Stephane Letz

We need to create folders from a Max patch on both OSX (universal) and Windows.

1) are they any standard and simple (no java based..) way to do that?

2) are they any third party objects available?

3) we tried to develop our C external but get very confused by the path syntax (like "MacOSX Tiger:/Applications/toto") that mixes ":" and "/" separators). Moreover the "conformpath" help says that "old colon style format" and "the new slash style" may be used... Are they any *clear* explanations of path management in Max, and of what external code would be supposed to do?

3) we tried to develop our C external but get very confused by the path syntax (like  "MacOSX Tiger:/Applications/toto") that mixes ":" and "/" separators). Moreover the "conformpath" help says that "old colon style format" and "the new slash style" may be used... Are they any *clear* explanations of path management in Max, and of what external code would be supposed to do?

how-to-create-folders-in-a-patch

on os x, use the shell exterenal and send it the message: 

on os x, use the shell exterenal and send it the message: 
"mkdir /path/to/new/directory"


I need to create folders with accentued letters and spaces... not the unix way

http://www.jasch.ch/dl/jasch_objects_beta/createfolder_20070711.zip

OS X only - this is where the platforms are really different

below's the function, it even uses max's path utilities...

void createfolder_anything(t_createfolder *x, t_symbol *s, long ac, 

    long            len, pos = 0;

    short            path = 0;

    char            *charptr;

    char            name[2048];

    char            inname[2048];

    char            parentname[2048];

    char            foldername[2048];    

    const FSRef        parentRef;

    HFSUniStr255        folderNameU;

    Boolean            isDirectory;

    path_nameconform(s->s_name, inname, PATH_STYLE_SLASH, PATH_TYPE_BOOT);

    if(x->t_debug) post("path namecomform returns %s", inname);

    if (path_topathname(path, inname, name)) { // check if path alreay 

        charptr = strrchr(inname, '/');

            pos = (long)(charptr - inname + 1);

        charptr = (char *)memmove(foldername, (inname + pos), (len - pos));

        foldername[(len - pos)] = 0;

        inname[MIN(len, pos)] = 0;

        strcpy(parentname, inname);

            if(x->t_debug) post("parentname is %s -- foldername is %s", 

        err = FSPathMakeRef((const UInt8*)parentname, &parentRef, 

        if((err == noErr) && (isDirectory)) {

            if(x->t_debug) post("makeFS returned noErr and isDirectory");

            str = CFStringCreateWithCString(kCFAllocatorDefault, foldername, 

                            // encoding constant is important : shouldn't it come from 

            folderNameU.length = (UInt16)CFStringGetLength(str);

            CFStringGetCharacters(str, CFRangeMake(0, folderNameU.length), 

            // see if it already exists?

            err = FSMakeFSRefUnicode(&parentRef, 

                                     kTextEncodingUnicodeDefault, NULL);

            // should now verify that is, in fact, a folder.

            if (err != noErr) { // no, so try to create it.        

                err = FSCreateDirectoryUnicode(&parentRef, folderNameU.length, 

                                                 kFSCatInfoNone, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);

                result = 1;

                if(x->t_debug) post("makeFS failed: %ld and %ld ",(int)err, 

void createfolder_anything(t_createfolder *x, t_symbol *s, long ac,  
t_atom *av)
{
	long			len, pos = 0;
	short			path = 0;
	char			*charptr;
	char			name[2048];
	char			inname[2048];
	char			parentname[2048];
	char			foldername[2048];	
	const FSRef		parentRef;
	CFStringRef		str;
	HFSUniStr255		folderNameU;
	OSStatus		err;
	Boolean			isDirectory;
	long result = 0;

	path_nameconform(s->s_name, inname, PATH_STYLE_SLASH, PATH_TYPE_BOOT);
	if(x->t_debug) post("path namecomform returns %s", inname);

	len = strlen(inname);
	if(inname[len-1] == '/') {
		inname[len-1] = 0;
		len--;
	}
	if (path_topathname(path, inname, name)) { // check if path alreay  
exists
		charptr = strrchr(inname, '/');
		if(charptr != NULL){
			pos = (long)(charptr - inname + 1);
		}
		charptr = (char *)memmove(foldername, (inname + pos), (len - pos));
		foldername[(len - pos)] = 0;
		inname[MIN(len, pos)] = 0;
		strcpy(parentname, inname);
			if(x->t_debug) post("parentname is %s  --  foldername is %s",  
parentname, foldername);	

		err = FSPathMakeRef((const UInt8*)parentname, &parentRef,  
&isDirectory);
		if((err == noErr) && (isDirectory)) {

			if(x->t_debug) post("makeFS returned noErr and isDirectory");

			str = CFStringCreateWithCString(kCFAllocatorDefault, foldername,  
kCFStringEncodingMacRoman);
							// encoding constant is important : shouldn't it come from  
locale?

			folderNameU.length = (UInt16)CFStringGetLength(str);
			CFStringGetCharacters(str, CFRangeMake(0, folderNameU.length),  
folderNameU.unicode);

			// see if it already exists?
			err = FSMakeFSRefUnicode(&parentRef,  
folderNameU.length,folderNameU.unicode,
									   kTextEncodingUnicodeDefault, NULL);
			// should now verify that is, in fact, a folder.

			if (err != noErr) { // no, so try to create it.		
				err = FSCreateDirectoryUnicode(&parentRef, folderNameU.length,  
folderNameU.unicode,
												 kFSCatInfoNone, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);
				result = 1;
			}
		} else {
				if(x->t_debug) post("makeFS failed: %ld and %ld ",(int)err,  
isDirectory);
			result = 0;
		}
	}
	outlet_int(x->t_outlet, result);
	return;
}

How to create folders in a patch?