Design rules so destination folders can be moved

I'm developing a workflow for going paperless, and using Hazel to move scanned/ocr'd documents into destination folders based on contents.

So I have this complicated hierarchy of folders in: ~/Documents/docs/...
That looks like, for instance:
./private/tax/2011/
./private/tax/2012/
./house/property tax/2011/
./insurance/car/
./insurance/house/
...

My concern is setting up the elaborate dance of rules that go with these folders and I will be eventually moving the whole thing to an online service like sugarsync and using BoxCryptor (which moves the files to its own OSXFUSE volume) to encrypt the files. So I want to be able, in the future, to move the destination folders around and not break the Hazel rules. Or at least change something in Hazel that re-routes the destinations to the right place.

I will also want this ability because I know that my hierarchy is not perfect and will evolve over time. Every time I improve the folder structure, I'd rather not track through all the rules to change destinations.

Perhaps using a symbolic link for the root of the destinations might work? Then simply changing the link when the location changes.

Another possibility (maybe this is a feature request?) is to have a reference list of folders, like the watched folders, that one uses as destinations in the rules. Sort of built in aliases. By using the reference to the folder in the rules, only the reference needs to be changed to update the rules.

Is there a possibility of doing this currently? With scripts or other hazel-fu?

Thanks,

Mike

I too have had a deep-nested organizational hierarchy change over time. My solution was two fold - first use 'sort into subfolder' wherever possible based on custom tokens I extract from the files, and second to have a single 'sorting' folder.

I'll explain the second as basically a dropbox (for me the desktop) where all my sorting rules are organized. That way, when I change my organization in the future, I turn off the desktop rule, drop all my files on the desktop, and turn on the desktop rule.

This way, if you change your mind in the future, it takes only 1 minute or 2 to reorganize thousands of files. One of the greatest ways that Hazel makes life extremely easy.

Brass Tacks - don't be scared of changing organization with Hazel. It's actually quite easy.

Thanks, but not sure if I understand.

As far as using a single sorting folder, I understand and that is what I'm doing. Call that folder "root". In your case it is a folder you place on the desktop.

But lets say you have:
investments > fund01 > statements
investments > fund02 > statements
...
investments > fund99 > statements

And have rules that operate on my root dropfolder to look at the account number after being scanned/OCRd in the statements and place it in the correct fundXX > statements folder.

But then I want the new organization to be:
investments > morning star > fund01 > statements
...
investments > morning star > fund99 > statements

Don't I have to go into those 100 rules and change each folder destination?

Mike

wait, do you actually have 100 rules for these 100 uses cases?

wait, do you actually have 100 rules for these 100 uses cases?

Well, no, but I was exaggerating to demonstrate a point.

I agree, most changes would be straightforward, but there may be cases where whole groups of files are in the wrong spot, or whatever. Large file/folder changes is certainly a possibility.

Mike

My point is that using Custom Tokens and Sort Into Subfolders, you could sort all of those documents in a single rule. A single rule is not difficult to change.