For No One

Running AppleScripts from Automator

These days, I’ve been using Automator more and more to run AppleScripts (especially since Mountain Lion came out and disallowed Calendar, née iCal, from triggering AppleScripts directly: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/59257/ical-no-longer-runs-scripts).

I began copying and pasting scripts into my workflows, which is a messy solution. I kept the scripts around, because it’s easier to write and debug them in AppleScript Editor, and especially since I converted them to plaintext scripts and uploaded them to GitHub, it’s very useful to be able to easily diff them, as well.

But there’s a better way. A much better way, in fact. AppleScripts can call other AppleScripts, and this works from within the Run AppleScript workflow action, as well. The full solution looks like this:

on run {input, parameters}
    
    run script file "Macintosh HD:Some Directory On Disk:a cool script.applescript"
    
end run

Doing it that way, the Automator is a simple wrapper – you can set it and forget it. I’ve even confirmed that this works with scripts in the plain text .applescript format and compiled AppleScripts (.scpt).

Update

You can also pass the input and parameters arguments into your scripts from Automator as well. Just use the same on run handler that the Run AppleScript action defaults to (as shown above) in your script file, and pass the arguments from Automator like so:

run script file "path to script like above" with parameters {input, parameters}

Using HandBrake on a list of files

I download a lot of videos on the web, and most of the time, they don’t come wrapped up as an iTunes-friendly m4v file. Even when they do, they may not necessarily be encoded in a way that plays nicely with all of my iOS devices (AppleTV, iPhone, iPad, etc.). So, for a long time, my download process has gone like this before loading into iTunes:

1. Download
2. Transcode
3. Tag

The tools I use for the first and third steps have not changed for a long time, but there has been a lot of movement in the Mac video transcoding space. What do I mean by transcoding? I take video that arrives in a particular format (let’s say Ogg Theora) and convert it into a format my devices accept (typically some flavor of MPEG-4 my Apple devices).

For years, I used an awesome tool named VisualHub, and it did everything I wanted. I dragged in a list of files, told it which device I wanted to play them on, and let it rip. It even made use of OS X’s Xgrid infrastructure to encode multiple files simultaneously, distributed among my Mac Pro’s 8 cores, as well as any other networked machines I cared to use. But VisualHub died (so to speak).

It was reborn as an open source project named (poorly, in my opinion) FilmRedux. I tried using it, and found it lacking in various regards. Another project forked the code base and went in its own direction, calling itself VideoMonkey. I used it for a while, dealing with its superficial bugs and slow rate of development, simply because I couldn’t find another tool that would (usually) work the way I desired.

Of course, this all applies to lists of files. If I had a single file to transcode, I used HandBrake as soon as it began accepting arbitrary files for input (it originated as a tool for ripping DVDs, for which it still excels). I love HandBrake, and would use it for all my transcoding needs, if only I could use it for a list of files. The interface has been written with ripping DVDs in mind, however, and so you can only select one file at a time. So I set out to fix that, with my tool of choice: automation!

The Solution

I wanted a way to give HandBrake a list of files, and have it transcode all of them to a particular folder, using a particular settings preset. I realized this seems to be an idea ready-made for an OS X Service, and luckily, Automator (bundled with the OS) allows you to easily make Services. But, HandBrake doesn’t support AppleScript and doesn’t export any Automator Actions, so I needed to figure out another way to automate it. Luckily, HandBrake provides a CLI (command line interface) executable for the Mac.

First, you need to install the Satimage AppleScript extension. Follow the link, download the Satimage___.pkg installer, and run it. If you’re on Mountain Lion (with default Gatekeeper settings), you will need to right-click the file and click Open¹, since it hasn’t been signed by the developer, but other than that, it works 100% in Mountain Lion. The installer is very basic, only copying the Satimage.osax extension into your /Library/ScriptingAdditions/ folder.

To create your own service, follow these steps:

1. Launch Automator.app

   

2. Click File > New (Cmd+N)

3. Select Service

   

4. Click the Choose button

5. Set the following two dropdowns at the top of the service’s definition: Service receives selected files or folders in Finder

   

6. Drag in the Action named Run AppleScript (you can search to find it quickly)

   

7. Copy and paste the script below as the script’s text

8. Click the Compile button to make sure the AppleScript pasted is valid

   

9. Click File > Save (Cmd+S), and enter a name (I chose “Encode With HandBrake”), which will show up in the Services menu

on run {input, parameters}
    set handbrakeCli to "/Applications/HandBrakeCLI"
    set defaultPreset to 7
    
    -- Make sure HandBrakeCLI is installed
    set handbrakeInstalled to false
    tell application "Finder" to if exists handbrakeCli as POSIX file then set handbrakeInstalled to true
    if not handbrakeInstalled then
        display alert "Install HandBrake CLI" message "Please install HandBrakeCLI into the /Applications directory

The HandBrake CLI can be downloaded at http://handbrake.fr/downloads2.php" as critical
        return
    end if
    
    set the destination to POSIX path of (choose folder with prompt "Select the conversion destination")
    
    set the presetList to do shell script handbrakeCli & " -z"
    
    set eachPreset to every paragraph of presetList
    
    set groupEx to re_compile "<[ ]*(.+)"
    set presetEx to re_compile "[ ]*\\+[ ]*([^:]*):"
    
    set displayNames to {}
    set presetNames to {}
    
    set group to ""
    
    repeat with preset in eachPreset
        if length of preset > 0 then
            if preset starts with "<" then
                -- Pull out the group's name
                set group to find text groupEx in preset using "\\1" with regexp and string result
            else if preset contains "+" then
                set presetName to find text presetEx in preset using "\\1" with regexp and string result
                copy presetName to end of presetNames
                copy group & " > " & presetName to end of displayNames
            end if
        end if
    end repeat
    
    set chosenDisplayPreset to choose from list displayNames with title "HandBrake preset" with prompt "Choose a HandBrake preset" default items {item defaultPreset of displayNames}
    
    if chosenDisplayPreset = false then
        return
    end if
    
    set chosenDisplayPreset to chosenDisplayPreset as text
    
    set presetIndex to 1
    repeat with i from 1 to (count of items in displayNames)
        if item i of displayNames is equal to chosenDisplayPreset then
            set presetIndex to i
            exit repeat
        end if
    end repeat
    
    set chosenPreset to item presetIndex of presetNames
    
    repeat with inputFile in input
        -- Get original file's name
        
        set thePath to POSIX path of inputFile
        set prevTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
        -- Get the file name
        set inputFileName to (item -1 of (every text item of thePath)) as text
        
        -- Get the file name without an extension
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "."
        set inputFileNoExtension to items 1 through -2 of (every text item of inputFileName)
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevTIDs
        
        -- Put back together if file name included periods
        set outputFileName to ""
        repeat with fileNamePart in inputFileNoExtension
            set outputFileName to outputFileName & fileNamePart & "."
        end repeat
        
        -- Put on the preferred extension
        set outputFileName to outputFileName & "m4v"
        
        set handbrakeCommand to "nice " & handbrakeCli & " -i " & quoted form of (POSIX path of inputFile) & " -o " & quoted form of (destination & outputFileName) & " --preset='" & chosenPreset & "'"
        --return handbrakeCommand
        do shell script handbrakeCommand
    end repeat
    return input
end run

To use the service:

1. Select the files you wish to convert in Finder
2. Right click (or Control-click) on the selection
3. Click Services > Encode With HandBrake (or whatever you named your Service in Step 10 above)
4. The Service will prompt you for an output folder for the conversion. Select the folder you want your converted files to land in
5. The Service will also prompt you for a HandBrake preset to encode with². Select the one you wish to use. Unfortunately, the CLI doesn’t support custom presets defined in the GUI app
6. A spinning gear icon will show up on the Menu Bar at the top of your screen until the job finishes

This script has worked solidly for me for a long time, and I hope you enjoy it. As always, you can let me know if you have any problems or feature requests.

Update

I’ve gotten feedback that the re_compile command is not working for some (all?) of you. D’oh! I forgot to mention you need to install the Satimage.osax AppleScript extension. I’ve had it for a while and forgot that this script uses Regular Expressions. I’ve updated the post to include those instructions.

Authentically awesome

Sometimes, a geek such as myself has cause to venture into the thorny underbrush of a Mac; places such as /System and /Library, where regular users have no business mucking around. Often, I’ll need to modify a text file therein, which can be troublesome. If you use the built-in TextPad, or other text editors, they won’t be able to save your changes.

The operating system wants you to authenticate with your username and password, which is your way of telling it “I’m an administrator, I know what I’m doing. Back off”. You can maneuver around this by saving a copy of the file elsewhere (like your Desktop), and then use Finder or Terminal to copy it in, at which point you get prompted for credentials.

I previously used TextWrangler to perform “authenticated saves”, in which the text editor would prompt me for my credentials, so the save would succeed. Much easier. And then I upgraded to BBEdit, purchased from the Mac App Store, which presented me with errors every time I went to save to a protected location. Surely, the paid upgrade from a free app wouldn’t remove a feature, right? There must be more going on here. And, don’t call me Shirley.

It turns out Bare Bones needed to remove this feature to comply with App Store guidelines. And this remained the status quo for a while, until they came up with a rather clever solution. Version 10.1.1 introduced a hook at the point where a file is saved, so that the operation could use an AppleScript delegate, if present. They posted a support article, where users can follow the instructions and get the “authenticated save” feature added back.

This makes a lot of sense, since only an experienced user would need the feature, and would be more than capable of copying a file into the ~/Application Support directory. Best of all, you do it once and the problem is permanently solved (until you install BBEdit on a new machine and forget all about it all, unless you store your BBEdit settings on Dropbox). Good job, Bare Bones!