Can't seem to make folder in Finder

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

Hi -

Sorry for the newbie-ishness of this question. I’ve got a script that first creates a series of folders using:

make new folder at the Desktop with properties {name: "batch"}

From there, I also add several folders inside the “disk1:Users:Me:Desktop:batch:” folder by just modifying the above path, like so:

make new folder at "disk1:Users:Me:Desktop:batch:" with properties {name: "first"}

So far so good. But…

Later in the script, I need to create more subfolders inside the “first” folder I made above. I can’t create them initially because I don’t know what their names are going to be yet. The names of the folders are generated from a list of files in another folder. What I don’t get is why the Finder will let me make new folders in one instance, and not let me make more folders later on. Please help - doesn’t seem to make sense, on the surface.

Here’s the offending code:

tell application “Finder” to set yList to get every file of folder “disk1:Users:Me:Desktop:anotherbatch:” --previously defined as variable anotherBatch
repeat with yFile in yList --cycle through files in folder
set yPath to anotherBatch & yFile as string --gets my path to each separate file in folder
set yfileName to name of yFile as string – gives me text for folder naming
make new folder at “disk1:Users:Me:Desktop:batch:first:” with properties {name: yfileName}
end repeat
end tell



The error AS gives me is "Can't make folder".

Thanks!

-Derek
#2

You can ease your pain with the addition of some well placed variables. :slight_smile:

tell application "Finder"
	set batch_ to make new folder at the desktop with properties {name:"batch"}
	--> folder "batch" of folder "Desktop" of folder "derek" of folder "Users" of startup disk
	set first_ to make new folder at batch_ with properties {name:"first"}
	--> folder "first" of folder "batch" of folder "Desktop" of folder "derek" of folder "Users" of startup disk
end tell

– Rob

#3

Well, I tried that, and I still got the error “Can’t make folder.”

Could there be some kind of permission error that I’m not catching? I looked at the folders I created (~/Desktop/batch) thru Terminal and saw that the permissions were drwxr-xr-x for all folders.

Any other suggestions?

#4

I thought maybe I could add more to the error that AS gave me, because maybe the clue is there as well.

I opened the Event Log and let the script fly. In the beginning, I could see :

tell application “Finder”
exists folder “disk1:Users:downsizing:Desktop:batch:”
make new folder at Desktop with properties {name: “batch”}
make new folder at “disk1:Users:downsizing:Desktop:batch:” with properties {name: “first”}

So, this part works right off the bat.

…
But, the next part, where I want to create more folders with names generated from the files, shows these events, up until the error:

tell current application
make new folder at current application with properties {name: “667-ABC”}
→ Can’t make a folder

So, why does this say “make new folder at current application” That doesn’t seem right, at least to this newbie.

Thanks again for any help you can offer.

-Derek[/i]

#5

Hmm, the script works fine here (OS X 10.2.6). I don’t know what all of that permission stuff translates to. If I am forced to deal with permissions (happens rarely), I do it in the Get Info window. :stuck_out_tongue:

Are the permissions correct for your desktop folder? Do you use StuffIt Expander and have it to set to expand files to the desktop? If so, I seem to recall a StuffIt Expander bug that messes up the permissions of the desktop folder.

– Rob