Applescript How to make this selection as a taget path?

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dkaiser92 Author

Level 1

4 points

Applescript How to make this selection as a taget path?

Hi i bump in to simple things I can't get my head around all the time,

How to make this selection as a taget path?

this code works but only by having a selected folder in finder window selected

so inside my help quotes I can't figure out how to make the path as path I have chosen from the start,

the code simply takes a folders folders and count them and make new folders at a chosen location whit same folder names.

tell application "Finder"

--==========HELP START==========--

--set selected to "/Users/USER/Movies/Test/Effects/" as POSIX file as alias

--set selected to get every item of (entire contents of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:politijagt:Movies:Test:Effects:") whose kind ≠ "Folder"

--reveal selected

set selected to selection

--==========HELP END==========--

set current_folder to item 1 of selected

# Build a list of the files available

set mlist to every folder of current_folder as alias list

# Build a list of the folders available

set theFolders to every folder of current_folder as alias list

set x to mlist

repeat with i from 1 to the count of x

set this_file to item i of x

if i is not 1 then

set previous_file to item (i - 1) of x

set prev_ext to cur_ext

set prev_name to new_name

else

set prev_name to ""

end if

set cur_ext to name extension of this_file

set new_name to (name of this_file as text)

if new_name is not equal to prev_name then

set new_folder to make new folder with properties {name:new_name} at "/Users/USER/Movies/Test/" as POSIX file as alias as string

end if

end repeat

end tell

Posted on Jan 29, 2020 10:30 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Jan 29, 2020 3:50 PM in response to dkaiser92

OK - helps a bit, but let's break it down a bit:

Starting with:

> set selected to “/Users/USER/Movies/Test/Effects/”

In this model, selected is now a string. Nothing more. You can't get a list of files in a string, so we have to coerce it to something else. Also, the Finder predates Mac OS X's UNIX roots, so usually prefers HFS (colon-delimited) paths. If you're providing UNIX paths you need to give the script a hint by adding the 'POSIX file' class (which you do):

> set selected to POSIX file "/Users/USER/Movies/Test/Effects/"

Now UNIX doesn't greatly differentiate between files and folders (hence the 'POSIX file' works regardless of whether you add a file or a folder path, so we need to add one more level of hinting so that the OS knows you're looking at a folder:

> set selected to folder (POSIX file "/Users/USER/Movies/Test/Effects/"

from which you can get every file:

> set selected to every file of entire contents of (folder (POSIX file "/Users/USER/Movies/Test/Effects/")) whose kind is not "Folder"

Now you should have a list of non-folders (eventually - the Finder is pretty bad at running this kind of query).

Does that help?

Now, none of that gets past the issue of the Finder recognizing/honoring symlinks. That's a whole different kettle of fish.

I guess I still don't quite get what you're trying to do, but I realize I might be something to do with your movie production flows.

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Answer 2

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Jan 29, 2020 2:17 PM in response to dkaiser92

It isn't clear to me quite what you're trying to do here.

If I try to follow the logic backwards from:

> set mlist to every folder of current_folder as alias list

you're trying to get a list of every folder inside of current_folder, where current_folder is defined as:

> set current_folder to item 1 of selected

but, by extension (from your commented code), selected only contains files because you:

> --set selected to get every item of (entire contents of folder "Macintosh HD:Users:politijagt:Movies:Test:Effects:") whose kind ≠ "Folder"

So you set selected to every item of the specified folder that is NOT a folder, then you assume that the first item in the result is a folder. Something here has to give.

Maybe if you could explain your goal it would be easier to understand what's at fault.

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Answer 3

dkaiser92 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 29, 2020 2:59 PM in response to Camelot

My goal is

My end goal is more complex , its like a work around im trying to do because the program that i use wont see some folders as valid symlinks folders. Frome a server to local. I Have checked that every .extention is correct.

local:

topfolder ”symlink” work

topfolders underfolder “symlink” dont work

underfolder files as symlink work

and the reason i just dont use the topfolder as symlink is because i want to merge more folders into some folders inside topfolders under folder.

and as long the program dont see the under folder as a valid symlink folder i need to create a normal folder whit same name that already exists and put the files of that folder inside of it as symlinks.

hope that gave a better idea of my goal.

so my question in this code

have tried a lot of things to get the same action as happens when i do the

set selected to selection

and the code work

but every time i try to choose the path of the folder as

set selected to “/Users/USER/Movies/Test/Effects/”

the code fails

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Answer 4

dkaiser92 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jan 30, 2020 4:19 AM in response to Camelot

Some times sleep helps my mind , Thx I figured it out whit u help and my fresh mind to get it to work, thx a lot :) its hard to learn on trial and error :)

did like so it works

tell application "Finder"

set selected to folder of entire contents of (folder (POSIX file "/Users/USER/Movies/Test/Effects/"))

set current_folder to item 1 of selected

# Build a list of the files available

set mlist to every folder of current_folder as alias list

# Build a list of the folders available

set theFolders to every folder of current_folder as alias list

repeat with i from 1 to the count of mlist

set this_file to item i of mlist

if i is not 1 then

set previous_file to item (i - 1) of mlist

set prev_ext to cur_ext

set prev_name to new_name

else

set prev_name to ""

end if

set cur_ext to name extension of this_file

set new_name to (name of this_file as text)

if new_name is not equal to prev_name then

set new_folder to make new folder with properties {name:new_name} at "/Users/USER/Movies/Test/" as POSIX file as alias as string

end if

end repeat

end tell

Reply

Answer 5

Camelot

Level 9

54,333 points

Jan 30, 2020 10:18 AM in response to dkaiser92

> Some times sleep helps my mind , Thx I figured it out whit u help and my fresh mind to get it to work, thx a lot :) its hard to learn on trial and error :)

The Finder has got progressively more complex to script with multiple levels of 'file'-related objects - file... alias... POSIX file... etc. and even now I still stumble through trial and error to get to a functioning script, and I've been doing this a long time lol.

Anyway, glad I could shine some light on it and point you in the right direction.

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Applescript How to make this selection as a taget path?

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