Have Automator parse down folders and list all filenames without their extension

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Automator newbee question here. I've searched around and just can't find what I need (nor fully grasp how things work 🙁 ).

I would like to have Automator parse thru a given folder, which is subdivided in dozens of folders. Each of these sub-folders contain a varying number of files with their respective file extension (.mov, .mp4, .wmv and others). Ultimately, the automated process would output the list of all files, minus their file extension name into a text file. There should be anywhere between 50 to 200 names in total.

Sample Sources:
RootFolder > SubFolder1 > File1.mov, File2.mp4
RootFolder > Subfolder2 > File3.wmv, File4.mov, File5.mp4

Output text file content:
File1
File2
File3
(…)
This text file could be located at the RootFolder's level or on the Desktop.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Alain

Best Answer

Automator and Scripting Approach

The Automator Actions you want are:

Ask for Finder Items, with Type set to Folders.
Run Shell Script, with Shell set to /usr/bin/perl.
New Text File

For the shell script, copy and paste in:

use strict;
use warnings;
use File::Basename;
use File::Find;

find(sub {
    return if (-d $File::Find::name);
    my($filename,undef,undef) = fileparse($_,qr/\.[^.]*/);
    print $filename."\n";
}, shift);

Automator list files

You can use the New TextEdit Document action if you want the resulting file list to appear in TextEdit but not saved to disk.

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To learn more about using Automator, see Apple's Mac Basics: Automator.

Related Solutions

Automator Service that works with and without selection

I don't have an exact answer to your problem but you could perhaps consider a normal applescript that sends the COPY command and checks the contents of the clipboard before and after. Like this...

# For testing only; Delay so we can switch to the app with text
delay 2

# Clear the clipboard so we have a clean state
set the clipboard to ""


    tell application "System Events"

    # Send the 'Copy' command
    keystroke "c" using command down
    delay 0.2

    # Grub the clipboard contents
    set the_sel to the clipboard

    # Is it empty? We either failed or no selection present
    if the_sel is equal to "" then
        display dialog "No Text selected"
    else
        display dialog "Text was: " & the_sel
    end if
end tell

Have Automator folder action pass a list of files to AppleScript

Use a run handler:

on run {input, parameters}
    input
end run

Or if you need the input as a list of POSIX paths:

on run {input, parameters}
    set l to {}
    repeat with f in input
        set end of l to POSIX path of f
    end repeat
end run

For a script saved directly in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/, use an adding folder items handler:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    added_items
end addin

Best Answer

Automator and Scripting Approach

Related Solutions

Automator Service that works with and without selection

Have Automator folder action pass a list of files to AppleScript

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