macOS Numbers to PDF folder action?

[The JTizzle]

I'm super desperate and hoping someone can help me. I need a folder action so when I drop a numbers file into the folder it converts it to a PDF and junks the numbers doc. Can anyone share or make me this? Been trying to make one myself but just can;'t get it to work

 

[mikew99]

I'm super desperate and hoping someone can help me. I need a folder action so when I drop a numbers file into the folder it converts it to a PDF and junks the numbers doc. Can anyone share or make me this? Been trying to make one myself but just can;'t get it to work

This seems to work, but will export the PDF to your desktop.

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
repeat with this_file in added_items
tell application "Finder"
set theInfo to properties of this_file
set theName to name of theInfo
set theName to (characters 1 through -9) of theName as text
set thePath to desktop as string
end tell

tell application "Numbers"
activate
open this_file
set thisDoc to document 1
export thisDoc to file (thePath & theName & ".pdf" as string) as PDF
quit
end tell


tell application "Finder"
delete this_file
end tell

end repeat
end adding folder items to

 

[The JTizzle]

This seems to work, but will export the PDF to your desktop.

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
repeat with this_file in added_items
tell application "Finder"
set theInfo to properties of this_file
set theName to name of theInfo
set theName to (characters 1 through -9) of theName as text
set thePath to desktop as string
end tell

tell application "Numbers"
activate
open this_file
set thisDoc to document 1
export thisDoc to file (thePath & theName & ".pdf" as string) as PDF
quit
end tell


tell application "Finder"
delete this_file
end tell

end repeat
end adding folder items to

Ok tried it and this is almost perfect, can you explain what I can change to edit the final location of the PDF so stays in the folder that with the folder action? (which is a dropbox folder)

 

[mikew99]

Ok tried it and this is almost perfect, can you explain what I can change to edit the final location of the PDF?

You could make a folder on your desktop and have it exported to that location. For instance, you could create a folder named "Exported PDF" that resides on your desktop. Then what you would want to do is change the path to direct to that folder. In my example, thePath is the desktop folder. You could change that one line in the script to:

set thePath to folder "Exported PDF" of desktop as string

 

[The JTizzle]

How would you write a path to something other than the desktop? such as ~/Dropbox/Folder 1 ? I understand the concept, just can't get it to work with the proper edit

 

[mikew99]

How would you write a path to something other than the desktop? such as ~/Dropbox/Folder 1 ? I understand the concept, just can't get it to work with the proper edit

One thing you could do is open Script Editor and run this:

tell application "Finder"
set theFolder to choose folder
end tell

Whatever the result is, just copy that and set thePath to your result.

 

[The JTizzle]

Oh thats perfect, I got it. THANKS A TON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you ever need a design favor hit me up, I owe you one man!

 

[mikew99]

You'd kind of end up with the line looking something like this:

set thePath to folder "Macintosh HD:Users:Userropbox:Folder 1:" as string
[doublepost=1474045746][/doublepost]You're welcome, sir. Have a good one.

 

[The JTizzle]

sorry one last question, will this overwrite a old PDF file if a new one is created with the same name? Or do I need to add something to get that to work?

 

[mikew99]

sorry one last question, will this overwrite a old PDF file if a new one is created with the same name? Or do I need to add something to get that to work?

Yes, I think that it will overwrite the existing file in that Dropbox folder. Let me test it out and I will let you know.
[doublepost=1474048051][/doublepost]Are your numbers documents NOT going to have unique names? If each numbers document has a unique name, then it won't be an issue.

 

[The JTizzle]

Sorry was a busy day. The overwrite works flawlessly, tested it a few times. The one last issue I seem to have is after testing is I put the numbers files in the folder, it does the conversion, junks the numbers but then tries to run the conversion again on the newly created PDF since I am using the conversion folder as the destination folder. Is there something I can add to make it ignore PDF file types? We lock that in and its flawless!

 

[kryten2]

I am using the conversion folder as the destination folder.

Don't do that. A well written Folder Action script leaves the hot folder empty. This avoids repeated application of the action to the same files, and allows Folder Actions to perform more efficiently.

See the example at the link.

Info : https://developer.apple.com/library...html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40000983-CH219-SW2

 

[The JTizzle]

Ok I'll tweak it, thanks again bud!