I'm having trouble moving files...

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to move files to a new location. The setup is as follows:

Folder A
document A
Folder 1
doc 1
doc 2
Folder 2
doc a
doc b

Folder B
document B
Folder 1
doc 1
doc 4
Folder 2
doc b
doc c

I want to move these into a new folder with the following results:

Folder C
document A
document B
Folder 1
doc 1
doc 2
doc 4
Folder 2
doc a
doc b
doc c

The number of initial folders (e.g. Folder A, Folder B) will vary. There will not be more than 2 nested folders and these folders will always have the same names. Note that some of the files in the nested folders will be common. I only need each file once.

Essentally, what I am doing is creating packages from InDesign and then combining these packages into 1 folder for archival purposes.

I KNOW this can be done, I just haven’t been able to get it to work :(. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Brad Bumgarner, CTA

#2

This can be a lot trickier than you might at first expect because there are many variables at stake here.

For example, in the case where there are files of the same name in both source folders which one ends up in the destination? The first one? the second one? the latest one? the largest one? either one at random?

The easiest way to do this may be to simply duplicate Folder A then use a third-party OSAX to synchronize Folder B with the duplicate. Satimage’s ‘backup’ command from Satimage OSAX might do the trick.

#3

Good point. I forgot to say that any files with the same name are, in fact, the same files. They are font files/graphics that are being used by more than one document at a time. If a file already exists in the destination file, it can be overwritten.

Even relatively simple matters can be hard to descibe. What is so very clear to me, no one else has a clue :?

Thanks for the reply,
Brad Bumgarner, CTA