Applescript Variable issue

Question

I am having issues with this script when run it errors out

tell application "Finder"
    set music_file to some file of the folder "Macintosh HD:ringtones"
end tell
set volume output volume 30
do shell script "afplay '/Volumes/Macintosh HD/ringtones/'" & music_file

this is the error: do shell script "afplay '/Volumes/Macintosh HD/ringtones/'Macintosh HD:ringtones:Zen_ag_NARITA_HI_long_1.mp3" --> error "may only specify one file to play so I attempted to use a posix command such as:

set conver to POSIX file of music_file

and that errors out

What I cannot figure out is why the music_file is getting the whole HFS path in it when I tell it to just get the file and how to correct for it.

Answer 1

AppleScript is weird. music_file is of type document file as defined by the Finder app, instead of being some other kind of file object. If you convert it to an alias with music_file as alias , then you can get the POSIX path of it which is what's needed on the command line. Finally you need to wrap another set of ' characters around the filename in case it includes spaces. Note that this will break if the filename itself contains ' characters, as in Crazy 'Cause I Believe.mp3 .

tell application "Finder"
    set music_file to some file of the folder "ref:Users:andrew:Music:iTunes:iTunes Media:Ringtones"
end tell
set volume output volume 30
do shell script "afplay '" & (POSIX path of (music_file as alias)) & "'"

Answer 2

Try:

set myFolder to "/Users/me/Desktop/test"
tell application "System Events" to set music_file to POSIX path of (some file of folder myFolder)
set volume output volume 30
do shell script "afplay " & quoted form of music_file