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What I want is a way to have Hazel automatically add YAML header to files I add to a folder. What this would mean is that when a file is put into the folder that Hazel is monitoring, it would find the name and date created of that file. Then it would put at the beginning of that file:

Title: (file name)
Date: (date created, preferably in YYYY-MM-DD format).

I find that this is not offered stock with Hazel. So what I might need to do is to have Hazel run a shell or applescript. But my scripting skill is nonexistent and I have no idea how to do that. Could somebody offer me assistance?

Please do not post questions to the Tips forum. The sticky article at the top of that forum indicates you should not do this.

As for scripting, google around or perhaps someone else can chime in with suggestions.

Ah I see, sorry for the inconvenience.

Quick'n'dirty:

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#!/bin/bash
base=$(basename -s .txt "$1")
tmpfile=$(mktemp -t hazel)
echo "Title: \"$base\"" > "$tmpfile"
echo "Date: $(date +%F)" >> "$tmpfile"
cat "$1" >> "$tmpfile"
mv "$tmpfile" "$1"

Get Basename (no path) without extension (change .txt to whatever your's are) for the title. Make a temporary file, write header to it and append the content of the original file to it. Move temp-file over original.

Remove the 2 \"s if you don't want quotes around the title

mws wrote:Quick'n'dirty:
…

And here's a "here document"ifed version of it.

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#!/bin/bash

base=$(basename -s .txt "$1")
tmpfile=$(mktemp -t hazel)

cat - "$1" > "$tmpfile" <<EOF
Title: "$base"
Date: $(date +%F)
EOF
mv -f "$tmpfile" "$1"


And an `in-memory`Version

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#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use DateTime; use File::Basename;
open F, "<$ARGV[0]"; @c = <F>; close F;
unshift @c, "---\nTitle: \"" . basename($ARGV[0], ".txt") ."\"\nDate: " . DateTime->now->strftime('%Y-%m-%d') . "\n---\n";
open F, ">$ARGV[0]"; print F @c; close F;

I always wanted to learn some python so I took this example as a starter.

Here is a python version without a temp-file and with the advantage that the extension doesn't matter

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#!/usr/bin/python
import sys, os.path, datetime
with open(sys.argv[1], "r") as d:
    f = d.readlines()
with open (sys.argv[1], "w") as d:
    d.write('---\nTitle: "' + os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(sys.argv[1]))[0] + '"\n')
    d.write('Date: ' +  datetime.datetime.now().strftime("%Y-%m-%d") + '\n---\n')
    d.writelines(f)

pythonicmac, take your pick!

'Cos there's more than one way to do things

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#!/bin/bash
printf '%s---\nTitle: "%s"\nDate: %s\n---\n' "" "$(basename -s .txt "$1")" "$(date +%F)" | { echo '0a'; cat ; echo -e ".\nw";} | ed "$1" > /dev/null

Where's a Ruby version?

Wow thank you for all the replies even when this post wasn't up to forum rules. I love this community

mws wrote: pythonicmac, take your pick!

As my username suggest, I of course have to take the python version