Actions Reference
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| send Growl notification | If you have Growl installed, display a popup notification. The text is customisable and you can substitute tokens for the current rule name, folder path, file name, and timestamp. |
| move file | Move the file to the designated folder. You can select whether to overwrite any existing file with the same name, or rename the existing file first. |
| copy file | Copy the file to the designated folder. You can select whether to overwrite any existing file with the same name, or rename the existing file first. |
| rename file | Rename the file using a pattern. Click the Palette button to drag tokens to the pattern field. If you create a relative pattern path, it is interpreted as relative to the current folder the file is in. Any necessary intervening subfolders will be created. |
| remove file | Removes the file. You have the options of moving it to the trash, or removing it permanently. There is optionally a shred option to overwrite the file contents securely. 7 Pass is US DoD 7 pass compliant. 35 Pass uses the Gutmann algorithm. The more passes, the slower the action is, so one should use these options with caution. |
| sync | Keep two folders in sync. See here for more details. |
| set color label | Set the color label as shown in the Finder. |
| add Finder comment | Set the comment field as shown in the Finder. |
| add keywords | This sets keywords for the file using the Open Meta tagging system. These keywords are compatible with a number of other OS-X programs. |
| archive file | Archives the file or directory using the zip algorithm. The original file is moved to the Trash. Any subsequent actions will be applied to the zipped file rather than the original file. |
| unarchive file | A zipped file is extracted and the original zip file is moved to the trash. If the result of the unarchiving is a file of the same name less the .zip extension, then subsequent actions will be applied to the resulting file or directory. |
| open file | Open the file either with the default application or a specific one.  If you want to import a file into iTunes or iPhoto you can select to open the file with iTunes or iPhoto. (An alternative in iTunes 9 is to move a file into [home]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Automatically Add to iTunes/) |
| reveal in Finder | Open a Finder window with the file highlighted. |
| make alias | Make an OS-X alias file in the specified folder. |
| mail to | This allows you to send an email when the rule is applied. You can optionally attach the matching file to the email. Sending emails requires some configuration. The easiest way is to click Edit in the rule editor and borrow the settings from Mail.app. This allows you to use Mail.app as a way to test the validity of your settings. If you use this option, AutoFiler always uses the current settings for that Mail.app account. Otherwise you can select Custom, for your mail account in which case you have to manually enter your From: address, and as well you can select Custom for the SMTP server, in which case you have to enter the hostname, and optionally the username and password for the server.
Passwords for SMTP servers are stored in your Keychain for security. When you access the passwords OS-X will bring up a dialogue asking to use your keychain information. It's important that you select Always Allow since AutoFiler will need to access the keychain when it is sending an email in the background, and otherwise it could bring AutoFiler to a halt asking you to reauthorise access. The mail rule will attempt to immediately send the mail through the server. If it fails, the rule will return failure. You could for example, set up your rules to show a Growl message at this point. If you have ticked "Cache when offline", then mail that fails to send on the initial attempt is stored internally for up to 2 weeks, and retried at incremental intervals, similarly to how an SMTP server does it. In this case, if the network is down, the email will go though eventually when you reconnect, provided AutoFiler is running. As with all AutoFiler activity, it is worthwhile checking your console log if you are encountering problems. The special tokens ${FILE} and ${PATH} will be replaced in the subject and body of the message with the filename or full path of the matching file. |
| run Automator workflow | the file will be sent as input to the specified Automator workflow. |
| run Applescript | Run the specified Applescript. The filename will be in the variable 'theFile'. |
| run shell command | The specified shell or binary program is executed with the file passed as the first argument and the environment variable FILE. If the embedded option is chosen, the filename is passed only in the environment variable, to the given command line. |
| on subfolder contents | Run the specified rule set on the matched folder. Note that under normal circumstances this action (like all actions) will not be repeated if the rule conditions have not changed. If you expect the contents of subfolders to change after they are initially created and you want AutoFiler to descend into the subfolders on subsequent scans you need to check the option Always recheck rules. Subfolders are one of the primary uses for this option. Note that scanning large directory trees is processor intensive and you should use this option only when required. However AutoFiler is smart enough to only scan folders that have changed in normal circumstances.
If this action is used in a rule with Run On Parent Folder set (i.e. when there are no conditions), it will descend into all subfolders, which is the equivilent of setting a condition of Any File. On the other hand, if it is used with a rule condition, that condition will be used to decide whether to descend into that folder. The descending into subfolders needs to be able to find its way all the way down to the folder where the change took place. For example, if you have a rule to descend into subfolders named "abc", then it wouldn't be able to get to a folder called def/abc unless there is also a rule or condition that would enable descending into the folder def first. See also subfolder depth. |
| run other rules | Run the rules belonging to another rule set on this file. This allows you to modularise collections of rules and call them like a subroutine from another rule set. Note that this action (like all actions) will only be executed the first time the conditions are matched. A common design pattern is to match on 'Any File" and check the option Always recheck rules. This allows the subrules to be at least checked on every scan. If you didn't check the Always recheck rules, the subrules could only ever be run once because 'Any File' always matches, and a rule is never rerun if it matched on the previous scan. |
| return success | AutoFiler allows you to create complex AND and OR conditions. This is a condition that does nothing except return a success status. You can use this to achieve complex boolean logic. |
| return failure | AutoFiler allows you to create complex AND and OR conditions. This is a condition that does nothing except return a failure status. You can use this to achieve complex boolean logic. For example, after a failed copy file, you could execute a growl message and then return failure (because growl would normally return success). This failure could then be picked up by an outer level action to copy the file somewhere else. |
| purge oldest | This rule must be applied to a folder. (It is normally used in conjunction with the Apply Rule to Folder checkbox). What it does is keep the size of the folder and its subcontents below a certain size by deleting the least recently added files. It is generally used with the Trash folder. Note that you should not purge to Trash if the folder is itself the Trash. |
| app clean-up | This action must be applied to a folder. (It is normally used in conjunction with the Apply Rule to Folder checkbox). What it does is watch the folder for deleted applications. If an application disappears it prompts the user to move their application configuration files related to this application to the trash. Note that unlike other applications that perform this function, it also works for multiple users if they are all AutoFiler users. This rule will also prompt the user to restore the configuration files from the Trash if the application reappears. |