Advanced AppleScript Help

General · August 5, 2004, 3:20pm

Hi Everyone,

I am a born-again AppleSripter (in other words, I am new to AppleScript), but I heard of the many wonderfull things this does. Anyway, at my Job, we would have to do a lot of things manually on our macs, and they have given me the project to make an appleScript that will do it all for us. YOUR HELP WILL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Here’s the project:

With AppleScript, I have to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server and collect pictures from there. then I have to save the (EPS) pictures from there to a folder in the local drive (the Mac computer). Next I have to have all the pictures dragged over into another folder which will contain distiller actions (will convert the EPS to PDF and save them into a new folder). After that, I need to get all the converted files and drag them to a Photoshop Droplet which will convert them to JPEGs and save them to another folder. Once thats done, I then need all the files to be uplaoded through FTP, and then delete the content in all the folders that we used on the local drive. And as an added bonus, all this has to be run everyday at 8:00pm.

I know this is really long and maybe hard, but I am willing to pay some money for this code if it comes down to that. Thanks ahead of time to all those that help out in ANY way

General · August 5, 2004, 3:52pm

Also if any of you guys know bits and pieces of this project, let me know. One of the biggest parts I need to learn, is how to connect to a SQL server to get info out of them.

Thanks

raymondlewisjones · November 29, 2004, 9:02pm

Hello,

Well, let me first start by saying that I only found this post because I am currently writing some applescripts that utilize “Distiller”.

I am constantly writing applescript’s that save me time at my work. I have scripts that connect to different servers. I have scripts that convert “.ps” or “.eps” files to “.pdf”.
I also am experienced with creating Photoshop Droplets.

I actually don’t even knoe if you still need this done for you.

My approach would be to create an Applescript Studio application, that is a full fledged MAC OSX native application with a scriptable user-interface. Of course, that is only if you are using MAC OSX. I like using Applescript Studio because it gives me a chance to customize the look of my applications.

However, this could also be done as a regular Applescript application for OS9 or OSX.

First, I would need to know the Name, Password, and Address of the Server.
Then, I would need to know the location of the folder containing the EPS’s.
Obviously, you would want to specify how Distiller converts them(that depends on your version of distiller).
When Distilling with applescript, the PDF files end up in the same directory as the EPS’s, so after the Distilling is done I would then move all the PDF’s to another folder.
Telling the Photoshop Droplet to open all the PDF’s is easy. However, why would you want to make JPG’s from the PDF’s instead of the original EPS’s.
Then, you can use applescript to upload the files to a specific directory.
The clean up, and getting it to run at a specific time is easy.

I could give it a try.

I would need to know your OS (MAC OS9 or MAC OSX), your version of Distiller, your Server Info, and your FTP info.

You do not need to pay me if it does not work. However, the finished product will contain my logo.

My email is raymondlewisjones@yahoo.com

I would love to try this, because I am trying to gear myself more as a programmer. I would love to have a company using my product.