The following example returns the Finder and other metadata for a given file.

PLEASE NOTE: The Associate server will strip backslash characters 
from this code. They are used in formatting methods and functions for 
tabs and returns. I figure anyone interested in this code, would be 
able to fix this without much problem.

To get the returned results in human-readable form, I had to resort 
to some Cocoa methods that don't appear to have any CF equivalents.

I have remarked out my failed experiment with 
MDSchemaCopyDisplayNameForAttribute which I could not get to work. 
Maybe someone will chime in and point out the error of my ways. My 
headers indicate it is available in OS X 10.4 and newer. If it 
worked, I would expected it to return attribute names in a 
Finder-like format in the current locale, rather than in the raw 
CFString form returned by this code.

Ken


include "ConsoleWindow"

#if ndef _DEFINEDINCARBON
#define MDItemRef as pointer // to struct MDItem
toolbox fn MDItemCreate ( CFAllocatorRef allocator, CFStringRef path 
) = MDItemRef
toolbox fn MDItemCopyAttributeNames ( MDItemRef item ) = CFArrayRef
toolbox fn MDItemCopyAttributes ( MDItemRef item, CFArrayRef names ) 
= CFDictionaryRef
toolbox fn MDSchemaCopyDisplayNameForAttribute ( CFStringRef name ) = 
CFStringRef
#endif

BeginCDeclaration
CFStringRef GetAttributeNamesAsString( CFArrayRef 
inspectedRefAttributeNames, int row ){
      CFStringRef  attributeName	= NULL;
    // CFStringRef  valueStr, outStr = NULL;

      attributeName = (CFStringRef)CFArrayGetValueAtIndex( 
inspectedRefAttributeNames, row );
/*
      valueStr = MDSchemaCopyDisplayNameForAttribute( attributeName );

      if ( CFStringGetLength( valueStr ) ){
         outStr = CFStringCreateCopy( kCFAllocatorDefault, valueStr );
         CFRelease( valueStr );
       }else{
         outStr = CFStringCreateCopy( kCFAllocatorDefault, attributeName );
       }
*/
    return ( attributeName );
}

CFMutableStringRef GetAttributeValuesAsString( CFDictionaryRef 
inspectedRefAttributeValues, CFStringRef attributeName, int row ){
     NSDictionary        *valueDict;
     CFMutableStringRef   outStr = NULL;
     NSMutableString     *formattedValue;

       outStr = CFStringCreateMutable( kCFAllocatorDefault, 0 );

       valueDict = CFDictionaryGetValue( inspectedRefAttributeValues, 
attributeName );
       if ([valueDict respondsToSelector: 
@selector(descriptionInStringsFileFormat)]){
          formattedValue = [[valueDict descriptionInStringsFileFormat] 
mutableCopy];
       }else{
          formattedValue = [[valueDict description] mutableCopy];
       }
         // Format for printing
         [formattedValue replaceOccurrencesOfString:@"\t" 
withString:@"" options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,[formattedValue 
length])];
         [formattedValue replaceOccurrencesOfString:@"\r" 
withString:@"" options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,[formattedValue 
length])];
         [formattedValue replaceOccurrencesOfString:@"\n" 
withString:@"" options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,[formattedValue 
length])];
         [formattedValue replaceOccurrencesOfString:@"(" 
withString:@"" options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,[formattedValue 
length])];
         [formattedValue replaceOccurrencesOfString:@")" 
withString:@"" options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,[formattedValue 
length])];
         [formattedValue replaceOccurrencesOfString:@",    " 
withString:@",\r\t" options:0 range:NSMakeRange(0,[formattedValue 
length])];

       CFStringAppend( outStr, ( CFMutableStringRef )formattedValue );
       CFStringTrimWhitespace( outStr );

       [formattedValue autorelease];
       return ( outStr );
}
EndC

toolbox fn GetAttributeNamesAsString( CFArrayRef, int ) = CFStringRef
toolbox fn GetAttributeValuesAsString( CFDictionaryRef, CFStringRef, 
int ) = CFMutableStringRef

dim as Str255              fileName
dim as CFURLRef            url
dim as MDItemRef           inspectedRef
dim as CFArrayRef          fileArray
dim as CFDictionaryRef     dictValues
dim as CFMutableStringRef  infoMutStr, nameAttributesStr, valueAttributesStr
dim as CFStringRef         path, attributeName
dim as CFIndex             i, row, result
dim as CFTypeRef           value

// Create CFString to hold all information
infoMutStr = fn CFStringCreateMutable( _kCFAllocatorDefault, 0 )

fileName = files$( _CFURLRefOpen,,, url )
long if ( fileName[0] )
path = fn CFURLCopyFileSystemPath( url, _kCFURLPOSIXPathStyle )
long if ( path )
inspectedRef = fn MDItemCreate ( _kCFAllocatorDefault, path )
long if ( inspectedRef )
fileArray = fn MDItemCopyAttributeNames( inspectedRef )
dictValues = fn MDItemCopyAttributes( inspectedRef, fileArray )
end if
CFRelease( path )
end if
xelse
// User canceled
end if


for i = 0 to fn CFArrayGetCount( fileArray ) -1
nameAttributesStr = fn GetAttributeNamesAsString( fileArray, i )
valueAttributesStr = fn GetAttributeValuesAsString( dictValues, 
nameAttributesStr, i )
CFStringAppend( infoMutStr, nameAttributesStr )
CFRelease( nameAttributesStr )
CFStringAppend( infoMutStr, @":\r\t" )
CFStringAppend( infoMutStr, valueAttributesStr )
CFRelease( valueAttributesStr )
CFStringAppend( infoMutStr, @"\r\r" )
next

fn HIViewSetText( sConsoleHITextView, infoMutStr )
CFRelease( infoMutStr )