Comments on: Automator Freaking ROCKS!

By: blalor

blalor — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Please let us know how you make out with the status thing.

I really like the possibilities that Automator offers, but I find it frustrating that I’m not able to work with more information about an item in the pipeline. For example, I wrote a workflow (installed as a folder action) to convert sound files (.wavs, really) into AACs (so that I can make podcasts out of Car Talk’s live broadcast…). There’s an iTunes action that allows me to set the metadata on a track, but there’s no way to set a tag based on the input file.

By: D'Arcy

D'Arcy — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

No joy. I checked the “Options” widget, and it just gave the option to be prompted on a couple of parameters. Not what I was looking for.

I’d like a “provide status” option…

By: Johnathan

Johnathan — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

1. If you want to record public radio shows (or anything else from an online stream) and save it to your iTunes/iPod automatically, check out Rogue Amoeba’s line of Audio Hijack products. (rogueamoeba.com)

2. Could you create an Automator action that would run that bit of Terminal code you indicated (or otherwise perform that “count” action?) and then display the results in a pleasing way? That might be nicer than constant trips to a command line.

By: Steve Weintraub

Steve Weintraub — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Automator really needs a status action/option. It could be as simple as window that comes up or even in the menubar appended to the current spinner.

By: D'Arcy

D'Arcy — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

Johnathan, the problem with having a separate Step or Workflow providing the feedback, is the “copy items to folder” step seems to be tying up Automator, so it would need to be able to provide its own feedback.

Steve, you’re right. Something like a “Show progress for long actions” option on a Step…

By: root

root — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I don’t have Tiger yet (waiting for 10.4.1), but so I don’t know if this will work. Apple’s site for Automator says this, however:
“Expand your library by downloading new Actions from third-party developers or create your own using AppleScript.”

Note the last word: AppleScript. It’s ridiculously simple in AppleScript to display either a thermometer bar or the barber pole to show a progress window. I think you can write an AppleScript to poll the number of files to be processed, the number of files that are done, update the progress window. Then call the script from Automator periodically. And remember, you can also use command line in AppleScript to make it faster. Just a suggestion.

By: D'Arcy

D'Arcy — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

root: thanks! I had thought of that, but if I was going to be writing code, I’d likely just do a bash script using ImageMagick or something… The beauty of Automator is the no-code programming, and falling back to write code to fill the gaps just feels wrong

By: Automator World : Archive » Well Duh…

Automator World : Archive » Well Duh… — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

[...] sted in News | D’Arcy Norman has made the astute observation that “Automator Freaking ROCKS!”, with a workflow he whipped up on-the-fly [...]

By: root

root — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

I see. I think it’s complex to implement such a thing from Automator, though, because Automator needs to know the beginning, the end and how the progress bar should be updated. If each Action has its own progress bar, then it’s going to be really messy once you string a bunch of actions. OTOH, if you group several Actions into a single process then there needs to be sections where the information is inserted in the workflow and from what I’ve seen (granted, not much), Automator does not have much room for this. In the end, I think Apple left this out because of the simplicity for the target market: average users.

However, with lots of alpha geeks really getting into Tiger, I am betting that you see ways to do this before long. You may even be able to find such Actions for downloads soon. Anyway, good luck.

By: flatulous

flatulous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000

is there any way to set the JPEG quality/compression setting??
Seems like converting to JPEG is useless if you can’t specify the compression level.