MacOS – Applescript exits return loop before complete

applescriptbashmacos

I have to go through a stack of hard drives & usb keys looking for old quickbook files. So, I've written an applescript which triggers when a new drive is mounted. It then searches the drive for qbb or qbo files and copies them to a folder on the main drive.

I have it working almost perfectly but, for the life of me, I cannot get the repeat loop to run past the first item in the list. So, it grabs qbb files, but not qbo files. I know it is failing because I trigger it with a USB kye that has dummy qbo and qbb files on it.

I know I am missing something obvious, but keep racking my brain to no avail.

Here is my script. Can someone please give me sanity check (and solution)?

Thanks!

on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving addedItems

   # set the path for the files to be copied too.
   set thePath to ((path to home folder as text) & "00_QBB:")
   if not pathExists(thePath) then
       display dialog "Could not find the path. Files have not been copied."
       return
   end if

   try
       # get name of Loaded Drive
       set loadedDriveName to item 1 of addedItems

       # set paths for source source drive
       set loadedDrive to POSIX path of loadedDriveName 

       # create folder, named for Loaded Drive, for inbound copies
       set thePath to thePath & loadedDriveName
       set thePath to POSIX path of thePath
       set makeFolder to "mkdir " & thePath 
       # display dialog makeFolder
       do shell script (makeFolder)

       # set search criteria
       set qbFileTypes to {"qbb", "qbo"}

       # lookthrough drive for desired file types to find and copy
       repeat with n from 1 to (count of qbFiletypes)
           set qbCount to (count of qbFiletypes)
           set qbCurrentType to (item n of qbFiletypes)
           # display dialog qbCurrentType & " + " & qbCount
           set grab_qbb to "find " & loadedDrive & " -iname \"*" & qbCurrentType & "*\" -exec cp {} " & thePath & " \\;"
           # display dialog grab_qbb
           do shell script (grab_qbb)
       end repeat

       on error
           display dialog "Could not copy files."
       return
   end try

end adding folder items to

on pathExists(thePath) -- pathExists("path:to:folder: OR :file")
   try
       get thePath as alias
       return true
       on error
       return false
   end try
end pathExists

Best Answer

I would have gone about this a bit differently.

First, I'd use Disk Arbitrator so the external disks would mount read-only and not preform any Spotlight indexing. There's no need to allow indexing if the target is just .qbb and .qbo files to be found using the find command.

Second, I'd use an Automator Folder Action with a Run Shell Script action, as IMO it's just much easier to code.

The following example bash code preforms these tasks:

Creates all destination directories as needed.
Handles disks with multiple volumes.
Finds the .qbb and .qbo files and copies them.
Ejects the target disk when finished copying.
Notifies the process has completed.

Also, as an Automator Folder Action there is a icon on the menu bar which aside from being a visual indicator a process is running, it also allows one to terminate the process if necessary.

Setup the Automator Folder Action as shown below:

^{Hint: Open image in new tab to clearly see settings.}

When the process is finished it displays the following notification and makes a sound, which can be omitted if not wanted.

Example bash code:

p="$HOME/00_QBB"

[ ! -d "${p}" ] && mkdir "${p}"

for d in "$@"; do
    n="$(basename "$d")"
    mkdir -p "${p}/${n}"
    find "$d" -type f \( -iname '*.qbb' -o -iname '*.qbo' \) -exec cp -an {} "${p}/${n}" \; 
done

sleep 3
diskutil eject "$1"

osascript -e 'display notification "Insert another disk to start new search..." with title "QuickBooks File Recovery" subtitle "The find command has completed." sound name "Purr"

Obviously you might be inserting disks that you do not need to or want to search, so you can use Folder Action Setup to enable/disable this easily.

I use Spotlight to bring up Folder Action Setup and then check/uncheck the checkboxes as necessary.

Related Solutions

MacOS – LaunchBar script that returns the path of a folder “dropped” on it

The open() handler gets passed an alias (which is a kind of a pointer to a file or folder). You can then simply convert the alias to text, but it will show you the path with colons as separators (e.g. "Macintosh HD:Users:Username:Documents:Folder:").

Use POSIX path of to convert it to a UNIX-style path with "/" separators, and if you want to paste it into Terminal, especially if the path has spaces in it, you should use quoted form of to properly enclose it in quotes.

The following script works with both folders and files for me, when an item is passed to it via LaunchBar:

on open (thisItem)
    display dialog (thisItem as text) -- alias
    display dialog quoted form of POSIX path of thisItem -- POSIX path
end open

MacOS – Automatically Mount a Network Drive and Copy a File to a Network Folder (AppleScript)

Copying of files in Applescript is best done either through System Events or Finder, using the duplicate … to command, i.e.

tell application "System Events" to duplicate sourceFile to targetFolder

where both sourceFile and targetFolder need to be the correct object type for the application used – meaning disk item or finder item (both objects can be created from AppleScript alias objects, or textual path values with a bit of type coercion – I’d add the details, but you have not stated how the paths to both are stored / acquired in your script).

A few notes on your code:

There is no need to use globals when you have defined them as properties already. AppleScript properties are script scoped and persist across execution – they are only reset when the script is recompiled. If you assign those that need user setting missing value when declaring, you can even check if they are already set and skip re-prompting the user (there would be an even more comfortable and secure solution if Apple hadn’t deprecated Keychain Access Scripting).
There is no need for the repeated assignments and recursive call in your connectToServer() handler. The following code
```
set timeOutCounter to 0
repeat while (list disks) does not contain serverName and timeOutCounter is less than timeOutInterval
    -- mount drive
    delay someInterval -- recommended, so you don’t hectically loop
    set timeOutCounter to timeOutCounter + someInterval -- time out loop 
end repeat
```
will try to connect in the interval defined by someInterval, until the mount is available or timeOutIntervalis reached (assuming these values are declared. As properties, best – see above).
You might also want to offer your user a more comfortable way of selecting the target folder than typing a folder name from memory. Check out Standard Additions’s AppleScript dictionary for the choose folder command.
Finally, but that is mainly a matter of taste and coding style, I’d rather move the display dialog command into its own handler and call that, if needed repeatedly, from the script body, than use a C style mainLoop handler. I’ve found that, generally speaking, AppleScript runs out of Stack space easily when recursing and can get very confused about variable assignments, so it is a good idea to avoid recursive constructs where they are not necessary.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MacOS – LaunchBar script that returns the path of a folder “dropped” on it

MacOS – Automatically Mount a Network Drive and Copy a File to a Network Folder (AppleScript)

Related Question