Rule Sets and Folders
Overview
AutoFiler sits in the background monitoring your folders for files which match your predefined rules. When it notices a file that matches one of your rules, it executes your predefined actions on that file. That action could be as simple as giving you a Growl notification, or as complex as running some custom Applescript or Shell script. You can cause the file to be imported into iTunes or iPhoto, copy it somewhere, archive it, or any combination of rules you can think up.
Because AutoFiler uses OS-X built-in notification services, it doesn't use up CPU cycles in normal operation, until something changes.
Opening the AutoFiler Window
You can store your AutoFiler configurations in one or more config files. The default installation creates one for you. You can open it from Preferences. Open Preferences, and double click the AutoFiler file in the Configs section.
Rule Sets
A Rule Set consists of a collection of rules, and the folders which those rules should be applied to. As you click on different rows in the list of Rule Sets, it shows the rules and folders that belong to that Rule Set.
You create a new Rule Set by clicking the + button below the list of Rule Sets. Give the Rule Set a name - you can give it a name that describes the rules you will have in that collection, or if you intend to apply the rules to only one folder, you may want to name it after the folder you will apply it to.
Folders
You need to tell AutoFiler which folders to run the rules in the Rule Set on. Click on the appropriate Rule Set, then click on the + button below the list of folders to add a new folder to the list.
Rules
The Rules list shows the list of rules that belong to the Rule Set. All the rules in the Rule Set will be applied to all the folders attached to the Rule Set.
Smart Folders
There is a special "smart folder" that can be added to the list of folders using the action popup menu below the list of folders:
- All My Trash Folders: Mac OS-X actually has a separate Trash folder for every user on every hard drive. This allows OS-X to move files to the trash without copying them across devices. If you want trash rules to apply to the current user's trash folders on all disks, select this option.
- Standard Application Folders: This is all the folders OS-X considers to be standard application locations. Generally this could include /Applications, [user-home]/Applications and /Network/Applications, as well as some subfolders of these folders.
- All Application Folders: Mac OS-X keeps track of all the folders on the system where applications reside. This is equivilent to all application folders.