Noodlesoft Forums

I had a few issues with my iMac some weeks back and had to 'Archive and Install' to start again. Prior to arriving at that action, I had uninstalled Hazel and other such items. So starting afresh, I've set up Hazel with just one rule to action against the NewDownloads folder:

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Description: Files opened in last 2 days

If all the following conditions are met:
Date last opened is in the last 2 days

Do the following:
Set colour label to "Green"
Run rules on folder contents
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Well the rule seems to run ok enough as I watched this by having a Console window open as well as the NewDownloads folder. The problem is that for some reason, the colour of a file that has been correctly processed by Hazel (as it appeard in the Console log) does NOT change to Green. I find I have to click on the file (i.e., bless it like in the old days of System 7 to 9) to have Finder realise and instantly update the colour to Green. Closing and opening the folder window has no effect. And it is not any one specific file that is effected.

Any ideas on what the problem could be?

Also, will the last line of the rule apply this rule to all sub-folders in the NewDownloads folder?

The "Run rules on folder contents" action only works on folders. To have Hazel descend into subfolders, you need to create a separate rule that matches those folders ("Kind is folder" plus whatever other conditions). I say first try that (i.e. separate out the "Run rules on folder contents" to a separate rule) and see if that also fixes the other problem.

My guess is that it fails when trying to do "Run rules on folder contents" on whatever file you have matching that rule (since it's a file and not a folder).

"I find I have to click on the file (i.e., bless it like in the old days of System 7 to 9) to have Finder realise and instantly update the colour to Green. Closing and opening the folder window has no effect. And it is not any one specific file that is effected."

This part of the problem has been resolved by your new Hazel 1.1.3 release.

However, I still can't get any of the rules to run against the contents of sub-folders.

I didn't do a specific fix for that problem so it might have been fixed as a side effect of one of the other fixes. Let me know if it surfaces again.

As for the subfolder rule, could you post what your rule looks like?

The rule is set up as follows:

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Description: Folder opened in last 2 days

If all the following conditions are met:
Kind is Folder
Date last opened is in the last 2 days
Colour Label is not "Red"
Colour Label is not "Orange"
Colour Label is not "Yellow"

Do the following:
Set colour label to "Green"
Run rules on folder contents
------------------------------------------------

As before, I ran it with the folder windows open in the background and the Console window open as well to see what Hazel did. I ensured that there was a sub-folder in the folder related to this rule which had not only been opened but had at least one file within its contents that had also been opened.

In every attempt Hazel just would not execute this rule. Interestingly, in getting information on the sub-folder that had been opened, the date contained against More Info/Last Opened was over a year ago. Could this a problem in Finder?

I see what you are trying to do. You want the folder's last opened time to reflect that any files in it. Unfortunately, the filesystem doesn't quite work like that.

You could just allow Hazel to descend into the folder all the time. Not sure if the "last 2 days" thing is just to prevent it from descending unnecessarily but try it without and see how it works for you.