I want to check if any of particular files (dictionaries) exist in "/Library/Dictionaries/". Here is my Applescript code lines:
tell application "Finder"
try
set theFolder to ("/Library/Dictionaries/")
set fileNames to {"dict1.dictionary", "dict2.dictionary", "dict3.dictionary", "dict_n.dictionary"}
on error
set fileNames to false
end try
if fileNames is not false then
try
display dialog "You have already got the dictionary."
end try
end if
end tell
Weirdly, the message You have already got the dictionary. is always shown albeit no listed files exist.
My purpose is to check if any of the listed files exits, and if one or more of them exits then the message is to be displayed.
In fact, this script will be run as a Unix bash script via /usr/bin/osascript, so I will be very grateful if you can help with either Apple script or Bash script.
Try
set theFolder to (path to library folder as text) & "Dictionaries:"
set fileNames to {"Apple Dictionary.dictionary", "dict2.dictionary", "dict3.dictionary", "dict_n.dictionary"}
set dict to {}
repeat with aFile in fileNames
tell application "Finder"
if exists file (theFolder & aFile as text) then set end of dict to aFile & return
end tell
end repeat
if dict ≠ {} then display dialog "You have the following dictionaries installed:" & return & dict
Another method is to try to coerce a file object to an alias:
set p to (system attribute "HOME") & "/Desktop/test.txt"
try
POSIX file p as alias
true
on error
false
end try
Note that this results in an error when as alias is evaluated:
"/non-existing/path"
tell application "Finder" to exists POSIX file result as alias
This doesn't result in an error:
POSIX file "/non-existing/path"
tell application "Finder" to exists result
Related
I was looking for a script that would batch convert all *.numbers files in a given folder to *.csv files.
I found the following on GitHub and added an additional line as suggested in the comments suggestion. When I run the script, Numbers launches and opens the test file from the folder specified - but the file is not exported. Numbers just stays open and terminal errors out with:
/Users/Shared/Untitled.scpt: execution error: Numbers got an error: Invalid key form. (-10002)
The script (located in /Users/Shared) has the following permissions:
-rwxr-xr-x
#!/usr/bin/osascript
on run argv
set theFilePath to POSIX file (item 1 of argv)
set theFolder to theFilePath as alias
tell application "Finder" to set theDocs to theFolder's items
-- Avoid export privilege problem
set privilegeFile to (theFolder as text) & ".permission"
close access (open for access privilegeFile)
repeat with aDoc in theDocs
set docName to aDoc's name as text
if docName ends with ".numbers" then
set exportName to (theFolder as text) & docName
set exportName to exportName's text 1 thru -9
set exportName to (exportName & "csv")
tell application "Numbers"
open aDoc
delay 5 -- may need to adjust this higher
tell front document
export to file exportName as CSV
close
end tell
end tell
end if
end repeat
end run
Any suggestions?
Here is what I did and works for me in macOS High Sierra:
In Terminal:
touch numb2csv; open -e numb2csv; chmod +x numb2csv
• This creates an empty ASCII Text file named numb2csv.
• Opens, by default, numb2csv in TextEdit.
• Makes the numb2csv file executable.
Copy and paste the example AppleScript code, shown further below, into the opened numb2csv file.
Save and close the numb2csv file.
In Terminal executed the numb2csv executable file, e.g.:
./numb2csv "$HOME/Documents"
This created a CSV file of the same name as each Numbers document in my Documents folder, not traversing any nested folders.
Example AppleScript code:
#!/usr/bin/osascript
on run argv
set theFilePath to POSIX file (item 1 of argv)
set theFolder to theFilePath as alias
tell application "System Events" to set theDocs to theFolder's items whose name extension = "numbers"
repeat with aDoc in theDocs
set docName to aDoc's name as text
set exportName to (theFolder as text) & docName
set exportName to exportName's text 1 thru -8
set exportName to (exportName & "csv")
tell application "Numbers"
launch
open aDoc
repeat until exists document 1
delay 3
end repeat
tell front document
export to file exportName as CSV
close
end tell
end tell
end repeat
tell application "Numbers" to quit
end run
NOTE: As coded, this will overwrite an existing CSV file of the same name as each Numbers file processed, if they already exist. Additional coding required if wanting to not overwrite existing files
If you receive the Script Error:
Numbers got an error: The document “name” could not be exported as “name”. You don’t have permission.
It is my experience that the Numbers document was not fully opened prior to being exported and that increasing the value of the delay command resolves this issue. This is of course assuming that one actually has write permissions in the folder the target Numbers documents exists.
Or one can introduce an error handler within the tell front document block which, if my theory is right about the target document not being fully loaded before the export, will give additional time, e.g.:
Change:
tell front document
export to file exportName as CSV
close
end tell
To:
tell front document
try
export to file exportName as CSV
close
on error
delay 3
export to file exportName as CSV
close
end try
end tell
Note: The primary example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. See included example directly above.
I was looking for that, unfortunately, that doesn’t work anymore.
This line
tell application "System Events" to set theDocs to theFolder's items whose name extension = "numbers"
Gets the following error:
execution error: Can’t make file "file.numbers" of application "System Events" into the expected type. (-1700)
macOs Big Sur Versio 11.01
automator version 2.10
Numbers version 10.3.5
Inspired by this thread and those articles Exporting Numbers Documents and Get full directory contents with AppleScript
The following code works:
#!/usr/bin/osascript
log "Start"
property exportFileExtension : "csv"
tell application "Finder"
activate
set sourceFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please select directory."
set fileList to name of every file of sourceFolder
end tell
set the defaultDestinationFolder to sourceFolder
repeat with documentName in fileList
log "documentName: " & documentName
set fullPath to (sourceFolder as text) & documentName
log "fullPath: " & fullPath
if documentName ends with ".numbers" then
set documentName to text 1 thru -9 of documentName
tell application "Finder"
set newExportItemName to documentName & "." & exportFileExtension
set incrementIndex to 1
repeat until not (exists document file newExportItemName of defaultDestinationFolder)
set newExportItemName to ¬
documentName & "-" & (incrementIndex as string) & "." & exportFileExtension
set incrementIndex to incrementIndex + 1
end repeat
end tell
set the targetFileHFSPath to ¬
(defaultDestinationFolder as string) & newExportItemName
tell application "Numbers"
launch
open fullPath
with timeout of 1200 seconds
export front document to file targetFileHFSPath as CSV
end timeout
close
end tell
end if
end repeat
user3439894's answer works with a few change:
exists document 1 => number of documents > 0
I want to make an automator app which creates an empty file in current directory.
I did some google search and found:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050219134457298 and http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100509134904820
However, I want to do something more powerful.
If the specified file already exists, I want to show a warning instead of overwriting the original file, which is what one of the above link does. (The other one creates a text file using textEdit. I do not want to create text file. I want an empty file like what linux/unix does)
I already figured out how to do most of the part, but
How can check whether a file exists in current directory using applescript??
How can I concatenate two variable in applescript?
Checking if a file exists (assuming thefullpath is already set as in the referenced question):
tell application "Finder"
if exists POSIX file thefullpath then
--do something here like
display alert "Warning: the file already exists"
end if
end tell
Not sure what you mean by the second part but if you want to concatenate strings stored in var1 and var2 you could simply do
var1 & var2
Something I have been using a lot of late for this sort of thing is the command /bin/test
The test test for the existence of in this case a file
if (do shell script "/bin/test -e " & quoted form of (POSIX path of theFile) & " ; echo $?") is "1" then
-- 1 is false
--do something
end if
The -e option:
-e file True if file exists (regardless of type).
The are tons of other test options shown in the /bin/test man page
The following code, adapted from your second link, is usually right, but it doesn't always work. The current directory is better specified as the directory of the document that is being opened which is most likely from the Finder's front window, but not necessarily. I like to write code that will work no matter what.
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder"
set currentPath to insertion location as text
set x to POSIX path of currentPath
display dialog "currentPath: " & (x as text)
end tell
return x
end run
I wrote a whole "Run AppleScript" action to put things into context:
on run {input, parameters}
# count the number of files
set numFiles to 0
repeat with f in input
# warn the user that folders are not processed in this app
tell application "Finder"
if (kind of f is "Folder") then
display dialog "The item: " & (f as text) & " is a folder. Only files are allowed. Do you want to continue processing files or do you want to cancel?"
else
set numFiles to numFiles + 1
end if
end tell
end repeat
# require that at least one file is being opened
if numFiles < 1 then
display alert "Error: the application Test1.app cannot be run because it requires at least one file as input"
error number -128
end if
# get the current directory from the first file
set theFirstFile to (item 1 of input)
tell application "System Events" to set theFolder to (container of theFirstFile)
# ask the user for a file name
set thefilename to text returned of (display dialog "Create file named:" default answer "filename")
# create the file
tell application "System Events" to set thefullpath to (POSIX path of theFolder) & "/" & thefilename
set theCommand to "touch \"" & thefullpath & "\""
do shell script theCommand
# return the input as the output
return input
end run
The "touch" command is OK. If the file doesn't exist, it is created and if it does exist, only the modification date is changed (which isn't too bad) but it doesn't overwrite the file. If your file is being overwritten, it's not the touch command that is doing it.
I changed the default file name to remove the extension ".txt" This extension may default to being opened by TextEdit.app, but you can change this in the Finder by choosing "Get Info" for a file and changing the "Open With" property. You can change which application opens the file with that extension or you can change them all. For example, all of my ".txt" files are opened with BBEdit.app
Will you vote my answer up?
Another option that doesn't require Finder or System Events is to try to coerce a POSIX file or file object to an alias:
try
POSIX file "/tmp/test" as alias
true
on error
false
end try
For some reason, when I check to see if a file exists, it always returns as true:
display dialog (exists (homePath & "Desktop/11-14.csv" as POSIX file as string))
That returns as true, no matter if there is a csv named that on my Desktop or not. I want to make an if function that works through file existence, but because it's always returning as true, it's screwing up my if function. What can I do to fix this?
Some explanation: The reason why it always returns true is that the file class exists rather than the file on your drive. It's the same as saying exists "Hello World!" which always returns true because the string "Hello World!" does indeed exists. By default the exists command just checks is the given value is missing value or not. When it is missing value it returns false, otherwise it will return true. However there are applications that overwrites the standard exists command like System Events and Finder for instance. So to use the exists command on a file and want to check if the file exists you should wrap your code in an tell application "System Events" or "Finder" block like in adayzdone example code.
There are more ways to skin this cat.
set theFile to "/Users/wrong user name/Desktop"
--using system events
tell application "System Events" to set fileExists to exists disk item (my POSIX file theFile as string)
--using finder
tell application "Finder" to set fileExists to exists my POSIX file theFile
--using alias coercion with try catch
try
POSIX file theFile as alias
set fileExists to true
on error
set fileExists to false
end try
--using a do shell script
set fileExists to (do shell script "[ -e " & quoted form of theFile & " ] && echo true || echo false") as boolean
--do the actual existence check yourself
--it's a bit cumbersome but gives you an idea how an file check actually works
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
set pathComponents to text items 2 thru -1 of theFile
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
set currentPath to "/"
set fileExists to true
repeat with component in pathComponents
if component is not in every paragraph of (do shell script "ls " & quoted form of currentPath) then
set fileExists to false
exit repeat
end if
set currentPath to currentPath & component & "/"
end repeat
return fileExists
Try:
set xxx to (path to desktop as text) & "11-14.csv"
tell application "System Events" to exists file xxx
If I have a list of aliases, how can I either remove the ones that are not regular files or create a new list with only regular files. The main question is how to determine if an alias is a regular file. I tried this, but it's hacky and it doesn't always work (like with .app files).
if (theFile as string) does not end with ":" then ...
How can I do this?
You can use the "kind" property of a file to determine what it is...
set theFile to choose file
tell application "System Events"
set theKind to kind of theFile
end tell
if theKind is not "Application" then
return "Not an application"
else
return "Is an application"
end if
It seems kind of hacky, but this seems to work well:
tell application "Finder"
set regularFiles to {}
repeat with theFile in theFiles
if the URL of theFile does not end with "/"
set end of regularFiles to theFile
end if
end repeat
end tell
I initially tried testing the path for a ":" at the end, but it breaks for bundled applications and similar files-which-are-really-folders.
I made this Applescript script to create symbolic links.
Appart from POSIX path of, how can I get the file name, without the path, of the dropped file?
on open filelist
repeat with i in filelist
do shell script "ln -s " & POSIX path of i & " /Users/me/Desktop/symlink"
end repeat
end open
PS: I know this expects many files to be dropped and tries to create many links with the same name, which gives an error. Actually I copied this example from a website and as I don't know almost anything about Applescript, I don't know how to do this for a single file, help on that would be appreciated too.
I'm not sure what precisely you're trying to do, but I have a guess. Is the idea that you want to take every file dropped on the script and create a symbolic link to each one on the Desktop? So if I drop ~/look/at/me and ~/an/example, you'll have ~/Desktop/me and ~/Desktop/example? If that's what you want, then you're in luck: ln -s <file1> <file2> ... <directory> does exactly that. (Edit: Although you have to watch out for the two-argument case.) Thus, your code could look like this:
-- EDITED: Added the conditional setting of `dest` to prevent errors in the
-- two-arguments-to-ln case (see my comment).
on quoted(f)
return quoted form of POSIX path of f
end quoted
on open filelist
if filelist is {} then return
set dest to missing value
if (count of filelist) is 1 then
tell application "System Events" to set n to the name of item 1 of filelist
set dest to (path to desktop as string) & n
else
set dest to path to desktop
end if
set cmd to "ln -s"
repeat with f in filelist & dest
set cmd to cmd & " " & quoted(f)
end repeat
do shell script cmd
end open
Note the use of quoted form of; it wraps its argument in single quotes so executing in in the shell won't do anything funny.
If you want to get at the name of the file for another reason, you don't need to call out to the Finder; you can use System Events instead:
tell application "System Events" to get name of myAlias
will return the name of the file stored in myAlias.
Edit: If you want to do something to a single file, it's pretty easy. Instead of using repeat to iterate over every file, just perform the same action on the first file, accessed by item 1 of theList. So in this case, you might want something like this:
-- EDITED: Fixed the "linking a directory" case (see my comment).
on quoted(f)
return quoted form of POSIX path of f
end quoted
on open filelist
if filelist is {} then return
set f to item 1 of filelist
tell application "System Events" to set n to the name of f
do shell script "ln -s " & ¬
quoted(f) & " " & quoted((path to desktop as string) & n)
end open
It's pretty much the same, but we grab the first item in filelist and ignore the rest. Additionally, at the end, we display a dialog containing the name of the symlink, so the user knows what just happened.
As an example, you can work with the Finder instead of a shell script to get the name of a single file that is dropped on the script that is saved as an application. If you don't need the display dialog, you can remove it, but you have the file name as a variable to work with:
on open the_files
repeat with i from 1 to the count of the_files
tell application "Finder"
set myFileName to name of (item i of the_files)
end tell
display dialog "The file's name is " & myFileName
end repeat
end open