Setting Finder Tags in Mavericks with AppleScript?

The first label works the same (to keep backwards compatibility), but tags are implemented as an extended file attribute. Ars Technica has a decent writeup on the implementation in their Mavericks Review article, but basically you are looking at using the xattr and plutil shell utilities to add or modify a property list attribute.

It works for me in Mavericks, although it only sets the label (such as they are) - to set a tag programmatically you will need to use xattr.

There's a great litte 3rd party command line tool called 'tag' which makes querying and manipulating tags very easy. I've used it to create an Automator Folder Action that tags files automatically when dropped into the folder.

https://trac.macports.org/browser/trunk/dports/sysutils/tag/Portfile

An easy way to download and install it is through Macports. If you have Macports already installed then run the following command in terminal:

sudo port install tag

To add the tag 'footag' to a file or directory:

tag -a "footag" /path/to/filename

List the tags for a file,etc

tag -l /path/to/filename

Further help:

tag -h

Thank you! I had no idea that utility existed.

-- tag colors in Mavericks or later

property labelColor : {none:0, orange:1, red:2, yellow:3, blue:4, purple:5, green:6, gray:7}

set myPF to POSIX path of ((path to desktop) as text) & "filename.ext"

tell application "Finder"

set label index of (POSIX file myPF as alias) to blue of labelColor

end tell

Hi,

I'm reading Everyday AppleScriptObjC 3rd Edition by Shane Stanley and I've just found how to get tags of a file (in Chapter 14, 'One For the Files'). We can use the -getResourceValue:forKey:error: method of the NSURL class, like the following:

on tagsOfFileAtPath:POSIXPath

set theURL to current application'sclass "NSURL"'s fileURLWithPath:POSIXPath

set {theResult, theTags, theError} to theURL'sgetResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application'sNSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(reference)

if theResult as boolean is false then

error (theError'slocalizedDescription() as text)

else

set theTags to theTags as list

if theTags = {missing value} then set theTags to {}

return theTags

end if

end tagsOfFileAtPath:

The NSURL class has also the -setResourceValue:forKey:error: method and we can use this method to add tags to a file, like the following:

on addTag:aListtoTheFileAtPath:POSIXPath

set newTagList to (its tagsOfFileAtPath:POSIXPath) & aList

set newTag to current application'sNSArray'sarrayWithArray:newTagList

set theURL to current application'sclass "NSURL"'s fileURLWithPath:POSIXPath

set {theResult, theError} to theURL'ssetResourceValue:newTagforKey:(current application'sNSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(reference)

if theResult as boolean is false then

error (theError'slocalizedDescription() as text)

else

return (its tagsOfFileAtPath:POSIXPath)

end if

end addTag:toTheFileAtPath:

In case of Preview.app, we can use those scripts by the following statements:

use AppleScript version "2.4"

use framework "Foundation"

set thePOSIXPath to path of front document of application "Preview"

try

its addTag:{"Tag1", "Tag2"} toTheFileAtPath:thePOSIXPath

on error errMess

-- handle the error

end try