File Purge applescript running slow in OS X

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
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#1

I was sent over here from the Macresource forums…

I am working on an Apple script that does a purge of a network folder from a Filemaker database. The script worked great in OS 9, took some time to run, but worked.

I switched the machine running the scripts over to 10.4 and it is super slow now. The purge used to take about 10 to 15 minutes, now it times out after an hour.

Here is the part of the scipt that seems slow, the rest of the script is just mounting servers.


	tell application "FileMaker Pro"
			activate
			set filecount to count of records in database 1
			try
				repeat with i from 1 to filecount
					set myfile to the first cell of record i
					go to record i
					tell application "Finder"
						try
							if length of myfile > 4 then
								delete (every file in folder "Folder 1" of folder "Files" of disk "Server5" whose name contains myfile)
								delete (every file in folder "Folder 2" of folder "Files" of disk "Server5" whose name contains myfile)
							end if
						end try
					end tell
				end repeat
			end try
			try
				display dialog "All Done"
			end try
			tell database 1
				close
			end tell
		end tell
#2

I don’t have FMPro, but your delete statements with the filter “whose name contains myFile” require that your script pass the the details from Folder 1 of folder Files of disk Server5 back and forth because because the filter is on your machine and the files are on another. I think you would be better off to download the folder once to your machine, do what you want to do with its contents and then load it back with replacing.

#3

The folder is a couple GBs in size. I am not sure that I want to copy that locally. Would it be better if I had exact file names? The only diffrence between the string I am searching for and the actual file name is 2 letters in the front, either AA or AB.

#4

Downloading a GB is not on. You might be much better off however to get the names of every file in Folder 1, filter them locally into a list of names to be deleted that meet your criteria, and then:

repeat with aFile in deleList
delete file "Server5:Files:Folder1:" & aFile
end repeat
-- same for other folder

Also, why is the tell app “Finder” block inside the tell app “FMPro” block?