This is my first attempt at AppleScripting.
I have 3 folders that contain image files.
Test Folder 1 has 77 large, master files.
Test Folder 2 has 4 smaller files in a subfolder called ABC with the same name as files in Test Folder 1.
Test Folder 3 Contains an empty sub folder called ABC.
I want a script to check the file names in Test Folder 2 and copy the equivalent file names from Test Folder 1 to Test Folder 3 subfolder ABC
Here is what I have so far:
tell application "Finder"
set the_files to (files of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:Ronnie:Pictures:Test Folder 1:")
set the_file_names to (files of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:Ronnie:Pictures:Test Folder 2:ABC:")
set target_folder to ("Macintosh HD:Users:Ronnie:Pictures:Test Folder 3:ABC:")
if document files of the_file_names is equal to document files of the_files then duplicate the_files to target_folder
end tell
Currently it will copy all the files from Test Folder 1 so its seams that the "If" script does not work.
Can someone help?
Ronnie
This is one way to do it.
--this is my preference. I prefer to work with strings then coerce them to aliases
--"aliases" in the old AppleScript/Mac API sense, meaning special file/folder path data type
-- (this is what is returned when you use the choose file or choose folder commands, e.g.)
-- aliases can be coerced to and from strings
-- not to be confused with POSIX style paths which use "/" as separator, OR
-- Finder item objects, which are specific to the Finder ('file x of folder y of startup disk z' style)
set tf1 to "Macintosh HD:Users:Ronnie:Pictures:Test Folder 1:"
set tf2 to "Macintosh HD:Users:Ronnie:Pictures:Test Folder 2:ABC:"
set target_folder to "Macintosh HD:Users:Ronnie:Pictures:Test Folder 3:ABC:"
--above not needed in Finder tell block
tell application "Finder"
set fileNames to (name of files of alias tf1) --we get the names of the files here; "name" filters, so does "files"
set matchNames to (name of files of alias tf2) --and the names of the files we want to match in testing
repeat with thisName in fileNames --repeat loop is necessary for this
if thisName is in matchNames then
--notice the concatenating of folder and name to make new alias that gets copied
duplicate alias (tf1 & thisName) to alias target_folder
end if
end repeat
end tell
Related
How do you get a folder's first child path (when the first child is a folder)?
Say you have...
Folder 1 ¬
File 1
File 2
Folder 2 ¬
File A
File B
File C
File D
Use case:
I select a batch of folders, all on the same level as Folder 1 with:
set foldersToProcess to choose folder with multiple selections allowed
Then, I loop through each each of the queued folder foldersToProcess, where in the process I want to look into the first child folder of Folder 1 (being Folder 2), every single time.
How do I do this?
You should use try block because maybe some of the chosen folders doesn't contain subfolders at all. So, without try block it will throw error when asking for folder 1 of empty list.
To get first folders as System Event's folder references:
set chosenFolders to (choose folder with multiple selections allowed)
set firstFolders to {}
repeat with anAlias in chosenFolders
try
tell application "System Events" to ¬
set end of firstFolders to folder 1 of folder (anAlias as text)
end try
end repeat
To get HFS paths of first folders, edit corresponding code line with:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
set end of firstFolders to path of folder 1 of folder (anAlias as text)
To get Posix paths of first folders,edit corresponding code line with:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
set end of firstFolders to POSIX path of folder 1 of folder (anAlias as text)
Using Automator, I created a "Folder Action" to move files of certain types (i.e. "Kind IS Movie") from folder "FolderA" to folder "FolderB" as soon as they are added to folder "FolderA". It works fine except that it doesn't move files from subfolders (e.g. doesn't work if the movie files are added to "FolderA/SubA/"), and apparently there's no option on Automator to make it work on the subfolders.
Does anyone have any idea about how to either change that on Automator or how could I create a script for that? Thanks!
This following AppleScript folder action code should give you a general idea of how to accomplish what you are looking for. When a file or folder is added to a folder that this folder action is attached to, it will search all folders and sub folders for files (I used QuickTime movie as the kind of file... But you can change that to whatever you want) then those files will be moved to the folder that you will define in property moveToFolder
You can save this following code in Script Editor.app directly into your /Users/Your_User_Name/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions folder, as a .scpt file. Once the script is saved into that folder, it will be available to attach to any folder as a folder action using the Folder Actions Setup.
-- Set This To The Folder You Want Your Videos Moved To
property moveToFolder : (path to desktop as text) & "moved_videos"
-- Set This To The Kind Of File To Act Upon
property fileKind : "QuickTime movie"
on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theNewItems
tell application "Finder"
set movieFilesRef to a reference to (files of entire contents of folder theFolder ¬
whose kind is fileKind)
move movieFilesRef to alias moveToFolder
end tell
end adding folder items to
OR Here Is A Version Which Defines The Name Extensions Of The Files To Act Upon
-- Set This To The Folder You Want Your Videos Moved To
property moveToFolder : (path to desktop as text) & "moved_videos"
-- Set This To The Name Extensions Of Files To Act Upon
property videoFileExtensions : {"m4v", "mkv", "avi", "mp4", "mov", "wmv", "mpg"}
on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theNewItems
tell application "Finder"
set movieFilesRef to a reference to (files of entire contents of folder theFolder ¬
whose name extension is in videoFileExtensions)
move movieFilesRef to alias moveToFolder
end tell
end adding folder items to
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
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
Here's our situation:
We have a list of file names and/or full file paths (we can generate either)
The files in our list are all contained under one folder, but scattered across multiple sub-folders. (There are hundreds of items in our select list from thousands of possible files. Selecting manually isn't an option)
We've got the root folder open in list view and all sub-folders, sub-sub etc disclosure-opened (btw thanks to http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20030218164922494 for the shortcut "command, option, control and shift when pressing the right arrow")
With all files visible under one window open we want to automatically select all the items in our file list so that they can then be dragged at once to an application.
I do not believe that with basic AppleScript one can programmatically select multiple items in Finder which span throughout different folders and subfolders within a given folder in one window. Maybe with Cocoa-AppleScript, don't know, however if Avid can open files from file aliases, then the following example AppleScript code is a viable option.
The example AppleScript code makes the following assumptions:
There is a plain text file containing the fully qualified POSIX pathnames of the target files to be processed with Avid and the name of the file is: List of Files to Process with Avid.txt
The name of the folder containing the aliases is: Aliases of Files to Process with Avid
The Desktop is used as the location in the filesystem that the aforementioned file and folder exists, to be processed by Avid.
Obviously these settings can be changed as needed/wanted, see the comments in the code.
Example AppleScript code:
-- # Set the value of the following three property variables:
-- #
-- # The value of 'thisLocation' is an colon-delimited path string, e.g. 'path to desktop as string' returns: "Macintosh HD:Users:me:Desktop:"
-- # NOTE: When not using 'path to (folder)' where 'folder' is a 'folder constant' , the special folder for which to return the path, the value should be in the form of an colon-delimited path string.
-- # See: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptLangGuide/reference/ASLR_cmds.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40000983-CH216-SW19
-- #
-- # The value of 'theListFilename' is the name of the plain text file containing the fully quilified pathnames of the target files to be opened in Avid.
-- # The value of 'theFolderName' is the name of the temporary folder the temporary aliases will be created in. This folder gets created new each run with new aliases.
-- #
-- # NOTE: For ease of use, as each run is presumed to be temporary to get that job run done, the location of the 'theListFilename' and 'theFolderName' are both in 'thisLocation'.
property thisLocation : (path to desktop as string)
property theListFilename : "List of Files to Process with Avid.txt"
property theFolderName : "Aliases of Files to Process with Avid"
-- # The remaining code is tokenized and should not need to be modified.
tell application "Finder"
if (exists thisLocation & theListFilename) then
tell current application to set theList to read alias (thisLocation & theListFilename)
else
display dialog "The file, \"" & theListFilename & "\", was not found at the expected location." buttons {"OK"} ¬
default button 1 with title "Missing File" with icon 0
return
end if
set theFolderPathname to thisLocation & theFolderName
if not (exists theFolderPathname) then
make new folder at thisLocation with properties {name:theFolderName}
else
move theFolderPathname to trash
make new folder at thisLocation with properties {name:theFolderName}
end if
repeat with i from 1 to length of theList
try
make new alias file at theFolderPathname to POSIX file (paragraph i of theList)
end try
end repeat
reveal theFolderPathname
activate
-- delay 1 -- # In necessary, uncomment and adjust value as appropriate.
select every item of alias theFolderPathname
end tell
In Script Editor, save this script and an application, e.g. Select Files to Process with Avid, and then run as needed after replacing the e.g. List of Files to Process with Avid.txt with the current set of target files to be processed with Avid.
The script does the following:
Checks to see the file e.g. List of Files to Process with Avid.txt exists and if not displays error message and exits.
Checks to see if the folder e.g. Aliases of Files to Process with Avid exist and if not creates it, and if it exists, moves it to the Trash and creates it anew, for the new run of target files to be processed.
Creates an alias of each file listed, as a fully qualified POSIX pathname, in the file e.g.: List of Files to Process with Avid.txt
Opens the folder, e.g. Select Files to Process with Avid, in Finder and selects the aliases.
You are now ready to drag and drop the selected aliases to Avid.
Note: This script assumes the fully qualified POSIX pathnames of the target files to be processes with Avid do not contain linefeeds, carriage returns and or null characters in their pathnames.
This works using the latest version of Sierra.
I was not able to figure out a way to selectively select files in folders with subfolders with subfolders etc. The only solution I was able to come up with was to create folder called “Aliases” and have AppleScript create alias files to all of the ”selected files” and store all of the aliases in the aliases folder. From there you can drag all of the files and drop them into your application as you desired
If you have a plain text file containing POSIX path filenames, each on a separate line like the example in this next image, this version will load the pathnames from the text file directly into the script. Just save this script as an application. You can drag text files directly onto the icon of the app because the code is set up to be a droplet
global theFile
property theInfo : missing value
property theName : missing value
property theList : {}
property theList2 : {}
property aliasFolder : (path to desktop as text) & "Aliases"
on open theFiles
set theInfo to info for theFiles
set theName to POSIX path of theFiles
getLinesofFileAsList(theName)
tell application "Finder"
if not (exists of alias aliasFolder) then
make new folder at (path to desktop as text) with properties {name:"Aliases"}
end if
delete every item of alias aliasFolder
end tell
repeat with i from 1 to count of theList
try
set theResult to POSIX file (item i of theList) as text
set end of theList2 to theResult
tell application "Finder"
set theAliases to make new alias file at aliasFolder to theResult
end tell
end try
end repeat
delay 0.5
tell application "Finder"
activate
delay 0.5
set hmmm to reveal aliasFolder
delay 0.5
set hmmm to select every item of alias aliasFolder
activate hmmm
end tell
end open
on getLinesofFileAsList(theName)
set theFile to theName
set theFile to POSIX path of theName
set theList to read POSIX file theFile as text
set saveTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to linefeed
set theList to paragraphs of theList
if last item of theList is "" then
set theList to reverse of rest of reverse of theList
end if
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to saveTID
end getLinesofFileAsList
--on run
-- -- Handle the case where the script is launched without any dropped files
--end run
Here's what I'm trying to do.
I've got a file structure that contains photos in both JPG and RAW formats. It's a folder called "Photos" with subfolders by date. I'd like to copy just the RAW photos to a new folder, "Photos RAW", but keep the structure by date taken/created.
I can copy just the files using automator or applescript a directory to a new one, but how do I walk the directory tree using applescript so I cover all the subfolders?
Try this. You'll see I used "entire contents" to get the files in the subfolders too.
set extensionToFind to "raw"
set topLevelFolder to (choose folder) as text
set pathCount to count of topLevelFolder
tell application "Finder"
-- get the files
set rawFiles to files of entire contents of folder topLevelFolder whose name extension is extensionToFind
if rawFiles is {} then return
-- setup the folder where the files will be moved
set rawFolder to ((container of folder topLevelFolder) as text) & "Photos_Raw:"
do shell script "mkdir -p " & quoted form of POSIX path of rawFolder
repeat with aFile in rawFiles
set aFileContainer to (container of aFile) as text
if topLevelFolder is equal to aFileContainer then
-- here the file is at the top level folder
set newPath to rawFolder
else
-- here we calculate the new path and make sure the folder structure is in place
set thisFile to aFile as text
set subFolderPath to text (pathCount + 1) thru -((count of (get name of aFile)) + 1) of thisFile
set newPath to rawFolder & subFolderPath
do shell script "mkdir -p " & quoted form of POSIX path of newPath
end if
move aFile to folder newPath
end repeat
end tell