index script - how to adapt to index to DATABASE

DEVONthink Automation
1

Suppose we want to modify the Index.scpt script;

  • to not open the group / DB selector window
  • but directly index to a DB named “scans”

How would we modify:

-- DEVONthink - Index.applescript
-- Created by Christian Grunenberg on Tue Feb 17 2004
-- Copyright (c) 2002-2014. All rights reserved.

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
	try
		if (count of added_items) is greater than 0 then
			tell application id "DNtp" to launch
			repeat with theItem in added_items
				try
					set thePath to theItem as text
					if thePath does not end with ".download:" and thePath does not end with ".crdownload:" then
						tell application id "DNtp" to indicate thePath to incoming group
					end if
				end try
			end repeat
		end if
	end try
end adding folder items to

Thanks for helping out!

2

Replace the line after "if thePath does not end with “.download:” and thePath does not end with “.crdownload:” then
" with…


if (name of databases) contains "scans" then
tell application id "DNtp" to indicate thePath to incoming group of database "scans"
else
display alert "The scans database isn't open."
end if

This doesn’t open the database, though that’s certainly possible. It either works since the database is open or it warns you the database isn’t open.

3

Thanks!
There seems to be a minor error but I can’t seem to pinpoint it:

-- DEVONthink - Index.applescript
-- Created by Christian Grunenberg on Tue Feb 17 2004
-- Copyright (c) 2002-2014. All rights reserved.

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
	try
		if (count of added_items) is greater than 0 then
			tell application id "DNtp" to launch
			repeat with theItem in added_items
				try
					set thePath to theItem as text
					if thePath does not end with ".download:" and thePath does not end with ".crdownload:" then
						if (name of databases) contains "scans" then
							tell application id "DNtp" to indicate thePath to incoming group of database "scans"
							else
							display alert "The scans database isn't open."
						end if
				end try
			end repeat
		end if
	end try
end adding folder items to

Picture-2.png
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4

You’re missing a second end if. You need to remember to close these things, if / tell / repeat blocks, even when they’re nested.

5

The code should be

try
	set thePath to theItem as text
	if thePath does not end with ".download:" and thePath does not end with ".crdownload:" then
		if (name of databases) contains "scans" then
			tell application id "DNtp" to indicate thePath to incoming group of database "scans"
	        else
		        display alert "The scans database isn't open."
		end if
	end if
end try

You were missing the final “end if”

Be aware that if “scans” is not open, or if DEVONthink is not open, then the folder will accumulate the files and they will not appear in any database.

Rather than using a folder action to cause DEVONthink to index files to a specific database, just index that folder in that database. You’ll get better results. This is not a good use of folder actions, in my opinion.

6

Thanks for your help!

How do I go about to achieve that?
Goal is to index each file to the database as it gets added to the folder.
That’s why I set out to do this as a folder action.

7

So, you understand that “indexing a file to a database” means the actual file remains in the external file, and the database “knows about” the file and can search it, but the database does not contain the file? That is – indexing is the opposite of importing.

If it is indexing that you really want to do, then open the database (i.e., your “scans” database), and choose File > Index. You will be prompted to choose the external folder you want to index. Then you’re done. As you add files to the external folder, then select the group in the database where the index was placed, the database will be updated with indexed instances of the files from the folder. Again – this is indexing, not importing.

8

This works - thanks for sticking with me!

Is there any way to have DT auto-update, that is not having to “touch” the destination group?

9

I’m glad that works for you, Erwin. There’s no auto-update for indexed groups built into DEVONthink at this time. There’s the global File > Update Indexed Items command which operates on all indexed groups in a database. Apart from that, indexing auto-update would have to be handled via a script or cron job or something.

In the dark ages, before iCal calendars were moved to iCloud, we could attach AppleScripts to calendar events and I had a recurring event with a script that would do this update. It was a kludge and never worked well.