Re: Print Finder Items action completes but doesn't do everything
Re: Print Finder Items action completes but doesn't do everything
- Subject: Re: Print Finder Items action completes but doesn't do everything
- From: Ben Waldie <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:16:33 -0500
Rush,
I'm not sure why the files aren't processing through your workflow,
but here are some debugging tips...
I'm not clear on how you're triggering the workflow, but start by
opening the workflow in Automator. Next, insert a "View Results"
action (found in the "Automator" category of actions in Tiger) between
each action in your workflow. Then, run the workflow. As the workflow
runs, you should be able to see the results of each action. This will
allow you to monitor what's happening, and possibly see where the
problem is occurring.
NOTE: In Leopard, you don't need to insert the "View Results" action
into your workflow. Instead, each action has a built-in "Results"
area, which you can view within the workflow area.
Also, from the "View" menu, choose "Show Log". This should open a log
drawer beneath your workflow, allowing you to monitor what steps
occurred when the workflow ran. It may also indicate problems that
were encountered along the way.
Hope this helps.
-Ben
On Jan 24, 2008, at 6:48 PM, Rush Manbert wrote:
I am running on 10.4.11.
I am trying to put together a workflow that will print a bunch of
(user selected) OmniGraffle files as PDF, then move the PDF files
into the same folder as the graffle source files.
To do this I set up a CUPS-PDF printer using the package available
from:
http://www.codepoetry.net/projects/cups-pdf-for-mosx
The printer seems to work perfectly if I just print to it from
within OmniGraffle. It puts all of its output into a cups-pdf folder
on the desktop, which it creates as necessary.
My workflow does the following:
1) Find the cups-pdf folder on the desktop (There may not be one)
2) Archive the folder
3) Delete the folder
4) Let the user select the files to be converted to PDF
5) Print all the selected files to the CUPS-PDF printer by using the
Print Finder Items action
6) Run a shell script that waits for all of the output files to be
generated. It gets the original list of files that need to be
converted as its argument list. It counts the number of arguments,
then polls the ~/Desktop/cups-pdf directory until it contains the
same number of *.pdf files. Once enough PDF files have been created,
it copies all of them back to the directory that contains the
graffle source files.
7) Delete the (now empty) cups-pdf folder from the desktop.
This workflow works correctly some of the time. Generally it works
when I don't try to convert too many files. Other times only some of
the selected files get printed as PDF. When I run the workflow in
Automator, it marks the Print Finder Items action as having
completed, even when only a few of the required output files have
been generated. When this occurs, my shell script action hangs
forever, and I can examine the contents of the cups-pdf folder and
see that only some of the files are there. I find this behavior to
be very strange, and I couldn't find mention of anything similar in
the archives.
Does anyone have any idea why this might be happening? This is also
the first workflow I have ever written, so debugging tips would also
be welcome.
Ben Waldie
President
Automated Workflows, LLC
610.935.0652
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