhoto for " copy" replacing with ""
end tell
end repeat
end repeat
end tell</pre>
PowerBook 12" Mac OS X (10.4.6)