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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
OSX Automator Actions
David Lucas, Photographer
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Toronto | On | Canada | Posted: 1:19 PM on 05.22.06 |
->> I'm trying to make some Automator Actions to improve my workflow and i was curious what everyone else has made. After reading Vincent's article i thought i would give it a try. Here is what i have so far.
What i'm tring to do is put images in a folder then transmit those images to ftp site then move the images out of the folder into a sent folder.
Here is what i have so far to transmit and then move the images to a sent folder.
1.Get Specified Finder items (Folder where images are)
2.Get Folder Contents (Images in the Folder)
3.Upload to FTP. (Images are sent to FTP)
4.Get Specified Finder items(Again folder where images are)
5.Get Folder Contents (Again Select Images in Folder)
6.Move Finder Items (Move images into Sent Folder)
7.Get Specified Text (Text= Photos Sent)
8.Speak Text (Lets me know images are sent)
Now this works perfectly if i'm dropping in images one at a time or a bunch at once. But if i drop in four images then go and drop in two more before the first ones are gone they don't transmit but get selected in step 4 then moved in step 5.
What i would like is for each image that gets dropped into the folder to be selected and FTPed then moved on their own. So if i drop in 3 images then drop in two more they are all treated individually.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers
David Lucas
Staff Photographer
Toronto Sun
www.torontosun.com
www.davidlucasphotography.com |
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Greg Ferguson, Photographer
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Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 2:42 PM on 05.22.06 |
->> This is where Automator breaks down and you need to resort to different scripting tools. You'll need to add a loop that runs until all images in the source folder are gone.
The problem is that the chain of Automator --> AppleScript --> the Finder is not capable of continuously checking the folder. When you "Get Specified Finder items", it gathers a list but doesn't have any way of "continuously gather a list until done". That "done" concept is what's missing in Automator.
You can work around it using a "drop folder" in an FTP client if you want. I think that Transfer supports what you're trying to do, without the speech.
You can script the Finder using Applescript. Any book on Applescript should give you the details needed. Transfer, Fetch, Interarchy and any other MacOS-studly FTP agent should be scriptable enough to do this.
Otherwise, a shell script can loop while files exist, ftp them, move them, speak, then sleep a few minutes, check again and conditionally exit or reprocess. Once the script is written then you can tell Automator to use it via terminal's ability to run shell scripts. |
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Greg Ferguson, Photographer
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Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 2:44 PM on 05.22.06 |
| ->> Also, Photo Mechanic can do the FTPing of tagged images, so with a minor modification to your workflow you should be able tag the files to FTP, tell PM to send them, and you're done. |
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