revCopyFile

[Karl Petersen]

David,

After the revCopyFile call, try looking at the result. If it is 
"execution error" then something went wrong with the AppleScript. (In 
the Mac OS, revCopyFile uses AppleScript to "tell" the Finder to copy 
the file to the destination folder. Presumably revCopyFile uses the 
Finder's "duplicate" AppleScript command.) If the result is a long 
expression showing the location of the new file, the AppleScript was 
successful.

Try adding something like this to your script. (The comments explain 
the result.)

   revCopyFile sPath,dPath -- in Mac OS, revCopyFile uses AppleScript 
to duplicate the file
   put the result into tResult

   if word -3 to -1 of tResult is ("of application" && quote & "Finder" & quote)
   then put "copied successfully" into tResult
   put sPath & return & dPath & return & tResult

   -- if the AppleScript is successful, the Finder returns a long expression
   -- beginning with the new file name, followed by all parent folder names,
   -- ending with these three words: of application "Finder"

   -- But if the AppleScript fails, revCopyFile returns "execution error"

   -- "execution error" occurs If the destination folder does not exist,
   -- or a file with that name already exists in the destination folder.
   -- The AppleScript probably returns a long error to revCopyFile, which in
   -- which in turn returns "execution error" to the calling handler.

   -- If AppleScript is disabled or not installed, revCopyFile
   -- returns "Error: AppleScript not installed"

   -- Although the Finder's "duplicate" AppleScript command accepts a parameter
   -- for replacing an existing file, apparently revCopyFile doesn't 
use that parameter.
   -- So it's the responsibility of the scriptor to delete that
   -- file before creating the duplicate. It's also the responsibility 
of the scriptor
   -- to create the destination folder, if that doesn't exist.

Presumably the Finder reports additional errors when permissions 
disallow copying a file to the destination folder.

Last resort: If revCopyFile fails when you KNOW the source file 
exists, and the destination folder exists, and there's not already a 
file with that name in the destination folder, try a script that 
calls revCopyFolder to copy a folder to another folder. For some 
reason my revCopyFile started to work after I tried revCopyFolder, 
which failed at first with a very strange "binary code error" or 
something, then it began to work. I'm not sure if I had done 
something wrong in my calls to revCopyFile and revCopyFolder or what. 
But after some more fiddling, both started to work.

Karl

On Thursday, April 18, 2002, at 07:13 , David Vaughan wrote:

>I am trying to use revCopyFile for the first time. In the course of 
>trying to work out why it does not do it for me, I put the following 
>test script in the message box:
>
>put "/Elsewhere/Users/davidv/Desktop/Telstra usage" into sPath
>put "/Elsewhere/Users/davidv/tmp/" into dPath
>put spath & return & dpath
>revCopyFile spath,dpath
>
>The message box shows the two paths as written above, but no copy 
>happens (and nor if I include a file name as part of dPath).
>
>If I switch the last two lines, thus:
>
>put "/Elsewhere/Users/davidv/Desktop/Telstra usage" into sPath
>put "/Elsewhere/Users/davidv/tmp/" into dPath
>revCopyFile spath,dpath
>put spath & return & dpath
>
>Then not only does the copy not happen but the message box remains 
>obstinately empty.
>
>What gives, please?