Accessing folders in AppleScript - macos

Sorry, complete beginner here with AppleScripting.
I'm trying to do a very simple thing, move files from one folder to another.
tell application "Finder"
set this_folder to "Users:chris.nicol:Movies:SmartConverter:"
set this_list to every file of this_folder
repeat with i in this_list
--if i does not start with "x" then
move i to "users:chris.nicol:music:itunes:itunes media:automatically add to itunes:"
--end if
end repeat
end tell
However I keep getting an error:
I've tried different commands (count, parentContainer, etc.) on the folder, but I get the same type of error. I've tried different formatting for the folder ...
Users/chris.nicol/Movies/SmartConverter/
Macintosh HD:Users:chris.nicol:Movies:SmartConverter
etc.
Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance,
Chris

Simple tip... if you want to find the proper path you should use try this and look in the results field for the proper path. You'll see that the name of the hard drive, Macintosh HD, is required. Note you could use "choose file" as well if you wanted the path to a file.
(choose folder) as text
Next, the path that you will see is a string. Applescript sees it as a string not a path to a file or folder. As such, when you want to use the string as a path then you must put the word "file" or "folder" in front of it as appropriate to make applescript use it properly. Therefore your script should look like this. Note that the move command can handle a list of files so the repeat loop isn't needed.
set this_folder to "Macintosh HD:Users:chris.nicol:Movies:SmartConverter:"
tell application "Finder"
set this_list to every file of folder this_folder
move this_list to folder "Macintosh HD:Users:chris.nicol:music:itunes:itunes media:automatically add to itunes:"
end tell

Try:
set thisFolder to (path to movies folder as text) & "SmartConverter"
set thatFolder to (path to music folder as text) & "itunes:itunes media:automatically add to itunes"
tell application "Finder" to move files of folder thisFolder to thatFolder

You must have some invisible or otherwise uncopyable files in one of the folders. Either add something like without invisibles to the end of your set this_folder line, or get rid of your loop altogether and simply call
move files of entire contents of this_folder to (the Add Automatically folder)

Related

"Duplicate" command, by default, halts operation when file already exists on destination. How to "Keep both" files instead?

tell application "Finder"
set folderA to "Macintosh HD:Users:User:Downloads:A"
set folderB to "Macintosh HD:Users:User:Downloads:B"
duplicate every file of folder folderA to folderB without replacing
end tell
-- It seems that it works the first time, when there are no files yet on folderB. But the 2nd time, I get an error that files already exists. So I'm looking for the modification of my Duplicate command that keeps both files instead of halting without a prompt.
-- I want it to keep both files, or at least prompt me whether to keep both, skip, or replace.
There isn’t a combined command like that, so you would need to do it yourself. The way the Finder works is if there is a duplicate in the destination folder, it puts up a dialog, and if you want to keep both it makes a copy, then moves/duplicates the file from the source folder, replacing the original. The latest duplicate would be the highest numbered copy.
An example script (without the dialog) would be something like:
set source to "Macintosh HD:Users:User:Downloads:A:"
set destination to "Macintosh HD:Users:User:Downloads:B:" -- trailing colon for path creation
tell application "Finder" to repeat with anItem in (get files of folder source as alias list)
try
duplicate anItem to folder destination
on error errmess number errnum -- oops (error -15267, etc)
log "Error " & errnum & ": " & errmess
set thePath to destination & name of anItem
duplicate (thePath as alias) -- make a copy
duplicate anItem to folder destination with replacing -- replace original
end try
end repeat
Note that there is also a variety of tools (such as rsync, ditto, and zip) for managing archives.

AppleScript - Copy All files/folders from source folder to destination folder

I'm trying to write an AppleScript that will simply copy the contents (both folders and files) from a specified source folder to a specified destination folder. At the moment my script runs but only copies one file and I can't work out how to get it to copy all files in the folder.
Here's my script:
set sourceFolder to (POSIX file "/Users/benny/Desktop/Projects/Source/Project1") as alias
set destinationFolder to (POSIX file "/Users/benny/Documents/Masters/Project1") as alias
tell application "System Events"
set availableSourceFiles to every file of sourceFolder whose visible is true
set filesOfTargetFolder to files of destinationFolder whose visible is true
end tell
-- if no more source file is available, quit this script
if (count of availableSourceFiles) = 0 then
quit
end if
set sourceFile to (first item of availableSourceFiles) as alias
-- use the Finder to copy the file
tell application "Finder"
-- duplicate the file to the target folder
duplicate sourceFile to destinationFolder
end tell
I'm assuming I need to include a for each type loop but can't get the syntax correct here. Haven't written AppleScripts in many years so trying to remember how it all works.
If the destination "Project1" folder doesn't have stuff in it already, then duplicating the folder is likely to be quicker:
tell application id "com.apple.Finder" to duplicate folder POSIX file ¬
"/Users/benny/Desktop/Projects/Source/Project1" to the folder ¬
POSIX file "/Users/benny/Documents/Masters" with replacing
However, if that's not an option, then I'd stick with your method and copy the contents of the folder across instead:
set here to POSIX file "/Users/benny/Desktop/Projects/Source/Project1"
set there to POSIX file "/Users/benny/Documents/Masters"
tell application id "com.apple.Finder" to duplicate ¬
every item in the folder here to there
Bear in mind that if there's a file or folder at any of the destinations that intended to be occupied by one of the incoming source items, Finder will throw an error. You would typically incorporate some sort of check ahead of the copy.

Hiding all files in a user chosen directory

So basically I want to be able to take all of the files in a folder and hide them but it always stops at this point with Applescript error -1700
tell application "Finder"
set filePath to entire contents of (choose folder with
prompt "Please choose your folder") as alias list
set pFilePath to POSIX path of filePath
end tell
Can you guys help me?

Automator/Applescript + shell script: grab parent folder name

I have a Automator workflow that utilizes this shell script to grab the name of the directory hosting the file running through this workflow. Later I place that directory name as comment for the file.
for f in "$#"
do
filepath=$(dirname "$f")
dirname=$(basename "$filepath")
echo "$dirname"
done
Whenever I throw multiple files at it though, the directory name gets reflected not once (as I would like to) but times however many files I dropped at it. This then later adds the same comment that many times.
How do I fix that?
EDIT:
I want to try eliminate Automator and go with Applescript + Shell alone.
How do I have the shell return the directory name? Right now it just gives me $dirname in the dialog...
on adding folder items to theWatchedFolder after receiving theDetectedItems
set dirName to do shell script "for f in '$#'
do
filepath=$(dirname '$f')
dirname=$(basename '$filepath')
echo '$dirname'
done"
display alert dirName
end adding folder items to
on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving added_items
repeat with aFile in added_items
tell application "Finder"
set parentpath to POSIX path of (parent of (aFile) as string)
set comment of aFile to parentpath
end tell
end repeat
end adding folder items to
I would go with an Applescript droplet.
Save this code as an Application.
When you drop files onto it from a single dir or multiple, it will comment each file with it's own original dir.
Then move the file to the listed move folder.
property moveFolder : "Macintosh HD:Users:USERNAME:fooDIR:"
on open theseFiles
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theseFiles
set this_item to item i of theseFiles
tell application "Finder"
set parentpath to POSIX path of (parent of (this_item) as string)
set comment of this_item to parentpath
end tell
end repeat
tell application "Finder"
move theseFiles to moveFolder
end tell
end open
You could use a choose command to choose where to move the files instead of hard coding but the files may not be always handed of to the droplet in a single batch even though thats how you dropped them on to it. This means the `choose dialog may display multiple times on whats seems a single run.
But the above hopefully gives you a starting place.

move a file in finder with applescript

I just want to move an image from one folder to the other, replacing the one that's already in there:
tell application "Finder"
copy file "/Users/xx/Documents/img.jpg" to folder "/Users/xx/Documents/State"
end tell
When I run it, I get an error message saying
Finder got an error: Can’t set folder [path] to file [path]"."number
-10006 from folder [path]
Please help me!
Try:
tell application "Finder"
duplicate POSIX file "/Users/xx/Documents/img.jpg" to POSIX file "/Users/xx/Documents/State" with replacing
end tell
Or
tell application "Finder"
move POSIX file "/Users/xx/Documents/img.jpg" to POSIX file "/Users/xx/Documents/State" with replacing
end tell
As #adayzdone notes, the error appears because you're using a Posix-style path without declaring it.
Another approach is to use colon-separated HFS paths, like so:
move file "Macintosh HD:Users:xx:Documents:img.jpg" ¬
to "Macintosh HD:Users:xx:Documents:State:" with replacing
With colon-separated paths you need to include the whole thing, including the volume name (I'm assuming Macintosh HD here), otherwise it'll throw our good friend error 10,006.
It helped me:
set theSource to POSIX file "/Users/xx/Documents/img.jpg"
set theDest to POSIX file "/Users/xx/Documents/State"
tell application "Finder"
move theSource to folder theDest with replacing
end tell

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