Bulk folder rename AppleScript

July 14, 2015July 14, 2015 Mike Hudson

I was recently approached by one of my blog readers John Ott, to help out with a bit of a technical challenge he had. John used a fairly complicated filing system for keeping track of lots of documents, blue prints and photos for projects him and his team work on. This included many subfolders with deep subfolders following a strict naming convention. When John starts a project, he used to copy and paste his top-level folder, then work his way through all its subfolders updating the folder names with the new project code. John reached out to me to see if I could help out, so I put together this Bulk folder rename AppleScript which takes user input for source and destination folders and the latest project code, it then traverses the folders and their subfolder and updates the names as required.

-- Apple Script to copy and rename a folder structure and its subfolders
-- Author Mike Hudson (aka MikeSel - https://www.mikesel.info)

tell application "Finder"
    
    set JobName to text returned of (display dialog "Please enter five digit code:" default answer "ST1234")
    set templateFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Template Folder"
    
    set fldName to name of templateFolder
    
    set newName to my replace_chars(fldName, "ST000", JobName)
    
    set destinationFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Destination Folder"
    
    set newFolder to duplicate templateFolder to destinationFolder
    set pro_folder to newFolder
    set all_pro_folders to every folder of pro_folder
    log all_pro_folders
    repeat with parent_folder in all_pro_folders
        log parent_folder
        set child_folders to every folder of parent_folder
        
        repeat with current_folder in child_folders
            set grandchildItems to every item of current_folder
            repeat with grandchildItem in grandchildItems
                set greatgrandchildItems to every item of grandchildItem
                repeat with greatgrandchildItem in greatgrandchildItems
                    set fold_name to the name of greatgrandchildItem
                    log (fold_name)
                    set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
                    set the name of greatgrandchildItem to new_name
                    log (new_name)
                end repeat
                set fold_name to the name of grandchildItem
                log (fold_name)
                set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
                set the name of grandchildItem to new_name
                log (new_name)
            end repeat
            
            set fold_name to the name of current_folder
            log (fold_name)
            set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
            log (new_name)
            set the name of current_folder to new_name
            
        end repeat
        set fold_name to the name of parent_folder
        log (fold_name)
        set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)
        log (new_name)
        set the name of parent_folder to new_name
    end repeat
    
    set pro_folder's name to newName
end tell

on replace_chars(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string
    set the item_list to every text item of this_text
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string
    set this_text to the item_list as string
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
    return this_text
end replace_chars

-- Apple Script to copy and rename a folder structure and its subfolders

-- Author Mike Hudson (aka MikeSel - https://www.mikesel.info)

tell application "Finder"

set JobName to text returned of (display dialog "Please enter five digit code:" default answer "ST1234")

set templateFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Template Folder"

set fldName to name of templateFolder

set newName to my replace_chars(fldName, "ST000", JobName)

set destinationFolder to choose folder with prompt "Please Choose Destination Folder"

set newFolder to duplicate templateFolder to destinationFolder

set pro_folder to newFolder

set all_pro_folders to every folder of pro_folder

log all_pro_folders

repeat with parent_folder in all_pro_folders

log parent_folder

set child_folders to every folder of parent_folder

repeat with current_folder in child_folders

set grandchildItems to every item of current_folder

repeat with grandchildItem in grandchildItems

set greatgrandchildItems to every item of grandchildItem

repeat with greatgrandchildItem in greatgrandchildItems

set fold_name to the name of greatgrandchildItem

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

set the name of greatgrandchildItem to new_name

log (new_name)

end repeat

set fold_name to the name of grandchildItem

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

set the name of grandchildItem to new_name

log (new_name)

end repeat

set fold_name to the name of current_folder

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

log (new_name)

set the name of current_folder to new_name

end repeat

set fold_name to the name of parent_folder

log (fold_name)

set new_name to my replace_chars(fold_name, "ST000", JobName)

log (new_name)

set the name of parent_folder to new_name

end repeat

set pro_folder's name to newName

end tell

on replace_chars(this_text, search_string, replacement_string)

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the search_string

set the item_list to every text item of this_text

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to the replacement_string

set this_text to the item_list as string

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""

return this_text

end replace_chars

You can download a zipped up copy of the above script by clicking

If you’ve a project and you’d like to see if I can help, get in touch using my Contact Form.

Apple to launch Smart Home automation platform at WWDC

May 27, 2014May 28, 2014 Mike Hudson 1 Comment

News is currently stirring around introduction of an integrated home automation system, to be launched at the 2014 WWDC. As the WWDC starts in less than one week technology news sites the world over are tripping over themselves with excitement about these kinds of announcements.

The Financial Times have today published a post detailing Apple’s entry to the home automation market. Something which doesn’t really come as much of a surprise, considering they’ve been retailing the Philips Hue product range for sometime now. That, as well as there almost guaranteed release of wearable health technology.

The Smart Home automation platform is said to make automated your home electrics as simple as walking through the door.. For example; When your iOS device is in range or when you walk through your front door – the potential is to have your lights automatically switch on.

Details of the features of the Smart Home automation platform will be expectedly be sketchy until after the keynote has been released. However, the “Smart Home” kit will almost definitely rely on NFC chips, or some kind of bespoke chip made specifically by one of Apple’s many hardware suppliers.

This will undoubtably launch a new certification system that hardware vendors will be quick to jump onto the back of. I’d expect the see some Apple designed logo – “designed for Smart Home” or similar popping up on the industry leaders kit very shortly after release.

It would certainly be a massive switch in direction if Apple released their own automation hardware at the WWDC, however this is so unlikely to happen. Only time will tell…

Once the WWDC keynote has been made public, I will be reporting back on any released information as soon as is possible. To keep up to date with all releases check out the RSS site feed.

Lync Custom Status 2014 BETA

November 13, 2013September 2, 2014 Mike Hudson 1 Comment

A newer version is now available from here

Here it is!

The very first public BETA release of my latest project.. I decided to build this application to add a little ‘Je ne sais quoin’ to the Microsoft Lync client status selection. I am a big fan of the Microsoft Lync product, and unified communications.. However, as those close to me will know – I am a big fan of automation. Which is when the idea for this app was born..

So.. What does it do.. Well, check out the details below! Please remember this is an extremely early public release BETA. It’s in its early stages, and I still have BIG plans for this app.

(more…)

Automated Lync Dial testing using VB.net

August 2, 2013June 12, 2014 Mike Hudson 1 Comment

Today I was asked if it would be possible to ‘Automate’ the repeated dialling of a SIP contact, this was in order to try and replicate and resolve an issue with a headset and lync.

So I cam up with this, and thought I should share it in case others find it useful.

The code below commences dialling after the command button is pushed, and each time the other party hangs up the App starts dialling again. Simple but effective.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
    <title>Server Error &middot; Gist</title>
    <style type="text/css" media="screen">
      body {
        background: #f1f1f1;
        font-family: "HelveticaNeue-Light", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
        text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;
        -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; }

      .container { margin: 100px auto; width: 600px; text-align: center; }

      a { color: #4183c4; text-decoration: none; }
      a:visited { color: #4183c4 }
      a:hover { text-decoration: none; }

      h1 { letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 60px; font-size: 60px; font-weight: 100; margin: 0px; text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #fff; }
      p { color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5); margin: 20px 0 40px; }

      ul { border-top: 1px solid #ccc; list-style: none; margin: 20px 0; padding: 20px 0; }
      li { display: table-cell; font-weight: bold; width: 1%; }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="container">
      <h1>OH NOES, 404.</h1>
      <p>We seem to have missed the <em>gist</em> of that <em>gist</em> you were looking for.</p>
      <ul id="error-suggestions">
          <li><a href="https://github.com/contact">Contact Support</a></li>
          <li><a href="https://status.github.com">Status Site</a></li>
          <li><a href="https://twitter.com/github">@github</a></li>
      </ul>
      <p><img src="https://github.s3.amazonaws.com/media/maint-logo.png" alt="GitHub"></p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

If you use the code, or figure out a better way of doing it drop me a message using the comments section below.

Send an iMessage with an AppleScript

July 8, 2013May 18, 2014 Mike Hudson 9 Comments

I don’t like waiting around for long processes to finish on my Mac, so I was recently hunting for a way of sending push notifications to my iPhone/iPad.. I gave up after a while, realising that nothing seemed reliable enough.. So then I changed tact, and that’s when I came up with this AppleScript. This uses OS X’s built in message’s app to send an iMessage to my mobile!

tell application "Messages"
	set intid to get id of first service
	set myRecipient to myRecipient "+44123456789" of service id intid
	send "Your full machine backup has now completed" to myRecipient
end tell
tell application "Messages"
	quit
end tell

This could quite easily be built into Automator Workflows etc.

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Bulk folder rename AppleScript

Apple to launch Smart Home automation platform at WWDC

Lync Custom Status 2014 BETA

A newer version is now available from here

Here it is!

Automated Lync Dial testing using VB.net

Send an iMessage with an AppleScript