How to sync finder folders into their respective albums in iPhoto?

Question

Currently, I have set up in Firefox an add-on which when right clicked on an image toggles and saves this image to a specified folder. I use these folders as a reference library, now on 20 odd folders and increasing. Every day these folders get updated as I find more images.

I would like to have all of these folders I save to be ready on the iPad. This will help me immensely in my research work. Since iPad photos are synced from iPhoto, I want these 20 folders to be synced into their respective 'albums' and be synced/updated to iPhoto on the fly whenever I add a new image into the finder folders from Firefox.

How do I write an Applescript or set this up in Automator for each of the finder folders? I have no idea about script or how to use Automator.

Answer 1

You'll be glad to know that this is pretty straightforward. (I'm using Mac OS 10.6.4 Snow Leopard with iPhoto '09 8.1.2.)

First, start Automator. A sheet will appear asking you to choose a template for your new Automator workflow; select "Folder Action" and click "Choose".

Next, you'll see the main Automator window.

In this window, choose the desired image folder from the drop-down labeled "Folder Action receives files and folders added to", near the top. In the leftmost list, select "Photos", and then double-click "Import Files into iPhoto" in the secondary list. In the newly-added action, select an iPhoto album from the second drop-down. (I've selected an album called "Skydiving" in my screenshot.)

Save the workflow with a name of your choosing, and you're done. Now whenever you add JPEG or TIFF images to your folder, iPhoto will open and import those images.

Unfortunately, I believe you'll have to create and save a separate Automator workflow for each folder you use, so that you can select the appropriate iPhoto album for each.