Here’s a Computer-Aided Automation (CAA) project using Python that demonstrates automating a repetitive task in a simple and impactful way.

Project: Automated File Organizer

Objective: Automatically organize files in a folder into subfolders based on their file types. For example:

• Move all PDFs to a "Documents" folder.
• Move images to an "Images" folder.
• Move videos to a "Videos" folder.

Features

1. Detect files in a given directory.
2. Categorize files based on their extensions.
3. Move files to corresponding subfolders automatically.

Tools and Libraries

• Python Libraries:

  • os

    and

    shutil

    for file handling.

  • argparse

    (optional) for command-line input.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Define File Categories

Create mappings of file extensions to categories:

FILE_CATEGORIES = {
 "Documents": [".pdf", ".docx", ".txt"],
 "Images": [".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", ".gif"],
 "Videos": [".mp4", ".mov", ".avi"],
 "Audio": [".mp3", ".wav"],
 "Archives": [".zip", ".rar", ".7z"],
 "Others": []
}

Step 2: Script to Organize Files

Here's the full implementation:

import os
import shutil

# Define file categories
FILE_CATEGORIES = {
 "Documents": [".pdf", ".docx", ".txt"],
 "Images": [".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png", ".gif"],
 "Videos": [".mp4", ".mov", ".avi"],
 "Audio": [".mp3", ".wav"],
 "Archives": [".zip", ".rar", ".7z"],
 "Others": []
}

def categorize_file(file_name):
 """Determine the category of a file based on its extension."""
 _, ext = os.path.splitext(file_name)
 for category, extensions in FILE_CATEGORIES.items():
 if ext.lower() in extensions:
 return category
 return "Others"

def organize_files(folder_path):
 """Organize files in the specified folder."""
 if not os.path.exists(folder_path):
 print(f"The folder {folder_path} does not exist.")
 return

 # Iterate over files in the folder
 for file_name in os.listdir(folder_path):
 file_path = os.path.join(folder_path, file_name)
 
 # Skip if it's a directory
 if os.path.isdir(file_path):
 continue
 
 # Categorize the file
 category = categorize_file(file_name)
 category_folder = os.path.join(folder_path, category)
 
 # Create category folder if it doesn't exist
 os.makedirs(category_folder, exist_ok=True)
 
 # Move the file
 shutil.move(file_path, os.path.join(category_folder, file_name))
 print(f"Moved {file_name} to {category}/")

if __name__ == "__main__":
 folder_to_organize = input("Enter the folder path to organize: ").strip()
 organize_files(folder_to_organize)

How It Works

1. Input: The user specifies a folder path.
2. Processing:
   • The script iterates through all files in the folder.
   • Files are categorized based on their extensions.
   • Files are moved into corresponding subfolders.
3. Output: The folder is neatly organized into subfolders like

   Documents

   ,

   Images

   , etc.

Sample Run

Before:

MyFolder/
 invoice.pdf
 picture.jpg
 song.mp3
 video.mp4
 archive.zip

After Running Script:

MyFolder/
 Documents/
 invoice.pdf
 Images/
 picture.jpg
 Audio/
 song.mp3
 Videos/
 video.mp4
 Archives/
 archive.zip

Extensions

1. Add Logging:
   • Log the actions to a file for audit purposes using Python's

     logging

     module.
2. Schedule Automation:
   • Use

     cron

     on Linux or Task Scheduler on Windows to run this script periodically.
3. Advanced Features:
   • Allow the user to customize file categories via a configuration file (e.g., JSON).
4. GUI:
   • Create a simple interface using

     tkinter

     for non-technical users.