Automator bash script service to create Dropbox symlink

Question

I'm trying to create an Automator service(in the right click menu) that creates a symlink of the folder/file and moves it to the Dropbox folder. This is what I have right now:

while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
    ln -s "$1" "$1 symlink"
    mv "$1 symlink" ~/Dropbox/.
    shift
done

However what I want to do is create a folder with the same name ($1). Trying mv "$1 symlink" ~/Dropbox/"$1" doesn't work. I can't seem to figure out how to rename the folder. I tried this, and for some reason, it moved the symlink folder to inside the folder it was symlinking($1).

while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
    loc = "~/Dropbox"
    ln -s "$1" "$1 symlink"
    mv "$1 symlink" "$loc/$1"
    shift
done

Answer 1

This is your current code

while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
  ln -s "$1" "$1 symlink"     # you create a symlink named "xxx symlink"
  mv "$1 symlink" ~/Dropbox/. # you are moving the symlink into Dropbox folder
  shift
done

you want to symlink to files/directories already in Dropbox, so this has to be done:

while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
  # you want it to fail if there is a file in dropbox with the same name
  test -e "~/Dropbox/$1" && exit 1

  # order of two lines below is unimportant
  mv "$1" ~/Dropbox/                # move file into dropbox
  ln -s "~/Dropbox/$1" "$1 symlink" # you create a symlink named "xxx symlink"

  shift
done

As for the second part of your question:

However what I want to do is create a folder with the same name ($1). Trying mv "$1 symlink" ~/Dropbox/"$1" doesn't work. I can't seem to figure out how to rename the folder. I tried this, and for some reason, it moved the symlink folder to inside the folder it was symlinking($1).

while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
  loc = "~/Dropbox"
  ln -s "$1" "$1 symlink"
  mv "$1 symlink" "$loc/$1"
  shift
done

The utility that creates directories is called mkdir. While I can't figure out what folder you want renamed, you do it using mv command. For example mv ~/file ~/Dropbox/backup.thing will rename file file to backup.thing while also moving it between locations.