Folder Action to resize images in Leopard 10.5.8 - applescript

Question

I know nothing about AppleScript, so please forgive me.
Goal is to create a folder that our graphics guy can drop stock photos into and have them resized to 1280. The chosen folder is a network folder, so don't know if that's part of the issue or not. He will be pasting the images into the folder from his Windows workstation.
Here is what I have pieced together so far:
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
repeat with this_item in added_items
try
rescale_and_save(this_item)
end try
end repeat
end adding folder items to
to rescale_and_save(this_item)
tell application "Image Events"
launch
set the target_height to 1280
-- open the image file
set this_image to open this_item
set typ to this_image's file type
copy dimensions of this_image to {current_width, current_height}
if current_height is greater than current_width then
scale this_image to size target_height
else
-- figure out new height
-- y2 = (y1 * x2) / x1
set the new_width to (current_width * target_height) / current_height
scale this_image to size new_width
end if
tell application "Finder" to set new_item to ¬
(container of this_item as string) & "ex" & (name of this_item)
save this_image in new_item as typ
end tell
end rescale_and_save
I've right clicked on the folder, enabled folder actions, and added my script. I copy in the test file but nothing happens.
Any ideas?
EDIT:
I looked at the samples and came up with the following script that WORKS!:
property done_foldername : "Scaled Images"
property target_height : 1280
-- the list of file types which will be processed
-- eg: {"PICT", "JPEG", "TIFF", "GIFf"}
property type_list : {"JPEG", "TIFF", "PNGf"}
-- since file types are optional in Mac OS X,
-- check the name extension if there is no file type
-- NOTE: do not use periods (.) with the items in the name extensions list
-- eg: {"txt", "text", "jpg", "jpeg"}, NOT: {".txt", ".text", ".jpg", ".jpeg"}
property extension_list : {"jpg", "jpeg", "tif", "tiff", "png"}
on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
-- CHECK FOR THE DESTINATION FOLDER WITHIN THE ATTACHED FOLDER
-- IF IT DOESN'T EXIST, THEN CREATE IT
tell application "Finder"
if not (exists folder done_foldername of this_folder) then
make new folder at this_folder with properties {name:done_foldername}
set current view of container window of this_folder to list view
end if
set the target_folder to folder done_foldername of this_folder
end tell
-- PROCESS EACH OF THE ITEMS ADDED TO THE ATTACHED FOLDER
try
repeat with i from 1 to number of items in these_items
set this_item to item i of these_items
set the item_info to the info for this_item
-- CHECK TO SEE IF THE ITEM IS AN IMAGE FILE OF THE ACCEPTED FILE TYPE
if (alias of the item_info is false and the file type of the item_info is in the type_list) or (the name extension of the item_info is in the extension_list) then
tell application "Finder"
-- LOOK FOR EXISTING MATCHING ITEMS IN THE DESTINATION FOLDER
-- IF THERE ARE MATCHES, THEN RENAME THE CONFLICTING FILES INCREMENTALLY
my resolve_conflicts(this_item, target_folder)
-- MOVE THE ITEM TO THE DESTINATION FOLDER
set the target_file to (move this_item to the target_folder with replacing) as alias
end tell
-- PROCESS THE ITEM
process_item(target_file)
end if
end repeat
on error error_message number error_number
if the error_number is not -128 then
tell application "Finder"
activate
display dialog error_message buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1 giving up after 120
end tell
end if
end try
end adding folder items to
on resolve_conflicts(this_item, target_folder)
tell application "Finder"
set the file_name to the name of this_item
if (exists document file file_name of target_folder) then
set file_extension to the name extension of this_item
if the file_extension is "" then
set the trimmed_name to the file_name
else
set the trimmed_name to text 1 thru -((length of file_extension) + 2) of the file_name
end if
set the name_increment to 1
repeat
set the new_name to (the trimmed_name & "." & (name_increment as string) & "." & file_extension) as string
if not (exists document file new_name of the target_folder) then
-- rename to conflicting file
set the name of document file file_name of the target_folder to the new_name
exit repeat
else
set the name_increment to the name_increment + 1
end if
end repeat
end if
end tell
end resolve_conflicts
-- this sub-routine processes files
on process_item(this_item)
-- NOTE that the variable this_item is a file reference in alias format
-- FILE PROCESSING STATEMENTS GOES HERE
try
-- convert alias reference to string
set this_item to this_item as string
with timeout of 900 seconds
tell application "Image Events"
launch -- always use with Folder Actions
set this_image to open file this_item
scale this_image to size target_height
save this_image with icon
close this_image
end tell
end timeout
on error error_message
tell application "Finder"
activate
display dialog error_message buttons {"Cancel"} default button 1 giving up after 120
end tell
end try
end process_item

Answer 1

I just tested your script on a folder dropping 1 image in, and it turns out it runs repeatedly because the resulting (resized) image is also added to that folder. Here's what it looked like after a couple of seconds, before I interrupted it:
You should have a look at the default image processing scripts inside /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts and maybe use one of them as a template. They basically use a sub-folder for the processed images and contain some possibly useful filename conflict resolving function, too.