[Ti] Indexing & Folder Action

[Chris Olson]

On Dec 15, 2004, at 6:58 AM, Sambouka wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> There are two features in OS X that I have always wondered its use. 
> What does indexing do? does it help with retrieving faster search 
> results?

Correct.

> if so, why isnt it an automatic feature in OS X.

To reduce system overhead.  Finder does automatically index files when 
you do a search.

> Another feature is Folder Action, what does this option do?

It's an AppleScript function to improve workflow.

> what configurations can be done through folder action?

The possibilities are only limited by your programming capability.  
There's some included AppleScripts in the system (at /Library/Scripts) 
that you can look at with the Script Editor to get an idea of what they 
do.

> does anyone on this list use it.

Extensively.  For instance, I have a folder with an action attached 
that processes PDF screenshots.  All I have to do is drag-n-drop a PDF 
into the folder.  From there the AppleScript takes over - converts it 
to a JPEG image, resizes the image to 1024 pixels wide, queries the 
MySQL database on the server to get the incremental index, names the 
new image with the index figure, then uploads it to the server via 
SFTP.  All automatically.  Just one example of what you can do with 
Folder Actions.
--
Chris