File metadata information

I would like to know if the following is possible.

Is there a way in AppleScript to get file metadata information.

I am going to merge many video (i.e MP4, m44…) files together. Each of the files are located under a specific folder and were recorded individually. I now need to merge them together in order to have one big video file for a given event.

The duration of the video is important as I need to create some kind of index for someone to be able to go directly to that video sequence without having to look at the whole thing.

When I do a File “Get info” command a window appears with all the information that I need.

Is there a way to gather using AppleScript :
1 - the Name without the extension “filename” and
2 - the Duration “00:32”

Thanks!

Daniel

Here is a quick and dirty answer :

(*
http://www.macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=45840
*)



--set hfsPath to "Seagate 3TB:Jazz youtube:Jimmy Giuffre:" as alias
set hfsPath to choose folder

set ourFilesAndNames to my listFolder:hfsPath

set localDecimalSeparator to item 2 of (0.1 as text) # Useful to convert the string duration to a number
set ourDescriptors to {}
repeat with aCouple in ourFilesAndNames
	set {hfsPath, itsBareName} to contents of aCouple
	set theDuration to (do shell script "mdls " & quoted form of POSIX path of hfsPath & " -name kMDItemDurationSeconds")
	--> "kMDItemDurationSeconds = 500.7366666666667"
	set theDuration to my remplace(theDuration, "kMDItemDurationSeconds = ", "")
	--> "500.7366666666667"
	# or
	--> "(null)"
	try
		set theDuration to my remplace(theDuration, ".", localDecimalSeparator) as number
		# Convert it in minutes:seconds
		set theSeconds to theDuration mod 60
		set theMinutes to theDuration div 60
		if theMinutes > 59 then
			set theHours to theMinutes div 60
			set theMinutes to theMinutes mod 60
			set theDuration to text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theHours) as text) & ":" & text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theMinutes) as text) & ":" & text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theSeconds) as text)
		else
			set theDuration to text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theMinutes) as text) & ":" & text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theSeconds) as text)
		end if
		
	on error
		set theDuration to "(null)"
	end try
	set thePath to hfsPath as text
	-- set thePath to POSIX path of hfsPath # Enable it if you want to get POSIX paths
	
	set end of ourDescriptors to {thePath, itsBareName, theDuration}
end repeat

ourDescriptors

#=====

on listFolder:anAlias
	tell application "Finder"
		set allFiles to every file in anAlias as alias list
		
		set ourFiles to {}
		repeat with aFile in allFiles
			set itsExtension to name extension of aFile
			
			if itsExtension is in {"webm", "mp4", "mov"} then # Edit to fit your needs
				set itsName to get name of aFile
				set end of ourFiles to {aFile as text, text 1 thru -(2 + (count itsExtension)) of itsName}
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
	return ourFiles
end listFolder:

#=====
(*
replaces every occurences of d1 by d2 in the text t
*)
on remplace(t, d1, d2)
	local oTIDs, l
	set {oTIDs, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, d1}
	set l to text items of t
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d2
	set t to l as text
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oTIDs
	return t
end remplace

#=====

Edited to take care of a possible null value returned as duration.
Edited to return duration as min:sec ( thank you Shane :wink: )

Yvan KOENIG running Sierra 10.12.5 in French (VALLAURIS, France) lundi 17 juillet 2017 21:07:55

Here’s an alternative that lets Spotlight do more of the work. Requires 10.10 or later:

use AppleScript version "2.4" -- Yosemite (10.10) or later
use framework "Foundation"
use scripting additions

-- choose folder and make URL
set theFolder to choose folder
set theURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:(POSIX path of theFolder)

-- start Spotlight search
set thePred to current application's NSPredicate's predicateWithFormat_("%K CONTAINS %@", current application's NSMetadataItemContentTypeTreeKey, "public.movie")
set theQuery to current application's NSMetadataQuery's new()
theQuery's setPredicate:thePred
theQuery's setSearchScopes:{theURL}
theQuery's startQuery()
repeat while theQuery's isGathering() as boolean
	delay 0.01
end repeat
theQuery's stopQuery()

-- set up results array, formatter for duration
set theResults to current application's NSMutableArray's array()
set theFormatter to current application's NSDateComponentsFormatter's new()

-- loop through results
set theCount to theQuery's resultCount()
repeat with i from 1 to theCount
	set aResult to (theQuery's resultAtIndex:(i - 1))
	set theName to (aResult's valueForAttribute:(current application's NSMetadataItemDisplayNameKey))
	set theDuration to (aResult's valueForAttribute:(current application's NSMetadataItemDurationSecondsKey))
	try
		set theDuration to (theFormatter's stringFromTimeInterval:theDuration)
	on error
		set theDuration to "unknown"
	end try
	-- format values tab-delimited
	(theResults's addObject:(current application's NSString's stringWithFormat_("%@	%@", theName's stringByDeletingPathExtension(), theDuration)))
end repeat
return (theResults's componentsJoinedByString:linefeed) as text

Edited to deal with files lacking the duration metadata.

If you have AppleScript Toolbox installed:

set thePaths to AST list folder ((choose folder) as string) matching regex "\\.(mp4|mov|webm)$" with returning HFS paths

set report to "filename		duration"
repeat with aPath in thePaths
	set metadata to ((AST metadata for file aPath) & {kMDItemDurationSeconds:0})
	set duration to kMDItemDurationSeconds of metadata as integer
	set basename to kMDItemFSName of metadata
	-- remove extension
	set filename to (AST find regex "(.*)\\.(.*)$" in string basename regex group 2) as string
	-- convert time
	set sec to text -2 thru -1 of ("0" & duration mod 60)
	set theTime to text -2 thru -1 of ("0" & duration div 60) & ":" & sec
	
	set report to report & return & filename & tab & theTime
end repeat

In case you need to get the path attached to the returned datas (as is done by my original script) you may edit the second loop of Shane’s script this way :

repeat with i from 1 to theCount
	set aResult to (theQuery's resultAtIndex:(i - 1))
	set thePath to (aResult's valueForAttribute:(current application's NSMetadataItemPathKey)) # ADDED
	set theName to (aResult's valueForAttribute:(current application's NSMetadataItemDisplayNameKey))
	set theDuration to (aResult's valueForAttribute:(current application's NSMetadataItemDurationSecondsKey))
	try
		set theDuration to (theFormatter's stringFromTimeInterval:theDuration)
	on error
		set theDuration to "unknown"
	end try
	-- format values tab-delimited
	-- set thePath to (POSIX file (thePath as text)) as text # If you want to convert it into Hfs path
	(theResults's addObject:(current application's NSString's stringWithFormat_("%@	%@	%@", thePath, theName's stringByDeletingPathExtension(), theDuration))) # EDITED
end repeat

CAUTION. I added an instruction which may be enabled if you want to get Hfs path of the files. It may be useful if a component of the Hfs path contained a slash which is automatically replaced by a colon in POSIX format.

Yvan KOENIG running Sierra 10.12.5 in French (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 18 juillet 2017 14:23:50

One other thing I should point out: my version is recursive, searching all enclosed folders as well as the chosen folder.

Does it matter? The TS asked only for filenames with no extension :slight_smile:

As the list of names and durations is not linked to a list of paths, it would be difficult to retrieve which file has a given couple of datas.
If a folder contain a file named trucmuche.mov and a file named trucmuche.mp4 how will you identify which one own the couple {trucmuche, 2:34} and which one own the couple {trucmuche, 1:23} ?
It’s why I took care to return the three values for every file.

More, with Shane’s code - which is recursive - we may have different files with the same name in several subfolders.

But maybe it doesn’t make sense for the asker.
I just choose to play safe.

Yvan KOENIG running Sierra 10.12.5 in French (VALLAURIS, France) mardi 18 juillet 2017 15:21:31

They also asked for duration in the form of “00:32” :wink:

And it returns that from now on

Thanks everybody!

I do have a lot to digest WOW!

Daniel

OK, I’ve taken the first code provided by Yvan and ran it on a local folder and the result was OK. However, running the same code with the data located on a NAS did not work. The duration is set to null.

More than likely, the video files are going to be on an external drive. Bizarre, when looking at the directory path everything is correct. Why would that be ?

THANKS AGAIN!


--set hfsPath to "Seagate 3TB:Jazz youtube:Jimmy Giuffre:" as alias
set hfsPath to choose folder

set ourFilesAndNames to my listFolder:hfsPath

set localDecimalSeparator to item 2 of (0.1 as text) # Useful to convert the string duration to a number
set ourDescriptors to {}
repeat with aCouple in ourFilesAndNames
	set {hfsPath, itsBareName} to contents of aCouple
	set theDuration to (do shell script "mdls " & quoted form of POSIX path of hfsPath & " -name kMDItemDurationSeconds")
	display dialog "hfsPath: " & hfsPath
	--display dialog "theDuration: " & theDuration
	--> "kMDItemDurationSeconds = 500.7366666666667"
	set theDuration to my remplace(theDuration, "kMDItemDurationSeconds = ", "")
	--> "500.7366666666667"
	# or
	--> "(null)"
	try
		set theDuration to my remplace(theDuration, ".", localDecimalSeparator) as number
		# Convert it in minutes:seconds
		set theSeconds to theDuration mod 60
		set theMinutes to theDuration div 60
		if theMinutes > 59 then
			set theHours to theMinutes div 60
			set theMinutes to theMinutes mod 60
			set theDuration to text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theHours) as text) & ":" & text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theMinutes) as text) & ":" & text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theSeconds) as text)
		else
			set theDuration to text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theMinutes) as text) & ":" & text 2 thru 3 of ((100 + theSeconds) as text)
		end if
		
	on error
		set theDuration to "(null)"
	end try
	set thePath to hfsPath as text
	set thePath to POSIX path of hfsPath # Enable it if you want to get POSIX paths
	
	set end of ourDescriptors to {thePath, itsBareName, theDuration}
end repeat

ourDescriptors

#=====

on listFolder:anAlias
	tell application "Finder"
		set allFiles to every file in anAlias as alias list
		
		set ourFiles to {}
		repeat with aFile in allFiles
			set itsExtension to name extension of aFile
			
			if itsExtension is in {"webm", "mp4", "mov"} then # Edit to fit your needs
				set itsName to get name of aFile
				set end of ourFiles to {aFile as text, text 1 thru -(2 + (count itsExtension)) of itsName}
			end if
		end repeat
	end tell
	return ourFiles
end listFolder:

#=====
(*
replaces every occurences of d1 by d2 in the text t
*)
on remplace(t, d1, d2)
	local oTIDs, l
	set {oTIDs, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, d1}
	set l to text items of t
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to d2
	set t to l as text
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oTIDs
	return t
end remplace

#=====

I tested with files stored on an external HD but I’m not using a NAS.
I don’t know if it may explain the difference.

Here is what I got :
{{“/Volumes/Seagate 3TB/Jazz youtube/Ahmad Jamal/Ahmad Jamal + Ben Webster, 1960, studio 61.mp4”, “Ahmad Jamal + Ben Webster, 1960, studio 61”, “26:02”}, {“/Volumes/Seagate 3TB/Jazz youtube/Ahmad Jamal/Ahmad Jamal + Yusef Lateef - Marciac (2011-08-08).mp4”, “Ahmad Jamal + Yusef Lateef - Marciac (2011-08-08)”, “11:06”}, {“/Volumes/Seagate 3TB/Jazz youtube/Ahmad Jamal/Ahmad Jamal - One - Vienne 2011.mp4”, “Ahmad Jamal - One - Vienne 2011”, “08:18”}, {“/Volumes/Seagate 3TB/Jazz youtube/Ahmad Jamal/Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana - Olympia 2012.mp4”, “Ahmad Jamal - Poinciana - Olympia 2012”, “10:53”}, {“/Volumes/Seagate 3TB/Jazz youtube/Ahmad Jamal/Ahmad Jamal Trio & George Coleman - My foolish heart.mp4”, “Ahmad Jamal Trio & George Coleman - My foolish heart”, “10:16”}, {“/Volumes/Seagate 3TB/Jazz youtube/Ahmad Jamal/Ahmad Jamal Trio - Germany 1999.mp4”, “Ahmad Jamal Trio - Germany 1999”, “43:52”}, {“/Volumes/Seagate 3TB/Jazz youtube/Ahmad Jamal/Ahmad Jamal Trio-1959-Darn That Dream.webm”, “Ahmad Jamal Trio-1959-Darn That Dream”, “(null)”}}

I activated the use of POSIX paths because it clearly show that the files aren’t on the boot volume.

Just a question : the script rely upon Spotlight to get the metadatas. Are you sure that this feature search in the NAS ?

Yvan KOENIG running Sierra 10.12.6 in French (VALLAURIS, France) samedi 22 juillet 2017 22:05:23

It did not.

I’ve re-index the whole thing and it does now appear when doing a search with spotlight.

However, when I do a get info on the file, the duration does not show.

Then the script works as expected. I am not sure what to do to get the duration for file on the NAS.

Moving files from to NAS onto local the local drive is not option.

My NAS is a Synology DS214+.

Thanks!

Daniel

Browser: Safari 602.1
Operating System: Mac OS X (10.13 Developer Beta 3)

All the alternatives here rely on Spotlight, which won’t index your NAS disks. In fact, I think you will find that Get Info also fails to get the duration of files stored on your NAS disks, for the same reason.

You can, however, get it using AVFoundation. This script requires 10.11 or later:

use AppleScript version "2.5" -- 10.11 or later
use framework "Foundation"
use framework "AVFoundation"
use scripting additions

-- get files
set theFolder to choose folder
set theURL to current application's |NSURL|'s fileURLWithPath:(POSIX path of theFolder)
set fileManager to current application's NSFileManager's defaultManager()
set {theFiles, theError} to fileManager's contentsOfDirectoryAtURL:theURL includingPropertiesForKeys:{} options:(current application's NSDirectoryEnumerationSkipsHiddenFiles) |error|:(reference)
-- eliminate non-video files
set thePred to current application's NSPredicate's predicateWithFormat:"pathExtension IN %@" argumentArray:{{"mp4", "mov", "webm"}}
set vidFiles to theFiles's filteredArrayUsingPredicate:thePred

-- set up results array, formatter for duration
set theResults to current application's NSMutableArray's array()
set theFormatter to current application's NSDateComponentsFormatter's new()

-- lop through
repeat with aFile in vidFiles
	-- get localized name
	set {theResult, theName, theError} to (aFile's getResourceValue:(reference) forKey:(current application's NSURLLocalizedNameKey) |error|:(reference))
	-- create an AVAsset so you can get duration
	set theAsset to (current application's AVURLAsset's assetWithURL:aFile)
	set durationInfo to theAsset's duration() -- returns record like: {value:2911360, timescale:1000, flags:1, epoch:0}
	if durationInfo is missing value then
		set theTime to "unknown"
	else
		-- calculate duration in seconds and format as string
		set theDuration to (value of durationInfo) / (timescale of durationInfo)
		set theDuration to (theFormatter's stringFromTimeInterval:theDuration)
	end if
	(theResults's addObject:(current application's NSString's stringWithFormat_("%@	%@", theName's stringByDeletingPathExtension(), theDuration)))
end repeat
return (theResults's componentsJoinedByString:linefeed) as text

Exactly, “Get Info” fails to get the duration of files stored on my NAS disks.

I ran the script created by Shane and it now work on my NAS.

I’ll keep working on the script because this is only the beginning.

Many thanks everybody, this was impossible for me to write something like this. I do have a real lack of knowledge when comes to write such AppleScript programs.

You guys are great!

MANY THANKS!

Daniel

Hey all I am a total novice at this . So sorry if I don’t speak the language you would understand

I only recently found how apple scripts can make my life so much easier

Shane thank you so much for this . It works great

Thank you for your time , It is greatly appreciated

I was wandering after the last line: return (theResults’s componentsJoinedByString:linefeed) as text

What would I need to add that the script opens Text edit app and copies the the result that appeared as text of the result box of script editor

Here is a link to the image to explain what information I would like to be able to save in a text document

https://imgur.com/jfX5Zez

If its possible can the text file be saved in the same location when the script prompted in the beginning where I selected the folder that contained the media

Hopefully I have explained what I am looking to do

Again thank you so much

Here is how to write to text file. But with avi and mkv movies the Shane’s script gives durations=0. I don’t know why. Well, to write durations to text file replace this:

return (theResults's componentsJoinedByString:linefeed) as text

with this:


set aText to (theResults's componentsJoinedByString:linefeed) as text

set filepath to (POSIX path of theFolder) & "myMoviesDurations.txt"

set openfile to open for access filepath with write permission
write aText as «class utf8» to openfile
close access openfile

Presumably for the same reason QuickTime can’t play them – they’re not formats supported by AVFoundation. A pity.

KniazidisR Thank you…You are a legend !!

It would of been great if AVFoundation supported more formats

Luckily I need it for .mov and .mp4 files

Again I can’t thank everyone enough that contributed to the forum