From: "Einar Magnús Boson" <einarmagnus@...>
Date: 2008-12-11T13:44:02+09:00
Subject: Re: Folder actions


On 11.12.2008, at 03:28 , Matthew Moss wrote:

>
> On Dec 10, 2008, at 6:20 PM, Einar Magnús Boson wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>> I need to have a script run every time a file is added to a folder  
>> on OS X, I have found out that this can be done with applescript  
>> but I can't for the life of me figure out how to write anything  
>> that works in that language. Weirdest thing I have ever come  
>> across. I've seen people refer to it as a "read only language" and  
>> I tend to agree.
>>
>> Is there any way I can attach a ruby script instead? Or does anyone  
>> know of an example of how to get a ruby script running from  
>> applescript with the name of the just added file as argument?
>>
>> Does anyone know if apple is gonna support something more usable  
>> than applescript as a scripting language in a future version of  
>> their OS?
>
>
> There is RubyOSA (rubyosa.rubyforge.org) which can do a lot of  
> Applescript-type scripting tasks from Ruby. (It's a Ruby/OSA  
> bridge.) However, I don't believe it (or anything similar) is a full  
> OSA component, which would be required for certain advanced  
> features, including Folder Actions.
>
> Folder Actions seems rather persnickety, but here is what I did to  
> get a basic task working.
>
> First, create an Applescript file, call it trampoline.scpt, and use  
> this code:
>
>    on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theItems
>        set args to ""
>        repeat with anItem in theItems
>            set args to args & " '" & anItem & "'"
>        end repeat
>        display alert (do shell script "~/Desktop/show_args.rb " &  
> args)
>    end adding folder items to
>
> theItems is an AppleScript list of the files added to the folder,  
> and the first four lines of the script converts it into one argument  
> string (adding single quotes around each item in case they contain  
> spaces, etc.)
>
> The "do shell script" command is the part that launches your Ruby  
> script. (And this could use RubyOSA.) In my case, the ruby script is  
> sitting on my desktop (at the moment, but could be elsewhere, just  
> fix the path). Also, "do shell script" returns the output of the  
> script, which I conveniently display via "display alert". This line  
> you'll want to change a bit to better suit your needs; this is just  
> an example.
>
> My ruby script was pretty simple, just for testing:
>
>    #!/usr/bin/env ruby
>    puts ARGV.map { |s| s.tr(':','/') }.join("\n")
>
> The call to 'tr' fixes the path, as it arrives old-Mac style (with  
> colon delimiters). As it is a test, I just join all the paths  
> together, one per line, and "puts" it, which gets returned back to  
> the AppleScript (and eventually displayed by "display alert" above).
>
> One thing to keep in mind. Folder Actions is pretty stupid about  
> where the folder action script lives. trampoline.scpt above MUST  
> live in ~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts, otherwise you can  
> attach it (seemingly successfully) all you want, but nothing will  
> happen. (Can also, I suspect, live in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action  
> Scripts).
>
> The Ruby script should live wherever trampoline.scpt specifies (in  
> my example, ~/Desktop/show_args.rb).
>
> I'm sure there are better ways this stuff could be done... but I'm  
> no AppleScript expert.
>
>


Thank you!
Be there better ways or not, it works! That is all I care about :)

I am generally very impressed with Apple, but applescript...

/einarmagnus - will look into rubyOSA