File Action: a free, light-weight alternative to Hazel

I was passing through and thought I'd reply since the Folder Action question is a common one. I'm the author of Hazel, BTW.

Hazel is different from Folder Actions in several ways. For one, it handles date based criteria. Folder Actions are work for one-shot things that fire one the file first appears, but Hazel will continue to watch the files for changes including those involving dates. You can then do thing like act on the file if it's older than a month or copy it somewhere else if it's been modified since the last time. Hazel has more advanced file filtering criteria and I feel the rule engine runs much better than that of Folder Actions, especially when you deal with folders you already use with a big mix of files, instead of designating special folders to process specific types of files. But don't just take my word for it. Download Hazel, load up the sample rules, then try and implement the same functionality via Folder Actions.

Also, there is something to be said for making the functionality accessible, which both File Action and Hazel do. Folder Actions are not obvious to many users and you have to go to a couple places to configure it instead of having it all pulled together into one place. It all feels cobbled together and hard to maintain.

In the end, if you all you need is basic moving of files or one-shot processing of files, then depending, File Action or Folder Actions would be fine. Even in such cases, I invite you to try out Hazel as you may find you could do much more with your workflow than you thought.

I hope this answers your question. I may not be monitoring this thread so if you don't hear back from me on any follow-up questions, feel free to contact me via email (use the form on the Noodlesoft site).

Don't get me wrong, this is an honest question that I have to ask... What this and Hazel are different from Folder Actions? I still don't get it.

Great alternative for those who only want to do very minimal tasks. Hazel, of course, still remains the best tool on any platform for easy, automatic criteria-based file management imo :)

Wow... Just bought Hazel last week. I love it though :)