Need script to update lots of old Illustrator files to Illustrator CS4

Hello,
I am rather new to scripting, but I get the basics of it.

My employer has asked me to look into streamlining the process of upgrading our old illustrator art files to Illustrator CS4. I have been searching, but have not yet found a script that will do quite what we need and I’m running out of time to search.

We have many, many job folders that contain graphics folders within them. These graphics folders may contain any number of different types of graphics files, such as .ai, .eps, .tif, .jpg, .gif, etc.

I need to write a script that will allow me to select a folder containing these graphics files that will find the old illustrator files (both ai and eps), if any, and update them to Illustrator CS4. In some cases, I may need to update legacy text as well. Also, I want the new CS4 file to overwrite the old file. (No need to save a copy or save it elsewhere.)

Important note: not all of the old Illustrator files have file extensions on their names. So, for example, “hippopotamus.ai” is simply “hippopotamus,” and “chalkboard.eps” is simply “chalkboard”. I would like the new file to have the proper file extension (which, of course, would mean any old illustrator file that did not have a file extension before will not be overwritten by the illustrator CS4 file with the file extension, and that’s OK.) Also, these illustrator files may be as old as vs.6 and as new as vs. CS1.

Really appreciate anyone who can help me out on this.

I also need the same script to update all of our .psd files that contain legacy text layers that need to be updated.
Thanks a million!

Clorox File Repair (written by yours truly) can detect AI files through CS3 and add the proper AI file extensions, as well as fix the file extension of AI files mislabelled as EPS (though if they really were saved as EPS files, they will be kept that way). It will also fix any resource fork issues (file type and creator) if any have been incurred. Another common problem is AI files from CS or CS2 being mis-identified as PDF files without the extenions (CFR fixes that too).

CFR can discern the following AI files:

¢ Adobe Acrobat (PDF) fi les ” versions 5, 6, and 7
¢ Adobe Illustrator native (AI) fi les ” versions 3.2, 8, 9, 10, 11 (CS1), and 12 (CS2)
¢ Adobe Illustrator EPS fi les ” versions 3.2, 8, 9, 10, 11 (CS1), and 12 (CS2)
¢ Can tell the diff erence between Adobe Illustrator CS (AI) and Acrobat (PDF) fi les without an extension.

Otherwise I must mention that upgrading older AI files to the newer version does introduce alot of headaches, as they all have different composing engines, masks can move around, and more. We just leave the older files old and “upgrade” them when we need to repurpose old art. That way they can be carefully upgraded and screened for conversion-incurred discrepancies. So be careful doing a batch conversion…I personally wouldn’t recommend it, from the point of view of a graphic designer and graphics technology manager.