Please help: Need an import 'action'

Question

Hi,
I'm trying to make life 'easy' in our household for getting pictures into Aperture 3, but I'm at a complete loss as to how to achieve this - it seems Apple offer great flexibility on export, but little on import.
What I want to do, is when importing from a CF card (in Canon format), put the images in:
Project (Year)
Folder (Month)
Album (Day)
I have previously exported to this folder structure, and the 'Projects and Folders' import then created the above - however, there's no way to automatically import into this structure from the CF reader.
Is there a way to do this with an Applescript 'action' on import ? I don't mind getting my hands dirty with tweaking some code, but I've never really used Applescript at all.
Because my wife needs to be able to use this, I don't want to have to manuall create any projects/folders/albums or worry about any other details - just have the import defaults setup such that a card is inserted, import all is chosen, and the structure is used.
I don't want to have a two-stage process unless it's very easy to reproduce. This has to be easy, otherwise I may as well just go back to iPhoto and lose all the great benefits of Aperture.
I was really looking forward to using the import presets as they solve the other main Aperture problem I had, but this is proving to be a bigger issue now.
Thanks for any help.
Michael.

Answer 1

Hi Calx,
I really do understand projects. I just don't need them. I'm not wanting to organise things at the moment - just get the images 'into' Aperture, and create smart folders.
I don't actually need a project for this. I could use just one project, as Aperture requires it, but then I'm stuck after 10000 images.
As mentioned in my original post, I was planning on 'sturcturing' by year/month/date as that is a valid structure for me - the problem being which part of that structure is a project (year is more than 10000 images, so it would have to be month) ad how I automatically create that on image import.
I realise everyone seems to want to organise things differently, and most people create a 'project' for an 'event' or 'location' or 'shoot' or suchlike... I don't need that. I take pictures and put them in 1 big pot, and use smart folders etc., later on.
The problem seems to be that I need to actually manage it with projects from the start - I can't just bring in images into Aperture (as the container) and use 'smart' tools to group things together - I have to have a project.
Everyone's answer is about how to structure projects based upon different criteria. I realise this is how Apple expect it to work. I just don't have the time to group things into projects at the moment.
Either way, this is all away from the original point. The main problem I have is not being able to automatically create a structure (of any kind other than a single or constrained auto-split group of projects) when importing directly from a CF card or camera.
What I want, is to be able to say:
On import, split the files by date, and put them in a project / folder / album according to year / month / date respectively. I can't do that, and it seems I have to rely on external functionality, import / export into a structure & re-import, or manually move select move images.
I know you can assign an Applescript action on the import, and I figured that perhaps this could be used to re-structure the images on the import, but by the silence on this point and the fact that everyone keeps pushing me to manually maintain my projects, suggests it just can't be done.
Michael.