Search for Folder in a Folder based on criteria?

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

Hello,
Very new to Applescript. Automator is more in my wheelhouse, but I’m learning.

I’m trying to write a script that will search a specific folder for another folder within it based on certain criteria. Basically I know for sure that part of the Folder Name will have specific text in it and want to target that and return the selected folder. I found a script here on Macscripter that is exactly what I am trying to achieve, but I am getting consistent errors.

set theFolder to alias "~Desktop:testing"

tell application "Finder"
	items of theFolder whose name contains "~action_items"
end tell

This is the error I’m getting.
error “File alias ~Desktop:testing of «script» wasn’t found.” number -43

Ideally, I’d like to include an IF in the script so that if it is unable to find the folder within the folder, it will display a dialog and quit the application. (this will be running from an app)

would anyone like to take pity on me and try to fill in the blanks?

#2

Hi miabifilms,

To see how an alias reference looks, run this and see the result.


set desktop_path to (path to desktop)

‘desktop’ is a reserved word for the desktop. concatenate the name of your folder located on the desktop.


set desktop_path to (path to desktop)
set my_folder_ref to ((desktop_path as string) & "testing:") as alias

Editted: btw, another easy way to see how references look is to use ‘choose folder’ or ‘choose file’.


set my_folder_ref to choose folder

result: alias “Macintosh HD:Users:kelhome:Desktop:testing:”

gl,

#3

thanks kel1, No error that time.

Taking it one step further, I’m trying to set up my If statement now… I can’t figure out what’s going wrong. without the IF, this works, but with it, it’s not returning the result of the search.

set theFolder to alias "Macintosh HD:Users:grato:Desktop:testing:"

tell application "Finder"
	items of theFolder whose name contains "-action_items"
	set actionItems to result
	if actionItems exists then
		return actionItems
	else
		display dialog with title "Looks like there are no action items." buttons {"Ok"}
		
	end if
end tell
#4

HI,

I didn’t test this, but it looks ok:


set theFolder to alias "Macintosh HD:Users:grato:Desktop:testing:"

tell application "Finder"
	items of theFolder whose name contains "-action_items"
	set actionItems to result -- list of items if any
	if actionItems is not {} then -- empty list
		return actionItems
	else
		display dialog with title "Looks like there are no action items." buttons {"Ok"}
		
	end if
end tell

Note that there are three reference forms: alias, file, and Finder references. The Finder references look different like:

folder “some folder” of folder “another folder” … of startup disk of application “Finder”

Sometimes, you can’t use Finder references like this outside the “Finder” or “System Events” tell block I think. Most of the time you can though.

gl,

Model: MBP
AppleScript: 2.2.3
Browser: Safari 536.26.17
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.8)

#5

Thanks for holding my hand through this Kel1. It helped a lot!