I’m new to Applescript and new to this forum at the same time. I wanted to use applescript for one specific task: batch renaming of image files. I found a script on the first few pages of Matt Neuburg’s “AppleScript - The Definitive Guide”, but was disappointed to find that his example strips all the file extensions! What use is that? So I tried to change his code to attach a file extension, but I get an error. Here is the script:
on open folderlist
repeat with aFolder in folderlist
if kind of (info for aFolder) is "Folder" then
renameStuffIn(aFolder)
end if
end repeat
end open
on renameStuffIn(theFolder)
set ix to 0
tell application "Finder"
set allItems to (get every item of theFolder)
repeat with thisItem in allItems
set ix to ix + 1
set newName to ix & ".jpg"
set name of thisItem to newName
end repeat
end tell
end renameStuffIn
And here is the error: Can’t make some data into the expected type.
This leaves me scratching my head, since I found countless examples online (one of them here in the forums), where file extensions seem to be attached just this way.
So what am I doing wrong?
I’d be really grateful for your help.
OS 10.4.8
Scripteditor 2.1.1 (81)
Applescript 1.10.7
PS: (almost) the same script worked in Matt’s book,
because there the filename comes first and AppleScript coerces a following integer automatically to a string.
In your script the integer comes first and the attempt to coerce the following string to a integer fails
And if you want it to work for extensions other than “jpg”, this does it:
on renameStuffIn(theFolder)
set ix to 0
tell application "Finder"
set allItems to items of theFolder
repeat with thisItem in allItems
set ix to ix + 1
set Ext to name extension of thisItem
set newName to ix as text
set name of contents of thisItem to newName & "." & Ext
end repeat
end tell
end renameStuffIn
renameStuffIn(choose folder)
Einen Gruß in die schwäbische Heimat (ich komme aus Stuttgart)
Adam isn’t currently online, so I’ll try to answer the question
the index variable of the repeat with x in theList form refers not to the item itself,
is stands for "item x of {theList}. To get access to the properties of the index variable,
you must use “contents of”
No joke, in some cases one expression works in some application but doesn’t in another.
Always a certain percentage rate in AppleScript is trial and error
Thank you. I’m just finishing the installation of a new kitchen floor, so look in only occasionally.
It’s hard to know without experiments whether “item x of {theList}” will coerce to the item itself or not.
These work without “contents of”:
set theList to {"alpha", "beta", "gamma", "delta"}
repeat with L in theList
if L contains "g" then display dialog "Found " & L
end repeat
tell application "Finder"
set tItems to items of desktop as alias list
set S to 0
repeat with L in tItems
if name extension of L is "scpt" then
set S to S + 1
end if
end repeat
display dialog "Found " & S & " scripts on your desktop"
end tell
This doesn’t:
set theList to {"alpha", "beta", "gamma", "delta"}
repeat with I in theList
if I contains "g" then set I to "George"
end repeat
theList --> {"alpha", "beta", "gamma", "delta"}
But:
set theList to {"alpha", "beta", "gamma", "delta"}
repeat with I in theList
if I contains "g" then set contents of I to "George"
end repeat
theList --> {"alpha", "beta", "George", "delta"}
