What do you suggest as a mechanism to monitor the Application folder and
create a record with tag and note capability corresponding to each application therein?
My stab at an answer to my own question:
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In EF, create an “Applications” library
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Using Automator, create and run the following workflow to create aliases in the “Applications” library for all existing apps.
- Find Finder Items: Search Applications: Kind is application
- New Aliases in Files (pointing to the “Files” folder in the Applications library).
- Using Automator, create and save the following Folder Action (I call it “Apps in Applications”), setting it to “receive Files and Folders added to Applications”. This will create a new alias in the Applications library for each app subsequently added to the Applications folder. The alias is added to the To Import folder.
- Filter Finder Items: Search Applications: Kind is application
- New Aliases in To Import (in Applications) (pointing to that file in the Applications library)
(credit to red_menace for the Filter Finder Items tip)
- <Ctl>click the Applications folder; select Folder Actions Setup and attach the above Folder Action to it.
Usage notes:
- This is intended to copy only the apps, not the various associated files (read me’s, etc.).
- Removing an app from the Applications folder does not remove its alias.
- Per the EF manual, “When the library is opened (and, periodically, while it’s open) EagleFiler checks the [To Import] folder.”
An AppleScript alternative to the Folder Action above was suggested by twtwtw in the same thread linked above.
Thoughts? Alternatives?