automatorfinderfolders
How do I get a path (or a name) of the folder an Automator Folder Action is attached to and save it into a variable?
My folder action is attached to Downloads, I copy newly dropped files into a temporary folder, process them and want to move them back into Downloads. I don't want to use hardcoded value with Move Finder Items as the folder action may be attached to different folders. Instead, I need folder action to be smart enough to move items back to the folder it is attached to.
You can use a shell script like this:
for f; do
case $f in
*.mp3|*.m4a) mv -n "$f" ~/Music;;
*.jpg) mv -n "$f" ~/Pictures;;
*) mv -n "$f" ~/Documents;;
esac
done
mv -n skips a file when a file with the same name exists in the target.
This AppleScript code works for me using the latest version of macOS Mojave.
This AppleScript code allows you to choose the folder you want to move and to choose the application whose resources folder you want to use as the destination folder. It will then move the chosen folder to the destination folder. I hope this example sparks some ideas for you to use in your Automator workflow.
set folderYouWantToMove to choose folder
set appPath to (choose file) as text
set pathToResource to "Contents:Resources:"
set resourceFolder to (appPath & pathToResource) as alias
tell application "Finder" to move folderYouWantToMove to resourceFolder
Best Answer
I don't think you can get the folder an action is attached to, but I think a good analog would be to get the parent folder of the current file. So, the parent folder of a file in
~/Downloads/MyDownloadedFile.pdfwill be the Downloads folder, and you could save that to a variable.This action is not built in to Automator. However, if you are running macOS 10.13 or earlier, you can purchase a package of third-party Automator Actions from http://automatedwork.server323.com/products/apps/automator-actions-for-mac-os-x-10-610-7-snow-leopard-lion/. The action you want is "Get Parent Folders of Finder Items" in the "File and Folder Automator Action Pack". At the time that I bought it (a few months ago), the developer charged $20.
(You may also be able to accomplish this without third party actions by using an Applescript block—something like
tell application "Finder" to return container of (input as alias). However, when I tried this myself, Automator seemed unable to save the variable properly. I'm not sure if that's due to a limitation of Automator or a problem with my Applescript.)