AppleScript to Move and Rename Files

the script is easy enough:

set targetFile to "/path/to/target file"

set destinationFolder to "/path/to/destination folder"

set fp to open for accesstargetFile with write permission

writereturn & return & short date string of (current date) tofpstarting ateof

closefp

tell application "System Events"

movefiletargetFiletofolderdestinationFolder

end tell

but it looks like Calendar has blocked running executables from alerts. you have two options then:

1. use Calendar to send yourself an email and use a rule action to run the applescript
2. use a launchd job to run the script on a schedule

The first is straightforward, if circuitous. the second needs a plist like the following stored in ~/Library/LaunchAgents (edit in the path to the above script, save it as plain text, name the file user.script_runner.by_date.plist; script runs daily at 6pm (18:00))

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Label</key>

<string>user.script_runner.by_date</string>

<key>ProgramArguments</key>

<array>

<string>osascript</string>

<string>/path/to/script/</string>

</array>

<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>

<dict>

<key>Hour</key>

<integer>18</integer>

<key>Minute</key>

<integer>0</integer>

</dict>

</dict>

</plist>

Hmmm... scripts won't run from an alert, but an application still does (at least on my ML system) - the "Open File" menu item isn't very intuitive, though.

POSIX paths never use the drive name. try "/Users/joshuajones/Documents/Company Files/Reports/chief_report.pdf"

Ah, I just noticed something. you're trying to write a date stamp to the end of a pdf file? That's not going to work, at least not in this simplistic format. Applescript can only deal with plain text files directly.

Could you please describe your workflow more carefully? Everything from begining to end, noting where you get the pdf files, where they go in the long run, and what you're trying to accomplish with it all.

The main reason I asked was to find out whether it was possible to add the date first and then convert to pdf, which would be a bit easier. seems not, so the alternate approach I suggest is to create a new pdf with the date (and any other relevant info) and merge it into the pdf at need. you do that using code like the following:

set dateString to short date string of (current date)

-- write the date to a scratch file

set fp to open for access "/tmp/scratch_file.txt" with write permission

writedateStringtofp

close accessfp

-- convert the scratch file to pdf format using CUPS

do shell script "/usr/sbin/cupsfilter /tmp/scratch_file.txt > /tmp/scratch_file.pdf"

-- use automator to combine the two pdf files.

-- note that the return after 'scratch_file.pdf' is necessary; it's a file list delimiter.

do shell script "automator -i '/tmp/scratch_file.pdf

/path/to/fileInQuestion.pdf' '/path/to/muddler.workflow'"

-- paragraph 2 should be a quoted version of the path to the newly-constructed file.

set combinedFilePath to paragraph 2 of the result

sorry if this looks like magic (or like I'm pulling it out of my you-know-what). but it should work.