stumped, getting the path to the folder of a dropped file

I have a very simple script, that when I drop a file on it, takes the file, makes a copy, and saves a copy in a new name. I can not seem to extract out the path of the parent folder of the dropped file.

For now, I store it on the Desktop as a test to make sure it works. I was thinking, I could take the path to the file, and split it up on the “:” and make a new path, but that seems very inefficient, any suggestions?

on open theFiles
set theCount to number of items in theFiles
repeat with i from 1 to theCount
tell application “Finder”
set dropped_file to (item i of theFiles as text)
set TheName to name of (dropped_file as alias)
set dropped_file to alias dropped_file as text – maybe do not need this
set theImageFile2 to alias “earth:Users:haneda:Desktop:”
set dupe_action to duplicate file dropped_file to theImageFile2
set name of dupe_action to (“test” as Unicode text)
end tell
end repeat
end open

*There is a lot more to this script, I just distilled it down to a simple test case for the sake of posting it here. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Hi comety,

Try this subroutine to extract the parent folder path of an item:


set mypath to (path to me as Unicode text)
set parentfolderpath to my getparentfolderpath(mypath)

on getparentfolderpath(itempath)
	set olddelims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"
	set itemcount to (count text items of itempath)
	set lastitem to the last text item of itempath
	if lastitem = "" then
		set itemcount to itemcount - 2 -- folder path
	else
		set itemcount to itemcount - 1 -- file path
	end if
	set parentfolderpath to text 1 thru text item itemcount of itempath & ":"
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to olddelims
	return parentfolderpath
end getparentfolderpath

The routine was written by Peter Fischer and I use it all the time.

HTH!

Hi,

try this, the Finder and System Events have a property container, which contains the parent folder of the item


on open theFiles
	repeat with oneFile in theFiles
		tell application "Finder"
			set destinationFolder to container of oneFile
			set dupe_action to duplicate oneFile to destinationFolder
			set name of dupe_action to "test"
		end tell
	end repeat
end open