[memory-minus]

I'd like to see about making an AppleScript that, when files are dragged on to it, performs a terminal command on those files automagically.

Is this possible, and if so, where in the world do I go for information / example code on putting this together?

[Arkham_c]

Originally posted by memory-minus:
I'd like to see about making an AppleScript that, when files are dragged on to it, performs a terminal command on those files automagically.

Is this possible, and if so, where in the world do I go for information / example code on putting this together?

Use AppleScript Studio. The shell script itself is easy -- just call "do shell script" from within AppleScript.

[suthercd]

I agree with Arkham_c that in the end you will use Studio if you use 'do shell script' extensively. To experiment a bit before jumping into Studio, here is an example that may get you started:

--drop small text file on the script icon
-- save as application, we are creating a droplet.

on open _file
set filePosixPath to POSIX path of _file
set theContents to do shell script "cat " & filePosixPath
display dialog theContents

Display dialog has a limitation on characters displayed, so the file needs to be small. You could save the result to a file, you can pipe your stderr to a file- lots of possibilities. Here is the Technical Note on Apple's site that begins to describe 'do shell script'. TN2065

HTH
Craig

[JNI]

Originally posted by memory-minus:
I'd like to see about making an AppleScript that, when files are dragged on to it, performs a terminal command on those files automagically.

Is this possible, and if so, where in the world do I go for information / example code on putting this together?

There's a Drag and Drop example in /Developer/Examples/AppleScript Studio folder. You could either modify it (make a private copy first so you still have the original) or you could use it as a guide to create your own app after starting with an AppleScript Studio template project in Xcode.

[Angus_D]

Why use AppleScript at all?
http://www.mit.edu/people/wsanchez/s...Script-0.5.dmg

[JNI]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Why use AppleScript at all?
http://www.mit.edu/people/wsanchez/s...Script-0.5.dmg

I agree that ASS is overkill if all you want to do is the same operation to all files dropped onto the applet and don't need any significant user interaction. But if you want to do any kind of medium to complex interaction on the dropped items, show status, allow for canceling during lengthy processing or various other GUI type things, then ASS is a good way to do it.

(I saw your smiley Angus_D, but I figured I'd answer the question anyway so that the poster would see why they might want to use ASS.)