ISO from the Terminal

While this doesn't relate directly to FCSrv, know how to do these kinds of tasks in the terminal means you can script them, which will revolutionize your workflow.

So how do we create an ISO file from the Mac Terminal?

I have a DVD that I made in DVD Studio Pro, but instead of burning it, I just had the app build it and save the files into a folder on my Desktop. Now I want to turn those files (VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS) into an ISO so that I can upload it to FCSrv and our PA can burn it later.

Super simple... open up the Terminal and type the following (inserting your own variables):

hdiutil makehybrid -udf -udf-volume-name the_name_of_your_dvd -o your_dvd_file_name.iso path_to_the_folder_that_contains_the_files

Here's how it worked for me. I have a folder on my Desktop called "DVD". Inside that folder are all the files on want on my ISO. The DVD's name is "Speaker Folder DVD 0409". I wanted the ISO saved on to the desktop, so here is what my command looked like.

hdiutil makehybrid -udf -udf-volume-name Speaker_Folder_DVD_0409 -o ~/Desktop/Speaker_Folder_DVD_0409.iso ~/Desktop/DVD

Hope this helps you guys out.

Using Twitter for Notifications

Last week I began using Twitter to notify me when Final Cut Server completes certain tasks. It's pretty sweet. See the how to below:

1. You need to have your own twitter account. I'm assuming that if you are reading this, you already know the basics of twitter.

2. You need to create a twitter account for your FCSrv box to use. Again, let's assume you know how to do this. If you don't, just go to www.twitter.com and click on "Get Started - Join!".

It's fairly self-explanatory, however I would recommend that you set this account to have protected updates, so that only people you approve can follow your FCSrv.

3. Using your personal Twitter account, subscribe to your FCSrv Twitter account.

4. Now the fun stuff. Open your favorite text editor (I use Vim), and create a file called twitter.sh

5. Type the following into your file:

#!/bin/bash

curl -u username:password -d status="Generic process complete message" http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml

Replace username and password with your FCSrv Twitter account username and password. Replace Generic process complete message with your generic process complete message (This ain't rocket science). If you prefer to customize your message for each response you will use it for, just type $1 inside the quotation marks.

6. Save your file. In the terminal, navigate to the directory where you saved your file (if you don't know how to do this, check out this tutorial: http://macapper.com/2007/03/08/the-terminal-an-introduction/ ). You need to make the file executable. Easiest way is to type:

chmod 777 filename

Then copy your file to a location accessible by FCSrv. I put mine in the Admin folder created by the FCSrv installation.

7. Open up final cut server and go to the Administration window. Go to Responses, and create a new response.

8. Change the response action to "Run an external script or command".

9. In the "Command Path" field type the path to the file.

10. If you chose to do the custom message ("$1") in your bash file, now is the time to add it. Type your message in quotations into the "Command Parameters" field. You can use any of FCSrv's built in variables such as [filename]. You can also use twitter syntax in the message, so if you want to send yourself a DM instead of a public broadcast, type "d username message".

11. That's it. Just add your response to any scan/watcher/subscription you want it should run with no problems. If you want to have multiple custom messages for use in different actions, just create another new response identical to the last but change the "Command Parameters" field.

Enjoy your tweeting final cut server.