I’m looking for a fresh start into creating a list of filenames in a folder:
filename, # of pages, date
The files happen to be PDFs and fortunately have the number of pages listed under “More info” box of info.
I’ve gathered a number of well put together scripts from this site, but haven’t found anything that nails this exact type of list. So, I’m looking for any fresh starts before digging in- droplets, scriptlets, automator scripts…?
ABrady
these are part of spotlights meta data. so the only way i can think of is to
do shell script " mdls -name kMDItemNumberOfPages ~/Documents/pdfs/*.pdf"
or
sorry edit i posted this wrong
set folderName to "~/Documents/pdfs/*.pdf"
do shell script " mdls -name kMDItemNumberOfPages " & folderName
Kim,
This works well. I can get the number of pages for each pdf. I don’t quite understand the script though. What’s the best way to translate this shell script in to a list (ls) sounds dumb and basic, I know, but my background in this stuff is thin.
What, for example, does kMD reference? And what is a good way to throw that onto a text doc with the file name field (and date)?
ABrady
Even if you’re a stranger to the terminal, it’s worth starting a session and typing: man mdls then hit return just to see what it does. When you’re through reading it, type q to get out of man and then quit the terminal.
someone will be able to correct this regex
this will give you the result you want but with out all the other junk
set folderName to "~/Documents/eBooks/*.pdf"
set theResult to do shell script " mdls -name kMDItemNumberOfPages " & folderName & "| sed 's/\\(kMDItemNumberOfPages\\ =\\ \\)//g' | sed ' s/pdf.*/pdf/g' | sed 's/$/,/g'"
i don’t know exactly how to get the string into a list.
Kim, This hits the nail on the head. I suppose my next project is learning a thing or two more about Shell scripting.
ABrady
An update for anyone else digging into this issue.
The kind folks at Bee Documents (http://www.beedocuments.com/software/PdfPageCount/)
have created an Automator Workflow for this. I haven’t had time to try it yet.
A.Brady