Compress universal action

[akrabat]

I'd like to submit my Compress universal action to the Alfred Gallery if it's useful enough to warrant it.

 

I am the author and the link to it's Alfred Forum thread is: https://www.alfredforum.com/topic/20355-compress-universal-action/

 

It's published on GitHub at https://github.com/akrabat/alfred-compress/ and has no dependencies.

 

Given a selected file or folder in Finder and triggering Alfred's universal actions, it provides "Compress" and "Zip" options that create a zip file of the selection that is placed in the same directory as the selection.

 

 

[vitor]

This is useful, but I can see possible improvements:

• No need to have two Universal Actions. If you have just one named (e.g.) “Compress to Zip”, both zip and compress will work to filter for it.
• Despite using $@ in the code (which suggests multiple inputs), the workflow only works for single inputs.
• The unpacked zip creates a full folder structure of the original file. I.e. if we use the workflow to compress a file on the Desktop, when uncompressing the zip it will create a folder called Users, with a child with the user’s name (which can reveal who created it), which a child named Desktop, with finally a child which is the file. That will be unexpected for most people.
• Zips can take time to create, so a notification and/or a sound when it’s done would provide an important clue.
  

[akrabat]

Updated to version 0.5.

 

Changes:

• Use one universal action called "Compress to Zip"

• Notify on completion.
• Handle multiple selection and create files.zip in this case.
• Do not include full paths to the selected files/folders in the zip file.
• Do not overwrite zip file if it already exists.
   

[vitor]

• No need to do stuff like query="$@" if you’re not using query. That variable is an example.
• No need to specify multiple exit codes in trap, you can just use EXIT.
• When using the shell, you have to make sure to quote variables and commands. In doubt, quote. The workflow currently does not work properly if a file path has a space in it. The problem is this line:

 

dir="$(realpath $(dirname $1))"

 

Which needs to be:

 

dir="$(realpath "$(dirname $1)")"

 

Note that because realpath is used, the workflow requires Ventura. it took Apple a long time to include the tool. That is not a problem and will be noted in the Gallery page, merely informational.

[akrabat]

Bit of a 🤦‍♂️ moment when I saw the quote issue and TIL about the EXIT pseudo-signal. Thanks!

 

Both fixed, along with removing the unnecessary query variable.

 

I suspect that realpath isn't really needed, but really everyone should be upgrading to Ventura anyway, so I've left it in.

 

[vitor]

Thank you for the fast fixes. The workflow will be live later today at https://alfred.app/workflows/akrabat/compress/.

 

Another tip for the future: you don’t need to specify a path to mktemp. You can just use the command and it’ll create a temporary file, and in a place (determined by the OS) with a lower chance of collisions.

 

Edited May 10 by vitor