Folder trigger for nested folders?

Questions & Suggestions
1

What's the best workaround for triggering a macro when a file gets added to any subfolders in a main folder?

I'm using the Just Press Record iOS app, which adds audio files to folders based on the current date.

I'd like to trigger a macro whenever a new audio file gets added to any of the subfolders in the Just Press Record parent folder in iCloud. Thanks!

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Hazel :wink:

Hazel can trigger on changes to a target's nested folders, and it's just a checkbox in the trigger definition. I don't know how it does it, but I suspect it's actually a periodic scan of the target's entire contents then a diff against the previous contents list.

The constraint of "adds audio files to folders based on the current date" makes things easier, since your macro would only have to do something if a) a subfolder for today exists, and b) the subfolder's contents are different to the last scan. And since files will only be added you don't need to worry about already existing files being modified. You will have to wait for the adding to finish, though.

Here's another option. Since you have the constraint of "subfolder will have today's date" you could change the trigger using a daily macro. You can do that with AppleScript but it does mean that the KM Editor will be launched. Since munging dates in AS can be a PITA I've used the KM %ICUDateTime% Token to get the right format.

This does assume that the Folder Trigger is the macro's first trigger. And you need to set the macro ID in line 2, plus the path to the "parent" folder, including the trailing /, in line 16 (I've used Downloads):

-- Replace this string with your macro's ID, easily copied from the macro's "Script" trigger
set macroID to "F9A89CF4-D9C2-4DCD-9F48-B81D6BE5FB78"

tell application "Keyboard Maestro Engine"
	set theDate to process tokens "%ICUDateTime%yyyy-MM-dd%"
end tell

set theXML to "<dict>
	<key>Interest</key>
	<dict>
		<key>Observe</key>
		<string>Add</string>
		<key>ObserveWhen</key>
		<string>IgnorePartial</string>
		<key>Path</key>
		<string>~/Downloads/" & theDate & "</string>
	</dict>
	<key>MacroTriggerType</key>
	<string>Folder</string>
</dict>"

tell application "Keyboard Maestro"
	set xml of item 1 of triggers of macro id macroID to theXML
end tell

If you don't want to have the KM Editor launch, how about a LaunchAgent? You'd use the same trick of updating the Agent's plist's "watched folder" path every morning, and then the Agent would watch that day's folder and trigger the processing macro when something was added (the macro itself wouldn't have a trigger).

This launchd tutorial site should get you started -- and if I get time I'll try and remember how to do this!

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Beautiful, thanks Nige!