Yes, thanks to Shane too! 
Using Shane’s code above, I am able to REMOVE a custom tag (one that is created by the user, such as “Photo”, and not just the system label names like “Green”), but I can not CREATE a custom label on a file, I am only able to add a color name from the old Finder labels to a file. Does anyone know if there is a work around to this?
Currently on Monterey.
Thanks!
Hey Chris,
It’s generally a good idea to provide an example of the code that’s failing.
This works for me – but I’m still on Mojave.
-Chris
--------------------------------------------------------
# Auth: Christopher Stone
# dCre: 2023/01/06 18:23
# dMod: 2023/01/06 18:23
# Appl: Finder
# Task: Add a Custom Tag to the Item Selected in the Finder.
# Libs: None
# Osax: None
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @ASObjC, @Finder, @Add, @Custom, @Tag
--------------------------------------------------------
use AppleScript version "2.4" --» Yosemite or later
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
--------------------------------------------------------
tell application "Finder" to set finderSelectionList to selection as alias list
if length of finderSelectionList = 0 then error "No files were selected in the Finder!"
set posixPath to POSIX path of item 1 of finderSelectionList
set tagList to {"NutterButterBar"}
its addTags:tagList forPath:posixPath
--------------------------------------------------------
--» HANDLERS
--------------------------------------------------------
on addTags:tagList forPath:posixPath -- add to existing tags
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:posixPath -- make URL
-- get existing tags
set {theResult, theTags} to aURL's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
if theTags ≠ missing value then -- add new tags
set tagList to (theTags as list) & tagList
set tagList to (current application's NSOrderedSet's orderedSetWithArray:tagList)'s allObjects() -- delete any duplicates
end if
aURL's setResourceValue:tagList forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
end addTags:forPath:
--------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Chris.
Noted about the code example.
Your example is 1 of 3 handlers in Shane’s code from above. I am finding that it is the following handler that is not working for some reason, but it is not completely obvious to me why this one is broken.
on setTags:tagList forPath:posixPath -- set the tags, replacing any existing
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:posixPath -- make URL
aURL's setResourceValue:tagList forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
end setTags:forPath:
Thanks!
You’re still not showing your script that’s failing – therefore we cannot examine it for problems…
This works for me on Mojave.
--------------------------------------------------------
use AppleScript version "2.4" --» Yosemite or later
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
--------------------------------------------------------
tell application "Finder" to set finderSelectionList to selection as alias list
if length of finderSelectionList = 0 then error "No files were selected in the Finder!"
set posixPath to POSIX path of item 1 of finderSelectionList
set tagList to {"Nonsense"}
its setTags:tagList forPath:posixPath
--------------------------------------------------------
--» HANDLERS
--------------------------------------------------------
on setTags:tagList forPath:posixPath -- set the tags, replacing any existing
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:posixPath -- make URL
aURL's setResourceValue:tagList forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
end setTags:forPath:
--------------------------------------------------------
Your code works on Monterey for me as well.
Here is my FULL code that is not working.
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
set theTag to "Art"
tell application "Finder"
set theFiles to selection
end tell
repeat with f from 1 to (count theFiles)
set theItem to item f of theFiles as alias
set theFile to POSIX path of theItem
set theTags to (its returnTagsFor:theFile)
if theTags does not contain theTag then
set newTags to theTag
repeat with i from 1 to (count theTags)
set oldTag to item i of theTags
set end of newTags to oldTag
end repeat
(its setTags:newTags forPath:theFile)
else
set newTags to {}
repeat with i from 1 to (count theTags)
set oldTag to item i of theTags
if oldTag does not contain "Art" then
set end of newTags to oldTag
end if
end repeat
(its setTags:newTags forPath:theFile)
end if
end repeat
on returnTagsFor:theFile -- get the tags
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:theFile -- make URL
set {theResult, theTags} to aURL's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
if theTags = missing value then return {} -- because when there are none, it returns missing value
return theTags as list
end returnTagsFor:
on setTags:newTags forPath:theFile -- set the tags, replacing any existing
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:theFile -- make URL
aURL's setResourceValue:newTags forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
end setTags:forPath:
Okay… It looks to me like you’re trying to toggle whether the given tag exists in the selected item(s) in the Finder.
It’s a good idea to provide some explanatory text to posted scripts, so people don’t have to spend time figuring out what you’re doing. You’ll get more accurate and quicker help that way.
- You’re trying to use Finder-References outside the Finder.
- In your first IF it looks like you’re trying to concatenate a string instead of add to a list.
Here’s how I’d go about your task:
--------------------------------------------------------
# Auth: Christopher Stone
# dCre: 2023/01/09 06:04
# dMod: 2023/01/09 06:04
# Appl: Finder
# Task:
# Libs: None
# Osax: None
# Tags: @Applescript, @Script, @ASObjC, @Finder
--------------------------------------------------------
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions
--------------------------------------------------------
set tagToProcess to "Art"
# Without ‘as alias list’ you get Finder-References which don't work outside the Finder.
tell application "Finder"
set finderSelectionList to selection as alias list
end tell
repeat with theItem in finderSelectionList -- No need for a counter.
set itemPath to POSIX path of theItem
set tagList to (its returnTagsFor:itemPath)
if tagList contains tagToProcess then
set tagList to (its removeListItem:tagToProcess fromList:tagList)
(its setTags:tagList forPath:itemPath) -- Change the list of tags
else if tagList does not contain tagToProcess then
(its addTags:{tagToProcess} forPath:itemPath)
end if
end repeat
--------------------------------------------------------
--» HANDLERS
--------------------------------------------------------
on addTags:tagList forPath:posixPath -- add to existing tags
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:posixPath -- make URL
-- get existing tags
set {theResult, theTags} to aURL's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
if theTags ≠ missing value then -- add new tags
set tagList to (theTags as list) & tagList
set tagList to (current application's NSOrderedSet's orderedSetWithArray:tagList)'s allObjects() -- delete any duplicates
end if
aURL's setResourceValue:tagList forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
end addTags:forPath:
--------------------------------------------------------
on removeListItem:listItemName fromList:theList
set theList to current application's NSMutableArray's arrayWithArray:theList
theList's removeObject:listItemName
return theList as list
end removeListItem:fromList:
--------------------------------------------------------
on returnTagsFor:itemPath -- Get the tags
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:itemPath -- make URL
set {theResult, theTags} to aURL's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
if theTags = missing value then return {} -- because when there are none, it returns missing value
return theTags as list
end returnTagsFor:
--------------------------------------------------------
on setTags:newTags forPath:itemPath -- Set the tags, replacing any existing
set aURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:itemPath -- make URL
aURL's setResourceValue:newTags forKey:(current application's NSURLTagNamesKey) |error|:(missing value)
end setTags:forPath:
--------------------------------------------------------
Note that if you’re serious about learning AppleScript and not using Script Debugger you’re missing a bet.
Being able to step through scripts and visualize what they’re doing is a game changer.
That works. Thank you very much Chris. It was more complicated (with the ASOBJC Handlers) than I had hopped with just edited some of Shane’s original script!
In Terminal.app, I used Homebrew to install the command line tool tag … using the command brew install tag
I use it with AppleScript all the time. One of its awesome features is the ability to tag files with custom tags on the fly.
For example, let’s say that I want to add a custom tag named “New Tag”, to the currently selected files in Finder… This following AppleScript code would do the job.
property customTag : "New Tag"
tell application "Finder" to set selectedFiles to selection as alias list
repeat with thisFile in selectedFiles
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/tag -a " & quoted form of customTag & ¬
space & quoted form of POSIX path of thisFile
end repeat
With Shane’s FileManagerLib library, it cant be shorter:
use AppleScript version "2.4"
use script "FileManagerLib"
use scripting additions
tell application "Finder" to set theFiles to selection as alias list
repeat with aFile in theFiles
set tags of {"Art"} to aFile
end repeat
1 Like
That’s some weird syntax, but it does work like a charm.
I started out with more vanilla AppleScript, but it was just more efficient to use ASObjC.
Might as well embrace ASObjC – it’s here to stay – at least as long as we continue to have AppleScript.
I would just turn it around:
set tags of theFile to {"Art"}
That makes more obvious sense to me.