I have a problem with an applescript app which works great so long as you don’t bring any other window to the foreground while it is in its main processing loop.
it is basically a tableView which I can drag/drop files onto and then I loop through and process them according to their name, relocate them on the filesystem and insert a record into a filemaker database. I can’t figure out why I have to keep my app active while it’s looping through all the files.
And neither can anyone here, without your source. 
Ha. I had a secret hope that this would have been a common enough issue that someone would say “you must be doing such-and-such”.
The full code is quite long but I’ll see if I can pull out just the loop that seems to cause the trouble…
on clicked theObject
if the name of theObject is "importButton" then
set theFMDatabase to contents of default entry "filemakerDB" of user defaults as string
set uses threaded animation of progress indicator "busy_Indicator" of window "main" to true
set uses threaded animation of progress indicator "importProgress_Indicator" of window "progressPanel" to true
start progress indicator "busy_Indicator" of window "main"
start progress indicator "importProgress_Indicator" of window "progressPanel"
set contents of progress indicator "importProgress_Indicator" of window "progressPanel" to 0
display panel window "progressPanel" attached to window "main"
set contents of text field "importMessage_TextField" of window "progressPanel" to theFMDatabase
set theTable to table view ¬
"files" of scroll view ¬
"files" of view id 3 of tab view ¬
"importList_TabView" of window "main"
-- set selected_items to selected rows of table view id 5 of scroll view id 4 of view id 3 of tab view id 2 of window id 1
set selected_items to selected rows of theTable
-- set theDataSource to data source of table view id 5 of scroll view id 4 of view id 3 of tab view id 2 of window id 1
set theDataSource to data source of theTable
--Turn off the updating of the views
set update views of theDataSource to false
if (count of selected_items) ≥ 1 then
set rootPath to contents of default entry "structureRoot" of user defaults
repeat with theRow from (length of selected_items) to 1 by -1
set theFilePath to contents of data cell "file_path" of data row (item theRow of selected_items) of theDataSource
set theNewName to contents of data cell "file_name" of data row (item theRow of selected_items) of theDataSource
if validFileName(theNewName as string) then
set contents of progress indicator "importProgress_Indicator" of window "progressPanel" to (1 - (theRow / (length of selected_items))) * 100
set movDir to "NIL"
set theNewPath to rootPath & "/" & filePathFor(theNewName, movDir)
try
do shell script "mkdir -p " & theNewPath
end try
set newLocation to (theNewPath & "/" & theNewName) as string
try
addAssetToDB(theNewName, theNewPath, theFilePath)
on error
stop progress indicator "busy_Indicator" of window "main"
display dialog ("Could not Add to Database: " & theNewPath & "/" & theNewName) buttons {"OK"} default button {"OK"}
end try
try
moveFile(theFilePath, newLocation)
on error
stop progress indicator "busy_Indicator" of window "main"
display dialog "ERROR on file transfer: " & theNewPath & "/" & theNewName
end try
delete data row (item theRow of selected_items) in theDataSource
end if
end repeat
end if
set selected rows of theTable to {}
--Turn on the updating of the views
set update views of theDataSource to true
stop progress indicator "busy_Indicator" of window "main"
stop progress indicator "importProgress_Indicator" of window "progressPanel"
close panel window "progressPanel"
end if
end clicked
on addAssetToDB(fileName, theNewFilePath, theOldFilePath)
set theFullPath to (theNewFilePath & "/" & fileName)
set theOldFullPath to theOldFilePath
set theFileInfo to do shell script "ls -l " & theOldFilePath
try
set theModifyDate to getMetaData("kMDItemContentModificationDate", theOldFilePath) as string
on error
set theModifyDate to "unknown" as string
end try
set FMDatabase to contents of default entry "filemakerDB" of user defaults
tell application "FileMaker Pro"
tell database FMDatabase
create new record in table "ELEMENTS"
set theRecord to create new record in table "storage_element"
set cellValue of cell "versionDateTime" of theRecord to theModifyDate as string
end tell
end tell
end addAssetToDB
on getMetaData(dataTag, file_path)
set metaData to {}
set rawData to (do shell script "mdls " & file_path & " | sed 's| *= |=|' | grep -e\"^kMD\"")
set theLines to paragraphs of rawData
set {olddelims, text item delimiters} to {text item delimiters, "="}
repeat with thisLine in theLines
set metaData to metaData & {{(text item 1 of thisLine), (text items 2 thru -1 of thisLine as string)}}
end repeat
set text item delimiters to olddelims
return valueFromKey(dataTag, metaData)
end getMetaData