Getting the Filename of a pdf print dialog in osx automator

Question

I'm creating an automator pdf print plugin.

When you choose the print plugin the filename to the pdf is the input (normally /var/something /documentName.pdf)

I would like to get the documentName to use it later in an Rename Finder Item.

I'm using atm applescript to accomplish this.

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Finder"
    set fileName to name of ((POSIX file input) as alias)
end tell
return fileName as string

end run

The problem is that this only works when I put an Ask for Text Action before the applescript which displays the posix path.

If I remove the Ask for Text action the applescript fails.

The workflow is at https://www.dropbox.com/s/jp4t9pen3gvtyiq/Rename-Action.workflow.zip

I guess it is something simple but this is the first applescript / automator workflow I'm creating.

As I fail on commenting

Solution is

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Finder"
    set fileName to ((name of first item of input) as string)
end tell
return fileName 
end run

as by @Ken post below.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I created a test workflow with this AppleScript:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell app "System Events"
        display dialog ((class of input) as string)
    end
    return input
end run

That displayed "list". I then modified it to:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        display dialog ((class of first item of input) as string)
    end tell
    return input
end run

That displayed "alias".

So, the input to a PDF workflow is a list of aliases. Write your script with that in mind and it should work. For example, this works:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        display dialog ((name of first item of input) as string)
    end tell
    return input
end run

Answer 2

When working with AppleScript, it can really help to forget everything you know about file paths. If you think in paths, you will be doing path-math in your head and all of it is unnecessary work. What you want to work with is objects. When doing file operations, you work with alias objects.

If you look at the PDF you are working with in Finder, and go File ▶ Make Alias then you’ll create an alias file. You can drag that alias file all around the file system of the disk it is on, put it in any folder, and when you open the alias file, it will still always open your original PDF, even if you forget what path name your original PDF file has, and even more importantly: the alias will open the PDF even if the PDF has moved to somewhere else in the file system. An alias does all that work for you. You don’t need to know the path names.

In AppleScript, rather than working with files, you work with aliases, and whatever you do to an alias is also done to the original file. So you don’t need to know the path name of a file to change its name — you only have to have an alias of it to work on. You store that alias in a variable.

So what you want to do is set the input PDF alias to a variable, and then later, that variable is what you give Finder to rename. You don’t have to know any paths. It doesn’t matter where the input PDF is stored on the file system — the alias will take care of that.

Here is an example AppleScript that demonstrates the principle of taking an alias as input, and then later renaming that alias (and thus, the original file:)

tell application "Finder"
    set theInputFile to (choose file)
    -- do a workflow here
    set the name of theInputFile to "Renamed" & "." & the name extension of theInputFile
end tell

Here is a line-by-line description of the above script:

1. the opening tell block that specifies we are talking to Finder
2. show the user a choose file dialog box, and set the alias that is returned by that dialog box to a variable called “theInputFile”
3. a comment that is a placeholder for whatever workflow steps you might want to do
4. rename theInputFile to “Renamed” and its original file extension
5. quit talking to Finder

And even where you want to work with the folder that contains your original input file, or want to know what disk the input file is on, you still don’t need to work with path names:

tell application "Finder"
    set theInputFile to (choose file)
    set theContainingFolder to open the container of theInputFile
    set theInputFileDisk to the disk of theInputFile
end tell

And if you want to know what kind of file the input file is, you don’t have to look at the filename extension and figure it out, you can just say:

set theInputFileKind to the kind of theInputFile
if theInputFileKind is equal to "Portable Document Format (PDF)" then
    -- do stuff
end if

And if you want to work in specific folders, such as the home folder, there are special properties for that, like “the path to the home folder” so that the following script opens “~/Public/Drop Box” on any system, no matter what the user name:

tell application "Finder"
    activate
    set theHomeFolder to the path to the home folder as alias
    set theDropBoxFolder to folder "Drop Box" of folder "Public" of theHomeFolder
    open theDropBoxFolder
end tell

You can walk around disks and folder structures as objects as shown above, so again, there is no need to think in paths. Think in terms of setting variables to objects that you want to interact with.

Answer 3

Solution is

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "Finder"
       set fileName to ((name of first item of input) as string)
    end tell
    return fileName 
end run

as by @Ken's post

Thanks!