Level 3

816 points

automator question

i figured out how to setup automator workflows and an app (with all the workflows in it) that can backup and zip a specific set of folders on my mac and put them in specific locations.

automator allows me to create an archive - but using the macOS built-in archive utility only.

i like to use keka instead for creating password protected 7z archives of files/folders ... and i found the command that i need (compress using keka) has its own keyboard shortcut assigned (in system preferences/keyboard/shortcuts).

i want to create a workflow where i do this:

1-get specified finder items

2-copy finder items (to another folder)

3-invoke the keyboard shortcut on the folder i just copied, to compress using keka.

i keep keka open, with the settings and password i want to use and when i manually do a ‘compress using keka’ on a folder, it creates the archive and deletes the source folder when its done.

i am doing this manually for 3 or 4 folders of interest on my mac, and automator helps simplify but i cannot figure out how to get it to use keka instead of archive utility.

if i can do this another way, like create a script and turn it into an app, that also works. im not necessarily married to Automator.

grateful for any help to accomplish this ...

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.15

Posted on Feb 19, 2020 8:06 AM

25 replies

Feb 26, 2020 12:49 AM in response to zero7404

Of course there is a possibility that something is wrong but remember this:

Compression rate can vary wildly depending on the contents of those folders, so just size doesn’t tell the whole story. Maybe the files in one folder are all heavily compressed already like jpegs, and there is little gain from compression, while others are not.

zero7404 Author

Level 3

816 points

Feb 27, 2020 8:37 AM in response to zero7404

i ended up with 7 independent apps to do this entire job: delete old archives, copy folders to somewhere else and call keka to compress them and finally rename each 7z file.

i tried to get everything into a single app, but since automator feeds output of one step into another, i am getting bad results where copied and archived items are winding up in the folders of other workflows.

can i have a single app that executes apps inside it in sequence, and not dependent of eachother ?

right now to accomplish what i want, i have to basically run each app manually in order, or put them into individual calendar events and have them run one after another.

Mar 1, 2020 4:32 AM in response to zero7404

If you have an application (or a workflow, or a shell script, or whatever) for each task,

you should be able to just call them in sequence. This can be done from an Applescript, a shell script or maybe Automator.

zero7404 Author

Level 3

816 points

Mar 2, 2020 7:12 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

how would the script be written out ... ?

would an app execute by using this code inside of a tell/end tell argument:

activate “xxyy.app”

if it’s that easy, then i can do that for all 7 apps i want to run, but need to do it in sequence ... i would probably specify a time delay between each app execution (wait xx seconds before executing the next app).

zero7404 Author

Level 3

816 points

Mar 11, 2020 11:09 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

my fundamental problem with automator workflows and apps is that of task overlaps that that led to results where one workflow’s output wound up as the input to another workflow if pause timing is not sufficient.

instead, the sure way i got what i needed was to make a single app specifically for each backup job from start to finish, with the appropriate pauses to ensure tasks dont start before the previous task is done. thats important when calling an outside app like keka to do an archive because the workflow does not care when keka finishes creating the archive.

so i have 3 separate apps that backup and archive 3 separate folders on my computer. they are independent of each other in a way where i can double click all 3 apps to run at the same time.

how could i script this ?

zero7404 Author

Level 3

816 points

Feb 20, 2020 3:24 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

that is correct, i use it all the time.

in contextual menu it is within the Services popout

zero7404 Author

Level 3

816 points

Feb 25, 2020 10:18 AM in response to zero7404

can i create an app where the tasks/workflows are independent, so that one workflow does not feed into another ?

Feb 25, 2020 10:54 AM in response to zero7404

Automator workflows “flow” from one action to the next, but not all actions use the result of the previous one. You can in principle do several independent tasks one after another.

zero7404 Author

Level 3

816 points

Feb 29, 2020 3:11 PM in response to zero7404

seems like im talking to myself here ....

if anyone IS listening ....

can i create an applescript to run a series of .app in sequence, waiting for the previous to finish before starting the next ?

zero7404 Author

Level 3

816 points

Feb 24, 2020 8:20 PM in response to Luis Sequeira1

i don't see anything called "control applications" anywhere in system preferences. in the full disk access and files and folders sections (in the security section) .... both of those windows have keka, automator, and the app i created listed and checked.

the applescript gets a green checkmark on it when i run the workflow, but no 7z file appears in the folder.

there must be a step that's missing, either in the script or within the workflow, that highlights/chooses the folder or file i want to do the keystroke on.

since this is not working i'm going to use the create archive task since it's there in automator.

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