Importing unique files only

[Filip Vandueren]

Hi Rodrigo,

the code you posted is a bit incomplete, for example ImportUniqueFiles() never gets called so it wouldn’t import anything.

Nesting functions in functions and in loops isn’t my style BTW, but I kept it here.

Anyway; you’re creating file() objects in two different arrays.
While these file objects may share the same path, point to the same file on the filesystem, they are not equal to each other on an object-level, that’s why indexOf() doesn’t find the files of the folder in the array of footage-items.

It would be better to compare their .fsName, . fullName or . absoluteURI, those are string-representations of their Path and indexOf() would function more predictably when it’s comparing values of strings


myUniqueFolders = ["~/Desktop/"];
myProj = app.project;

for (var i = 0; i < myUniqueFolders.length; i++){

// function ImportUniqueFiles(){
var folder = new Folder;
folder = Folder(myUniqueFolders[i]);

var files = folder.getFiles();
// convert the list of File-Objects to a list of Strings of their Paths
files = files.map( function (f) { return f.absoluteURI });

myImportedFiles = [];

for (var k = 1; k <= myProj.numItems; k++) {
var thisFile = app.project.item(k).file;
// many compItems don't have a file as source
if (thisFile !== null && thisFile !== undefined) {
myImportedFiles.push(thisFile.absoluteURI);
}
}
alert(myImportedFiles.length);

importFiles(files);

function importFiles(files) {
for(var j = 0; j < files.length; j++) {
$.writeln(myImportedFiles.indexOf(files[j]));
if(myImportedFiles.indexOf(files[j]) == -1){
alert(files[j]);
app.project.importFile(new ImportOptions(files[j]));
}else{
alert("not unique");
}
}
}
//}

}


[Rodrigo Aben]

Great solution, Filip! Thank you very much. I had no idea they would not be considered equal. Could you elaborate more on that?

BTW I would also like to avoid nesting functions and loops, but since folder.getFiles() only works one folder at a time, running this function seemed to me the simplest way of looping through all folders.

My full code below in case you see any room for improvement (and you probably will).

Thank you very much once again.

var myProj = app.project;

//creates an array of all file's folders

var myAssetspath = [];

for (var i = 1; i &lt;= myProj.numItems; i++) {
var filesPath = app.project.item(i).file.fsName.replace(app.project.item(i).name, "");
myAssetspath.push(filesPath);
}

//this sorts the array

var mySortedFolders = myAssetspath.sort();

//removes duplicate folders

var myUniqueFolders = [];

for (var i = 0; i &lt;= mySortedFolders.length; i++){
if(mySortedFolders[i] != mySortedFolders[i+1]){
myUniqueFolders.push(mySortedFolders[i]);
}
}

// gets files from all unique folders and tests if they're already imported. If not, imports them

for (var i = 0; i &lt; myUniqueFolders.length; i++){

// function ImportUniqueFiles(){
var folder = new Folder;
folder = Folder(myUniqueFolders[i]);

var files = folder.getFiles();
// convert the list of File-Objects to a list of Strings of their Paths
files = files.map( function (f) { return f.absoluteURI });

myImportedFiles = [];

for (var k = 1; k &lt;= myProj.numItems; k++) {
var thisFile = app.project.item(k).file;
// many compItems don't have a file as source
if (thisFile !== null && thisFile !== undefined) {
myImportedFiles.push(thisFile.absoluteURI);
}
}
alert(myImportedFiles.length);

importFiles(files);

function importFiles(files) {
for(var j = 0; j < files.length; j++) {
$.writeln(myImportedFiles.indexOf(files[j]));
if(myImportedFiles.indexOf(files[j]) == -1){
alert(files[j]);
app.project.importFile(new ImportOptions(files[j]));
}else{
alert("not unique");
}
}
}
}

[Rodrigo Aben]

Sorry for bothering you too much, but I know I’ll face a whole new problem in case the “unique” file detected is part of a image sequence. Any insights on how to go about that?

[Filip Vandueren]

Yeah, that’s a problem for sure.
There are two methods of the file-object in After-Effects but they are undocumented and for me they don’t seem to work:

app.project.item(1).file.isFrameSequence()
-> always returns false for me.

and

app.project.item(1).fileframe.InSequence()
-> always returns the path of the first frame for me.

Bummer…

I’m on a mac, perhaps it works on PC ?
And like I said, I can’t find any documentation on these methods, maybe they expect a parameter ?

[Filip Vandueren]

About the two file Objects not considered equal:

Two objects are never equal, even if they share all of the same methods and properties and values, they occupy two different parts of memory and can be changed independently.

a= {name: “Rodrigo”};
b= {name: “Rodrigo”};

a == b; // -> False !
a.name == b.name // -> True ☺

c = {name: “Filip”};
d = c;

c == d; // -> True! They both point to the same object at the same memory-location