Identifying Items in subfolder

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

I have had some experience programming but have only just started using AppleScript. Was hoping someone might be able to answer my question…

I have written a script that unzips each rar file I put into a folder by opening it (in default unarchiver):

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
	repeat with i from 1 to number of items in these_items
		
		set this_item to item i of these_items
		set the item_info to info for this_item
		
		if the name extension of the item_info is in {"rar"} then
			
			tell application "Finder"
				open this_item
			end tell
			
		end if
		
	end repeat
end adding folder items to

However, often I am copying in folders, sometimes with subfolders that contain the rar files. Is there an easy way to modify this code so that it will look for files in any folder and subfolders added to the target folder. Perhaps so that in the above code these_items would include all files contained in the folder and subfolders?

#2

Hi,

a folder action script affects only the folder which it is attached to,
watching subfolders is not possible unless you attach the script to each subfolder

#3

Thanks…

If the item copied in is a folder, could I write code that goes through each item of the folder?

#4

Of course

#5

This is a (not tested) piece of code that recursively goes thru every item of any folder to see if their are RARs. If the script detects a RAR, it moves it to a folder name after the current date, in a ‘processed folder’ and opens the moved rar.

property processedFolderName : "Processed RARs"
global processedFolder

on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theObjects
	folderPOSIX to (POSIX path of theFolder) as string
	if folderPOSIX does not end with "/" then set folderPOSIX to (folderPOSIX & "/") as string
	set processedPosix to (fodlderPOSIX & processedFolderName)
	set processedFolder to mkdir(processedPosix)
	
	tell application "Finder" to set allItems to every item of theFolder whose name is not processedFolderName
	mainRecursive(allItems)
	
end adding folder items to

on mkdir(aPOSIX)
	try
		do shell script "mkdir " & quoted form of aPOSIX
	end try
	
	try
		set newAlias to (POSIX file aPOSIX) as alias
		return newAlias
	on error
		return missing value
	end try
end mkdir

on mainRecursive(startObjects)
	repeat with i in startObjects
		set i to i as alias
		
		if folder of (info for i) is true then -- if folder do recursive
			tell application "Finder" to set newObjects to every item of i
			mainRecursive(newObjects)
			
		else if name extension of (info for i) is "rar" then -- if rar
			set curDate to (date string of (current date)) as string
			set fileName to name of (info for i)
			set dateFolder to (POSIX path of processedFolder)
			if dateFolder does not end with "/" then set dateFolder to (dateFolder & "/") as string
			set dateFolder to (dateFolder & curDate) as string
			set dateFolder to mkdir(dateFolder) -- folder for today
			
			tell application "Finder" to move i to dateFolder -- move
			tell application "Finder" to set movedFile to (file fileName of dateFolder) as alias -- get moved item
			do shell script "open " & quoted form of (POSIX path of movedFile) -- open moved item
		end if
	end repeat -- repeat for all objects
end mainRecursive

It’s not tested so it could be that’s it not working,
ief2

#6

Thanks so much for that - it got me there in the end and everything is tested and working now!

One question I had - something which seemed to be key to making everything work was the code I found in the above script ‘set i to i as alias’

What did this do?

#7

When you request items of the Finder, it returns the reference in a special way (eg: file “A Name” of folder “Desktop” of folder “username” of folder “Users” of disk “Macintosh HD”). If you want to use this reference outside a Finder tell block, you first have to convert them to aliases.

Ief2

#8

Thanks very much for your help - much appreciated