Getting last encoded file information from Apple Compressor - applescript

Question

So I'm a novice with AppleScript but learning a lot. I'm trying to create an AppleScript to let me know when Apple Compressor is finished encoding and notify me if it was successful or not. I have the part down about telling when compressor is done and the notification but having difficulty getting the file name and status (complete/fail/cancelled) from Compressor's history log.
Originally tried with UI scripting, but Compressor's window hierarchy list changes with every new encode. So now onto pulling it from the history log, which is in the user folder "Library/Application Support/" folder like this:
And then, the file itself contains the status (whether it was successful or failed) near the bottom of the file like this:
So getting confused about how to A) find the last file and its name, and B) get the value of the last "ElementStatusState" in the document.
This is where I started but get errors when trying to resolve the path to the folder:
tell application "Finder"
set latestFile to (last item of (sort (get files in folder "~/Library/Application Support/Compressor/History/V4" of application "System Events") by name)) as text
set fileName to latestFile's name
end tell
This code throws an error about not being able to make it into the expected file type but also, I can see that It's grabbing a file that's not the last one modified.
In the end I want 2 variables that are 1) theFileName = ie name of encoded movie(s), and 2) theStatus = ie number 4,5, or 6)
Any ideas out there?

Answer 1

You'll want to do something like the script below. This script finds the most recently modified file, then drills down through the plist file to find the various status numbers, and the names of the records they are logged in. I'm assuming that every file Compressor generates has the same structure; if not, you may find you have to alter the script. But this should give you an idea how to do that.
Names and status values are stored in the nameList and valueList variables, in order of depth.
set filePath to POSIX file "~/Library/Application Support/Compressor/History/V4"
-- sort the file list by modification date, then get the last item.
tell application "Finder"
set mostRecentFile to last item of (sort files of folder filePath by modification date) as alias
end tell
set mostRecentFilePath to POSIX path of mostRecentFile
set nameList to {}
set valueList to {}
tell application "System Events"
set plistFile to property list file mostRecentFilePath
tell plistFile
tell (first property list item whose kind is record)
copy value of property list item "ElementInfoName" to end of nameList
copy value of property list item "ElementStatusState" to end of valueList
tell (first property list item whose kind is list)
tell (first property list item whose kind is record)
copy value of property list item "ElementInfoName" to end of nameList
copy value of property list item "ElementStatusState" to end of valueList
tell (first property list item whose kind is list)
tell (first property list item whose kind is record)
copy value of property list item "ElementInfoName" to end of nameList
copy value of property list item "ElementStatusState" to end of valueList
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell
end tell