[Toyin]

Just getting my feet wet with Applescript which is pretty amazing.

This is what I'd like to do.

I have one file on an encrypted disk. I'd like text edit to launch that file automatically when I mount the disk image.

Any ideas?

[Brass]

You may need to do it the other way around. Ie, write a script that mounts the disk image and then opens the file in TextEdit.

Otherwise, you'd need something that was constantly watching to see when the disk image was being mounted. It would need to be running all the time, and either polling (bad!) or waiting for a notification (which I don't know if they exist for disk mounting).

[msuper69]

Originally posted by Toyin:
Just getting my feet wet with Applescript which is pretty amazing.

This is what I'd like to do.

I have one file on an encrypted disk. I'd like text edit to launch that file automatically when I mount the disk image.

Any ideas?

This should do the trick. Using Script Editor, save it as an applicaton and check the "Run Only" and "Stay Open" options. This script will check every second to see if the disk is mounted. Then it will open your file and quit. Even though the idle loop is done every second, the CPU usage is very low. You will have to add your own error handling. Enjoy!

Code:
on idle
   tell application "Finder"
	if disk "test" exists then
	    tell application "TextEdit"
		activate
		open file "test:test.txt"
		quit me
	   end tell
	end if
   end tell
   return 1
end idle

[Diggory Laycock]

You could add an AppleScript Folder action to the DMG root dir - except that would open the File every time you opened the folder - so if you mounted the disc it would work, but if you closed the window and opened it again the script would also run again.

[Toyin]

Originally posted by msuper69:
This should do the trick. Using Script Editor, save it as an applicaton and check the "Run Only" and "Stay Open" options. This script will check every second to see if the disk is mounted. Then it will open your file and quit. Even though the idle loop is done every second, the CPU usage is very low. You will have to add your own error handling. Enjoy!

Code:
on idle
   tell application "Finder"
	if disk "test" exists then
	    tell application "TextEdit"
		activate
		open file "test:test.txt"
		quit me
	   end tell
	end if
   end tell
   return 1
end idle

Thanks a lot. That really got me on the right path. This is what I ended up doing.

Code:
on idle
	tell application "Finder"
		if disk "Secure" exists then
			tell application "Finder"
				open "Secure:any document"
				quit me
			end tell
		end if
	end tell
	return 1
end idle

tell application "DiskImageMounter"
	activate
	open file "MacintoshHD:Users:username:Documents:Secure.dmg"
end tell

This works great!!! Now I can place all my "secure" documents on one disk image and create scripts to launch specific files as I add them (iInstead of creating different images for each file). It works nicely too. Launch the script, password dialog box comes up, enter password and then the document is automatically launched. The script quits immediately after so there's no CPU use either.

Thanks again

[mbotta]

Can't you simply put a folder action on the /Volumes directory? Everytime a disk image is mounted, it appears there. The Applescript would then simply confirm that the .dmg in question has been mounted and run the rest of the sript.

Originally posted by Brass:
You may need to do it the other way around. Ie, write a script that mounts the disk image and then opens the file in TextEdit.

Otherwise, you'd need something that was constantly watching to see when the disk image was being mounted. It would need to be running all the time, and either polling (bad!) or waiting for a notification (which I don't know if they exist for disk mounting).

Cheers,

mbotta

[msuper69]

Originally posted by mbotta:
Can't you simply put a folder action on the /Volumes directory? Everytime a disk image is mounted, it appears there. The Applescript would then simply confirm that the .dmg in question has been mounted and run the rest of the sript.



Cheers,

mbotta

I like your idea but how do you attach a Folder Action to a hidden directory?

[msuper69]

Originally posted by Toyin:
Thanks a lot. That really got me on the right path. This is what I ended up doing.

Code:
on idle
	tell application "Finder"
		if disk "Secure" exists then
			tell application "Finder"
				open "Secure:any document"
				quit me
			end tell
		end if
	end tell
	return 1
end idle

tell application "DiskImageMounter"
	activate
	open file "MacintoshHD:Users:username:Documents:Secure.dmg"
end tell

...
Thanks again

The last part of your script is redundant. It should work the same w/o it.

[Diggory Laycock]

Originally posted by msuper69:
I like your idea but how do you attach a Folder Action to a hidden directory?

Right-click the desktop and choose "Configure Folder Actions".

Press the Plus button on the left.

Press command-shift-g

type /Volumes

[Toyin]

Originally posted by msuper69:
The last part of your script is redundant. It should work the same w/o it.

Thanks I'm trying to clean it up.

Code:
on idle
	tell application "Finder"
		if disk "Secure" exists then
			tell application "Finder"
				open file "Secure:example.doc"
				quit me
			end tell
		end if
	end tell
	return 1
end idle

tell application "Finder"
	open file "MacintoshHD:Users:username:Documents:Secure.dmg"
end tell

Now the only problem I have is that if the disk Secure is mounted and I run the script, it will launch the file, but will also bring up the password dialog, as if it's trying to mount the disk again. Shouldn't the quit me statement prevent that from happening?

As for the folder actions, that was the 1st way I went about it, but this way is much better. Now I have all my private documents in this one encrypted disk image and use separate applescripts to launch each file.

[Brass]

Actually... wouldn't it be even easier to make the disk image have an auto-open feature, like a lot of CDs do?

Do a google search for the open-source "openUp" utility which you can download and run against your disk image.

[Art Vandelay]

Another thing you can do if you don't mind people seeing what files are within the image is to add the files to the Dock or create aliases of them outside the image. When you click on them, the OS will automatically mount the image if it isn't already mounted.

[Sal]

Here's an example Folder Action script for attaching to the Volumes folder to check to see if a particular drive is mounted. Save the Folder Action script to the Library > Scripts > Folder Actions Scripts folder and use the Folder Actions setup app to attach to the Volumes folder.

Code:
property volume_name : "Firebox"
property file_name : "FOO"

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving these_items
	tell application "Finder"
		repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
			set this_item to item i of these_items
			if the kind of this_item is "Volume" and ¬
				the name of this_item is the volume_name then
				if (exists document file file_name of this_item) then
					open file file_name of this_item
				end if
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
end adding folder items to

[Brass]

Is the disk image read-only, or is it writable? If writeable, then no script is required.

Download the code available at this site and compile it. This is specifically for opening a directory, but a similar method should work for opening a file.

Same concept as an auto-run CD. And this action really should be part of the image/disk itself.

Anyone know how to modify this to work for opening a file rather than a directory?

(currently, if you run it for a file rather than a directory, it will open the parent directory and select the file, but not open it).

[Toyin]

Thanks for all the input. The script that I posted above seems to work well. With 2 clicks or 3 keystrokes (using Launchbar) the image is mounted and the specific files are launched. The drive is read/write and I'll take a look at the script you mentioned Brass, but I like the behavior to be file related, not folder/volume related. The benefit of this behavior is that I can now put several files in the same encrypted disk image.

Anywho, any suggestions for beginner Applescripting? The Help viewer hasn't been too helpful.