Ben's AppleScripts

I find Apple's system-level scripting utility, AppleScript, to be a very useful automation tool. AppleScript is one of the many under-promoted advantages of using Macintosh... I mainly used AppleScript for server automation tasks.

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My AppleScripts

The material contained here is offered AS IS. I make NO REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY, express or implied, nor does any other contributor to this site. WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. Consequential and incidental damages are expressly excluded. Your actual damages are limited in any event to the price charged for this material.

Various AppleScriptlets. Freeware. Updated 98-12-28.

A page containing a number of example scriptlets that you can download or read online, including a nice shell script for an AppleScript 'droplet' application.

Folder Analyser 1.0.1. Copyright Ben Lawson 1998-2000. 10K StuffIt archive, Freeware. Updated 2000-03-22

This AppleScript "droppable" application creates a text report of the number of files and the disk space they occupy within the selected/dropped folder, including all subfolders. This can be useful information for AppleShare or QuickMail server administration. Currently not very fast because it doesn't use any third-party compiled AppleScript libraries.

Folder Contents 1.0.2. Copyright Ben Lawson 1998-2010. 24K zip file. Freeware. Updated 2010-09-15.

Drop a folder onto it and Folder Contents creates a text file on your Mac's desktop called "Folder Contents List" listing the path and file name of every file in the folder (and subfolders) within it. This can be useful for AppleShare administration. To edit Folder Contents, drop it onto your favourite script editor.

Version 1.0.1 corrected a faulty property that prevented the applet from working anywhere except on my hard disk...

Version 1.0.2 recompiled to not require "Classic".

Launch Logger 1.0.2. Copyright Ben Lawson 1998. 10K StuffIt archive, Freeware. Updated 1999-01-18.

This AppleScript application creates an HTML format text file called "StartupLog.html" listing in reverse order the date and time of the last 25 times that it has been launched. Why bother? If you put this applet into your Mac's Startup Items folder it will launch every time your Mac boots, giving you a good idea of how stable your server is. I've taken care to handle error conditions, and my experience is that it is safe to install on unattended servers. To edit the log file name or location, drop Launch Logger onto your favourite script editor.

Version 1.0.2 removes an accidental null character in the log file name.
Version 1.0.1 removes some debugging code and is now a locked file to prevent file corruption.

QuickMail Server Toggle 1.0. Copyright Ben Lawson 1997-98. 13K StuffIt archive. Freeware. Updated 1998-05-09.

Contains two useful AppleScripts. "Disable QM Server" disables QuickMail's control panels and applications and restart the QuickMail server in preparation for server backups. Guess what the "Enable QM Server" script does? They simply move the NameServer and QM Server control panels in or out of the "Control Panels (Disabled)" folder, move the "QM Administrator" and "Server MailManager" applications in or out of the "Startup Items (Disabled)" folder, and then restart. I trigger these scripts before and after Retrospect backup with T-Minus Ten.

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Other AppleScript Resources

• Apple's AppleScript Website is the place to get AppleScript documentation and basic components.
• MacScripter is a useful collection of information, tips, examples, and links to other web pages.
• The standard Mac ftp site, info-mac, has a considerable AppleScript library.
• The newsgroup dedicated to AppleScript is alt.comp.lang.applescript.
• Commercially available AppleScript editors include Script Debugger. A demo version is available.

Other interesting web pages:
www.osaxen.com