macOS programmatic access to Finder labels X.6.8

[zeppenwolf]

Is there [subject line] ?

By "Finder labels" I mean the 7 colors you can attach to a Finder object, the names of which you can adjust through Finder menu "Preferences..."

I can't find any programmatic access, ( I mean, a NS or CF call, not AS ) to these on X.6.8 ( sorry, can't remember which damn cat this is), although I have *some* AS access.

In Applescript I can get/set the "label number [n]" for a Finder item, but I can't get or set the name of it. In the AS Editor's Open... Finder Dictionary, I get this:

label n : (NOT AVAILABLE YET) [!!!] A Finder label (name and color)

PS: On my MBP, the labels are colored from top to bottom like this:

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Grey

Yet, the "number" of the label, according to AS, goes like this:

0 <no label>
2 Red
1 Orange
3 Yellow
6 Green
4 Blue
5 Purple
7 Grey

 

[MeFromHere]

If you make a smart search that operates on the label, save the search, and Get Info on the smart search, you'll see "kMDItemFSLabel" as part of the query.

There's a lot of info out there if you Google kMDItemFSLabel. Some of it might be useful. I didn't have time to dig into all the suggestions.

 

[robbieduncan]

The implementation of labels (and tags in Mavericks) is discussed in some technical detail in the ArsTechnica Maverics Review. I do not believe there is an API to access the label outside of the standard file meta data APIs...