[Mac] Folder Action with Automator

[rednoah]

Mac OS X Automator is a great built-in tool for automating various tasks. Making custom context menus for Finder (i.e. Quick Action) and watching folders for new files (i.e. Folder Action) for console tools like FileBot is straight-forward.

Getting Started with the built-in Automator Workflows

Starting with FileBot 4.8.5, FileBot now includes sample Automator workflows that you can install / uninstall via the Help menu.

Learn how to use Automator and create Automator Workflows yourself

Folder Action: Automated Media Center

In this example we will use Automator to watch a given folder for new files and pass them on to FileBot: Automated Media Center for processing.

1. Make sure that the filebot console tools are installed and working:

   Shell: Select all

   /usr/local/bin/filebot -version

2. Start Automator, click New Document and select Folder Action to create a new workflow
3. Click the Choose folder combobox and select the folder you want to watch
4. Drag a Run Shell Script (Utilities) action into your workflow
5. Set the Pass input combobox to as arguments so input file paths are passed along via the "$@" parameter
6. Paste following filebot command into your shell script workflow:

   Shell: Select all

   /usr/local/bin/filebot -script fn:amc --output "$HOME/Media" --action duplicate --conflict skip -non-strict --log-file amc.log --def excludeList=".excludes" unsorted=y music=y artwork=y "$@"

7. Save your new workflow and close Automator
8. Done! Newly added files will be processed fully automatically!

Finder Service / Quick Action: Automated Media Center

It's pretty much the same the above. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader.