Scriptable and/or droplet actions? | MacItBetter

Scriptable and/or droplet actions?

StuffIt has drained my last ounce of patience, but its ability to make special-purpose pre-configured compressor droplets, in the Deluxe version, is still very handy. (eg. zip-with-encryption ... sitx-without). BetterZip would be the PERFECT compressor if it offered similar functionality.

One option is to make BZ Apple-Scriptable, allowing users much greater flexibility, but I suspect this is no simple path for the noble programmer!

cv

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robert wrote:

You are completely right. And thus, I am already working on AppleScriptability.

Tue, 2006-10-31 09:27

cv186 wrote:

In which case you leave me no option but to pay up.

Farewell Stuffit. We had some good times (but not since around 1998).

Tue, 2006-10-31 14:36

robert wrote:

Haha, thanks!

Wed, 2006-11-01 00:25

Daryl (not verified) wrote:

Excellent! Any timeframe on the release with AppleScript support?

Another huge plus would be command-line support, especially for password-protected zips (and perhaps other archive types that might support password protection).

And I'd *LOVE* to also see Automator actions for compress and decompress eventually...

Tue, 2007-01-23 19:50

robert wrote:

No, timeframe yet. I am working on AppleScript support which includes Automator actions. It will be included in one of the next versions. Just not in 1.4.

As for command-line support: BetterZip includes the great 7-zip command-line program. So, you could run some operations with this command, if you put BetterZip in the Applications folder:
/Applications/BetterZip.app/Contents/Resources/p7zip/7z

This will however not put resource forks and data forks back together, if there are any.

Wed, 2007-01-24 13:19

anonymous (not verified) wrote:

Any update on automator actions? Would be a real time saver to have..

Thu, 2007-03-29 19:47

robert wrote:

I admit, this thread started a few months ago and I am still not done with Automator support. I have put it on hold for a short time to work on SIT support instead, because many more users asked for that. However, I will resume my work on AppleScript/Automator support soon and have it done in a few weeks now. Sorry for the delay!

Thu, 2007-03-29 22:20

Tim T. (not verified) wrote:

Any newer update? This is the only reason I consider using other tools. Would just like to be able to compress a few folders on my drive into a single archive by clicking a workflow or script. Having the extra control of BetterZip's features would be great.

Fri, 2007-05-18 03:45

robert wrote:

Sorry, no updates yet. I had to delay everything a few weeks, but I will resume work on BetterZip next week. Thanks for your patience!

Fri, 2007-05-18 10:46

J. Beyer (not verified) wrote:

Robert,
I'm also interested in automation support (AppleScript, Automator, ...) and would highly appreciate it. In fact, solid automation support is one of the key feaures I need.
Therefore I'm glad to hear that you're already working on it. Please feel encouraged, and yes, I for one can wait ;-)
Cheers, Jörg

Sat, 2007-05-19 13:46

robert wrote:

Thanks, Jörg!

Sat, 2007-05-19 16:44

TimT (not verified) wrote:

Just pinging again - Automator support would be especially great. Creating archives in an automated way is a fantastic feature, then the more robust features come into play when you need to work with those archives later (like pulling specific files out of an automated backup for instance.)

Creating archives is not an overly common thing for people to do (most need to unpack far more often.) Those that do create new archives frequently often do so in a repetitive manner (backups, send up to a server as part of a product release, etc.)

Thanks for listening.

Wed, 2007-08-15 21:27

robert wrote:

Tim, I am still at it, but I have no release date for a scriptable version. It's really my top priority.

Thu, 2007-08-16 13:09

orgel (not verified) wrote:

Put me down as someone else who wants to see AppleScript support. I'm sure you're aiming higher, but I'd be happy just to have a script that would have BetterZip zip selected files/folders. I'm thinking this would be ideal for use with Path Finder, so I could bypass the s-l-o-w StuffIt engine.

Sun, 2007-10-14 21:59

robert wrote:

Orgel, you've been heard. I just ask you to, please, have a little more patience with me. I am already at it.

Sun, 2007-10-14 22:19

Paranoid Android (not verified) wrote:

Again - would LOVE this :) Just a bump. I agree with Orgel, the best thing (if not scriptable) is to be able to reliably archive up a set of folders, not all within the same root folder, into a regular archive. I personally run a script to make a DMG of a couple encrypted spaseimage files and combines them with my home folder to create an archive of my documents (the sparseimage files are not in my home so I can share them more easily just using a password.) I then name it "myhome_year-month-day-hour-minute"

Doing this via BetterZip would be awesome because of the better zipping options, portability, and saving of the the Mac structure while using standard formats.

Tue, 2007-12-18 23:37

Ed Martin (not verified) wrote:

Hi,

Yes, I'd love this too. The ability to easily script the creation of new archives using a specified folder(s) would be fantastic.

Can you give us any further idea of progress on this, please?

Thanks for a great app,

Ed

Sat, 2008-08-09 18:27

robert wrote:

Sorry, no further news at the moment. I am working on it and it is definitely going to be in the next version.

Mon, 2008-08-11 19:07

Gus (not verified) wrote:

I would love an Automator Action to zip files... Please make this available in the next version. So far I'm a very happy paying customer, and I wouldn't mind paying a little extra for this.

Sun, 2008-10-12 15:39

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