is it possible to specify a Finder item by its path?
e.g. I want to refresh the icon of a single item. So far, to do this, I call update on every item of the front window:
tell application "Finder" to update every item in front window
But this only works if the folder currently has the item. Is it possible to specify an item with its path, so that the update will work even if the item is not visible in Finder?
tell application "Finder" to update item_x
where item_x is the item i want to update?
sure just give it an alias but then your hard coding it in there
tell application "Finder" to update "path:to:your:file.ext"
of course there are many more approaches you can take for this it just depend on how you want to get the item(s) you could
have a script in your menu that asks for an item using choose file
have a script in your menu that asks for a folder using choose folder
maybe some other options I'm sure.. can you provide more information what the process is ?
Related
I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a better title.
I've made a little applescript service that gets the unix path to a file you selected in the Finder and then stores that path in the clipboard.
The files I use this for are in my Google Drive volume and now I'd like to add an extra feature which is powered by Google Drive File Stream application.
If I right click on a Google Drive file in the finder, I get 3 extra items in the context menu, see attached screenshot.
All I want is my script to run "Copy link to clipboard".
So how do I tell apple script to do so?
I'm sorry for the very trivial question, but I think I lack the right terminology to make a Google search, all I could find was how to add an apple script to a context menu, which I already did.
Use AXShowMenu to open the context menu. Then send the keystroke "Copy link to clipboard" to select the copy action, and send "Enter" to activate the action.
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Finder"
set selectedFile to value of attribute "AXFocusedUIElement"
tell selectedFile to perform action "AXShowMenu"
delay 0.5
keystroke "Copy link to clipboard"
-- Sends enter
key code 36
end tell
Note that this doesn't work properly when using Finder's icon view. The list view or column view must be used.
so I'm trying to create a service that will be located in the contextual menu of the Finder and that would allow to create a new document in the current directory.
I've been doing that using Automator:
Sorry everything's in French ^^
Anyway here's the AppleScript that I'm using to retrieve the current working directory:
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder"
set pwdAlias to insertion location as alias
if not (exists folder pwdAlias) then
set pwdAlias to (container of pwdAlias) as alias
end if
end tell
set pwd to POSIX path of pwdAlias
return pwd
end run
Then I'm setting this value to a variable, then creating a new text document using the variable as the path for the document and finally I'm using the command Reveal in Finder to show the created document.
Everything's is working fine except that the script seems to always be late!
What I mean is that when I open a new Finder window and select my service, it is systematically creating the document on the previous window as shown below:
But then if I try a second time, the document is being created properly at the expected location:
And this is very systematic it happens every time!!
Sorry if I'm not very clear, it is not so easy to explain!
Well otherwise, I'm running Mountain Lion and here's the Automator project attached: create_new_document
To add the service just unzip and put the file under ~/Library/Services/
Hope to get some answers but I fear that this is just an Automator bug!
Try this
Depending on what you want to be clicking.
Set the Services selected to: 'folders'
or files or folders. in 'Finder.app'
Get first Finder Window path Action
You can download the Get first Finder Window path Action from my blog post here
The download is at the bottom of the post.
The Action gets the posix path of the frontmost finder window.
Since you are clicking on a folder in a window. that window will be the one returned.
Set Value of Variable
Get Specified Text
The next action 'New Text File' needs some input. If it does not get any, no file will be created. You can leave the text field blank. Just having the action in place works.
New Text File
Drag the Variable 'path' or what ever you named it on to the Where: drop down menu.
you can click the double blue lines at the bottom of the Automator window to toggle the workflow Variable List
Save your service. And try it.
(It may take a short while to show up in the contextual Menu.)
It's an open bug in 10.7 and 10.8
Use this Workaround
on run {input, parameters}
activate application "System Events"
activate application "Finder"
tell application "Finder"
set pwdAlias to insertion location as alias
set pwdAlias to (container of pwdAlias) as alias
end tell
return POSIX path of pwdAlias
end run
I want to run an applescript when a specific folder of mine is opened. Then, depending on the input, close the folder, or leave it open. All that without opening the folder. So, basically:
1) Try to open folder
2) Folder doesn't open, but window pops up
3-A) If user clicks ok folder opens
3-B) If user clicks cancel, it just exits out of script, leaving the folder unopened.
How can I do this? Remember: The folder CAN'T open in the background, it can ONLY open if the user presses OK. Help?
For this task, you'll want to use Folder Actions, which trigger script files. Below are the events involving a folder that could trigger a script, and the special corresponding handlers.
A folder is opened — on opening folder window for this_folder
A folder is closed — on closing folder window for this_folder
One or more items are added to a folder on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
One or more items are removed from a folder — on removing folder items from this_folder after losing these_itmes
A folder window is moved — on moving folder window for this_folder
The first bullet is what you'll be focusing on in this case. As the bullet implies, the script is triggered only when the folder actually opens. However, you can hack your way around this issue simply by adding this line at the very beginning of your script:
tell application "Finder" to close first window whose target is this_folder
And here is the full script:
on opening folder window for this_folder
tell application "Finder"
close first window whose target is this_folder
-- the window may appear briefly, but at least you've accomplished your goal
display dialog "Open folder " quoted form of the name of this_folder & "?" buttons{"Yes,"No"} default button 1 cancel button 2
-- pressing the "No" button is exactly the same as pressing the "Cancel" button on a regular dialog, and the script terminates
make new Finder window with properties {target:this_folder}
end tell
end opening folder window
SAVE YOUR SCRIPT FILE IN THE FOLDER ACTIONS FOLDER OF YOUR LOCAL SCRIPTS FOLDER. Create the folder yourself if it doesn't already exist. Doing so will allow your script to even run. Now, for this to function properly, you will need to attach the saved script file—not an application/application bundle—to your desired folder. To do this...
Perform a right-click on your desired folder
Click the menu item "Folder Actions Setup" at the bottom
Locate your saved script in the dialog that appears
Click "Attach"
Close the "Folder Actions Setup" window
Once you've done this, your script is ready to go.
Addendum: If your folder contains confidential information, beware that, as stated by user57368, "it is probably not possible to make the system even remotely secure with AppleScript."
Instead of an ordinary folder, you want an application bundle containing a folder or disk image. If you use an encrypted disk image, it will be more difficult for the user to access the contents without following your preferred procedure, but beware that it is probably not possible to make the system even remotely secure when you're using AppleScript.
If you just want to present a license agreement or other static notice before allowing the user to read the data, just read the hdiutil man page for how to create a disk image that presents a license agreement upon mounting.
I need to rename image files sequentially as they are added to a folder. ie. image-0001.jpg and image-0002.jpg are in a folder I add test.jpg and it is renamed image-0003.jpg. I have tried automators rename function but it will start over with image-0001.jpg each time a new file is added instead of continuing the sequence.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
You could make this easy on yourself by using a handy application built into the OS called "Folder Actions". Folder Actions contains one or more special handlers, formally known as folder action event handlers, that run when they are triggered by a change in the target folder. I know I'm confusing but I'll do my best.
What you are trying to accomplish requires an adding folder items to event handler. It requires one direct parameter, which can be anything you wish i.e. target_folder. The handler requires an additional parameter as well; after receiving, which should also be a variable name, i.e. these_items. I have composed a script for you that should do the trick. I have added comments that show you what I'm doing when I do it. Here it is:
on adding folder items to the target_folder after receiving these_items
tell application "Finder"
set all_images to every item of the target_folder as list
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items --iterates through all the items you dropped in the folder
set this_image to item i of these_items --the current image
set the name of this_image to "image" & (i + the count of all_images) as string --renames the image based on the number of images already in the folder
end repeat
end tell
end adding folder items to
YAY! The script is done! But are WE done? Not quite. We still need to attach the script to a folder (the script won't run if you try to execute it in script editor).
To do this, first save the script as a Script File in the Folder Action Scripts folder in the Scripts folder in either the local Library folder or the current user's Library folder. Create the folder yourself if it doesn't already exist. Next, launch the Folder Actions Setup application by double-clicking it in the AppleScript folder in the Applications folder. In the window that comes up, click the + button under the table on the left (click the "Enable Folder Actions" checkbox if it isn't already checked) to open a standard file browser sheet, navigate to your desired folder, and click "Open". The Choose a Script to Attach sheet automatically opens, listing all the scripts in all of the Folder Action Script folders. Choose the newly-created script, click "Attach", and BAM you are done!
To see the script in action, drag an image onto the folder. The image is instantly renamed, regardless of if the folder window is open. If you have any questions, or if the script doesn't work, just ask me. :)
well without digging through some code and handin you an answer I'll tell you want you want to do
is create a while loop that checks for the existence of image-000 & i where i is a variable of course and if it exists increment i then when the file doesn't exist rename your file.
How can I get the position of an icon on the desktop in OS X? Or, how can I get a list of all icons on the desktop and their positions?
Try this AppleScript code
tell application "Finder"
get desktop position of every item of desktop
end tell
The solution for a folder is to use a catalog iterator to get the Finder info for every item in the folder. The Finder info is a FileInfo or FolderInfo structure that contains a QuickDraw Point (integral co-ordinates, origin top-left, positive y down) specifying where the icon will appear.
I don't know how you would do this for the Desktop, though. There is a Desktop folder in the Home folder, but examining its contents will probably get you the positions that the Finder will use to display that folder in a window. It also will probably not include anything “on the Desktop” that isn't in the Desktop folder, such as mounted volumes.
following apple script will get those positions (use either scripting bridge or NSAppleScript)
tell application "Finder"
tell every item of desktop
get position
get name
end tell
end tell
Another solution (Very similar to the one of #Vaskravchuk)
tell application "Finder"
repeat with anItem in desktop
get {desktop position, name} of anItem
end repeat
end tell