AppleScript - Move all the files contained in subfolder to a top folder - applescript

Question

I am looking for an edit to the current script. What I need is moving all the files from subfolders (recursively) in to one top folder, however if a file with the same name exist, create a new top-folder and continue there, this is what I have so far:
tell application "Finder"
try
set Random_name to random number from 100 to 9999
set theTopFolder to (choose folder)
set theFiles to a reference to every file of (entire contents of folder theTopFolder)
set theNewFolder to make new folder at theTopFolder with properties {name:"Flattened Files"}
move theFiles to theNewFolder
on error
set theNewFolder to make new folder at theTopFolder with properties {name:"Flattened Files" & Random_name}
move theFiles to theNewFolder
end try
end tell
Just to be clear the structure of the path is not:
Mainfolder/subfolder/file.xxx but Mainfolder/subfolder/sulbfolder2/subfolder3/....100/file.xxx so the script needs to work recursively which it does but it stops when a file exist with the same name
When a file with the same name exist my edit creates a new folder with Flattened Files+random number however when another file with the same name is moved the script stops for an error instead going ahead and creating a new Flattened Files+randonnumber folder. Any ideas?
Thank you

Answer 1

Your script isn't using recursion, it just lets the Finder get all the files. The additional error you are getting is because you are trying to move the whole list of files again.
One solution would be to step through the file items, testing for duplicates as you go, and make new folders as needed. The following script just moves duplicates to added folders (note that an error will still stop the script). I don't know how you are sorting the file list, so I included a line to uncomment to continue moving file items to the added folder.
set theTopFolder to (choose folder)
tell application "Finder"
set theNewFolder to make new folder at theTopFolder with properties {name:"Flattened Files"}
set theFiles to every file of (entire contents of folder theTopFolder) as alias list
repeat with aFile in theFiles
if file ((theNewFolder as text) & (name of aFile)) exists then -- use added folders for duplicates
set counter to 1
set done to false
repeat until done
set suffix to text -2 thru -1 of ("000000" & counter) -- leading zeros for sorting
set alternateFolder to (theTopFolder as text) & "Flattened Files" & space & suffix
tell me to (do shell script "mkdir -p " & quoted form of POSIX path of alternateFolder) -- make new folder as needed
if file (alternateFolder & ":" & (name of aFile)) exists then -- continue to next one
set counter to counter + 1
else
move aFile to folder alternateFolder
# set theNewFolder to folder alternateFolder -- uncomment to continue moving here after a duplicate
set done to true
end if
end repeat
else
move aFile to folder (theNewFolder as text)
end if
end repeat
end tell