help with an applescript to sort files?

I think this is what you want. As items are added to the folder, it checks to see if the name contains " on " (meaning that it's in the iChat naming format). It then renames the file to the text after " on " (eg "2004-09-09 at 21.38.chat") and moves it to the folder named with the text before " on " (eg "Bobby Smith").

To set it up, as you're probably aware, copy the code below into Script Editor, save it as a script in /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts, and then attach it to ~/Documents/iChats.

Limitations:
*If you have two chats with the same person in the same minute, the second one won't be moved into the folder, it will just be renamed.
*It won't move/rename files that are already there. To process them, move them out of the folder and then back in.

Let me know of any problems.

Code:

on adding folder items to thisFolder after receiving newItems
	set thisFolder to thisFolder as string
	set delim to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" on "}
	
	repeat with i from 1 to (count of newItems)
		set currItem to item i of newItems
		tell application "Finder"
			set itemName to name of currItem
			if ((count of text items of itemName) > 1) then --Otherwise non-standard name, do nothing
				set personName to first text item of itemName
				set newFileName to second text item of itemName
				set folderForFile to thisFolder & personName & ":"
				if not (exists folder folderForFile) then
					make new folder at alias thisFolder with properties {name:personName}
				end if
				set name of currItem to newFileName
				set currItem to file (thisFolder & newFileName)
				move currItem to folder folderForFile
			end if
		end tell
	end repeat
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to delim
end adding folder items to