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Using AEP

AEP functions quite transparently, but if you want to, here you can see that the bug you found, is really a feature.

When you start AEP, it will read in its preference file, check for changes to the plug-in folder and if it finds any, rebuild the QuickStart file, it uses for quick start ups. While AEP is doing this, it will display a progress bar.

After initialisation has been completed, you are ready to do what you would ordinarily do. Only when you rename a file or folder in the Finder, using an extension that it recognises, will AEP become more prominent. Then it will whisk away the item from view, showing once again a progress bar and run the appropriate plug-ins and helper applications. Afterwards it will place the new item at the location of the removed one. (Unless specified differently by the plug-in you chose.)

You can set some preferences in AEP's general preferences tab of the preference window. There you can decide what AEP should do with its temporary files, control the amount of feedback in the status panel, and whether or not AEP should warn you when you risk losing a resource fork.

Some extensions could be handled by more than one plug-in. The three plug-in preference tabs of the preference window allow you to choose which plug-in should deal with an extension. You can also tell AEP to ignore certain extensions, even though there is a plug-in that recognises them.

If for any reason you want to stop AEP temporarily from checking what you do in the Finder, e.g. to rename a file without AEP checking whether it can use a plug-in with it, you can press the button of the status panel. You can also use this button to minimise AEP's claim on the cpu time when you are running other processor intensive applications.

When you need to know how to quit AEP, you might consider spending some time with the instructions that came with you Macintosh.

AEP's windows

AEP has two main windows. There is a preference window where you can set general preferences and specific plug-in preferences. The other window, the status panel, gives you feedback on what AEP is doing and allows you to temporarily pause AEP and so free up system resources or allow yourself to change file or folder names without the risk of AEP intervening.

Setting general preferences

General preferences are set in the general tab of the preference window, which will look something like this:

There are three main options:

  • Setting what will happen to temporary items.
  • Setting the amount of feedback AEP will give you.
  • Setting whether or not AEP warns about the potential loss of a resource fork.
  • Setting whether or not AEP warns you when it is ready to notice name changes in the Finder.
As a safety feature AEP will put the original file and temporary files that may have been created in the Trash. If something goes wrong, you should be able to recover them from there. Of course, plug-ins might still delete their own temporary files without AEP being able to do anything about that.

You might want to know what AEP is up to, and being the well-trained monkey it is, it will let you know. To see the feedback, you will have to open the status panel. The default value will only show you whether AEP is running, pausing in the background to conserve system resources, or pausing because you told AEP to. When you want more feedback, AEP will tell you why it will take no action when you change an extension. Telling you it didn't recognise the extension or that the extension couldn't be used with the file or folder. If you feel that it should be, you will either have to change the plug-in preferences or the plug-ins themselves. If you want to be informed of (almost) everything AEP does, use the last item. Don't blame me if you can't keep up with it, though. AEP is a busy beast.

Traditionally Macintosh files have had two forks to store items. The "data fork" was used to store data, while the "resource fork" was used for application resources. This worked very well and made localisation reasonably easy. Unfortunately most other platforms and the internet used only one location, equivalent to the data fork. If you wanted to send an item by mail, you had to encode it. These days, with OS X built on a Unix layer, Apple has moved to a single fork format, storing resources in packages, but there are still two forked files around, like all those Classic applications and some documents. If you use a Unix based application on those, you will lose the resource fork and your file may become unusable.
AEP can check whether or not you are at risk of losing the resource fork and warn you when that might happen. The downside to that is that it takes relatively long, so I leave it up to you to decide whether to have that safety or not. Note that AEP will only perform the check if a plug-in tells AEP that it resource forks might be at risk.

Because AEP tries to preserve system resources, it goes "to sleep" whenever the Finder is in the background. When you switch back, it sometimes takes AEP a while to realise, it is needed again. You can tell AEP to let you know when it is ready to notice name changes in the Finder. (I tried using an ape sound for this, but I found that far to annoying, so I ended up with another animal.)

Setting plug-in preferences

There are times when you might want to have some control over which plug-in deals with which extension. StuffIt Expander, e.g. has trouble with some files when they are compressed with another format than DropStuff. AEP allows you to set you preferred plug-in.

Each of the plug-in types has its own tab in the preference window. They all basically function alike. You can select an extension and choose in the pop-up button the plug-in you want. If you want to exclude an extension from being processed but you want to keep the plug-in in use for other extensions, you can also choose none.

Under the plug-in AEP will display if extension can be used with files or folders and whether or not it will destroy resource forks. (Though I don't expect it, there even might be plug-ins that handle the same extension differently.)

Finally, some other information is displayed about the extension and the plug-in, like the application used. As space is limited, you should consult the plug-in or any documentation that came with it if you want to know more.

Using the status panel

The status panel will be displayed when you choose it from the AEP's file menu. It serves two functions: it will display feedback and will let you pause AEP.

You can set the amount of feedback displayed in the general preferences tab. In its default state you will either see that AEP is running:

Or when the Finder is in the background, that AEP is pausing to conserve system resources.

From time to time, you might want to pause AEP yourself. In that case you should press the pause button on the left of the status panel. When you are ready to let AEP continue, just press it again.

Using plug-ins

Plug-ins are essential for AEP. Without them, nothing can be done. The plug-ins are located in the plug-in folder (duh) of the AEP application. If you want to install new plug-ins, you should copy them to the appropriate folder inside of this. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by pointing out that plug-ins that deal with extensions that you add to a file or folder go in the addable folder etc. To remove a plug-in drag it out of the plug-in folder. After you add or remove plug-ins, you should restart AEP so it can rebuild its database.

There is one more important thing about plug-ins and their helper applications to know. Some applications seem not to like being sent Applescript commands from an Applescript Studio applications, even though they are perfectly happy getting them from ordinary Applescripts. To prevent problems AEP includes an Applescript Application AEP Mediator which is located in a folder inside the AEP folder. When a plug-in wants to do some basic interacting with a troublesome application, it will run the commands through AEP Mediator. When it those this, you'll probably notice an Applescript application starting up, followed by the actual helper application of the plug-in. The downside to this is that it will take a little bit longer for AEP to do its work, as it has to start an extra application.
Ironically the only two applications that have displayed this irritating behaviour are Aladdin Systems DropStuff and their StuffIt Expander. AEP started out as a project to imitate StuffIt Deluxe's Archive via Rename using those two applications. When that seemed possible, AEP was born. Only when I transferred the project to Applescript Studio did the problems surface.

If all goes well, I will add plug-ins for you to download. I would also welcome contributions by others. Writing plug-ins isn't difficult, and there is a short tutorial on how to do it.

Trouble shooting

There are always things that can go wrong. Here are a couple and what to do about them.
  • AEP won't start up.
    When AEP starts up the first time, it will often ask you to select AEP Mediator, which should be in the same folder as AEP. When you select the wrong application or simply click cancel, the start up process will go wrong. You should delete AEP's preference folder, run AEP Mediator, quit that and then run AEP again. Generally, that should solve the problem.
  • AEP suddenly quits on you.
    I'm afraid that is because I used Applescript Studio to make AEP. Unfortunately some of the interface elements are somewhat unstable and will force AEP to shut down ungracefully. I'm trying everything I can to improve that and I will make the AEP's source code available in the near future, so you can tell me where I went wrong. At the moment though, just keep your fingers crossed when starting AEP or when using its preference window.
  • AEP seems to do nothing, even though the status window says it is running.
    Funnily enough, this is almost the exact opposite from the problem before. Because AEP uses apple events rather intense, sometimes Applescript seems to choke. The cocoa foundation of an Applescript Studio will keep AEP running even though its core has quit. Fortunately, AEP is rather robust and will often start again after a few seconds. You can help it, by pressing the pause button a couple of times.
  • AEP quit and now you can't find your files.
    This shouldn't happen too often, but it might. AEP uses the temporary folder on your hard disk to process the files so you will neither be bothered with what goes on behind the scenes, nor can easily interfere with it. If AEP untimely quits or items don't reappear, you can go to the temporary folder and get them yourself. Just open the terminal, no need to be scared, and type at the prompt:

    cd /tmp ; open .

    Take care also to type the space and the dot after open. If there is anything to recover, it should be in a folder that starts with AEP_temp.

A.E.P. The Active Extension Processor - Created by Roger Jolly - Copyright 2002 - All rights reserved.