Scrioting Text Wrangler Remove Line Breaks

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

I have a need to change a site over from a static html site to WordPress. I haven’t been able to find a way to script WordPress since it isn’t listed as a dictionary entry.

So, what I want to do instead is eliminate all the line breaks using text wrangler. Unfortunately there are over 600 files and I wanted to automate this if possible. I have found that in the dictionary there is a “remove line breaks” command.

set theFolder to ("/users/abc/sites/help_file")
tell application "Finder" to set theFiles to every file of theFolder

set allContents to ""
repeat with aFile in theFiles
	set aFile to aFile as string
	set allContents to allContents & (read file aFile) & return
	tell application "TextWrangler"
		remove line breaks
	end tell
	
end repeat

When I run the script I get the error “Can’t get every file of "/users/abc/sites/help_file".” number -1728 from every file of “/users/abc/sites/help_file”

There are only 10 files in the abc folder so please advise what I need to change. All of the files and folders combined will be over 600.

Or, if my approach can be improved please tell me. I am new to scripting and found the repeat script on the forum.

Thanks,

Randal

#2

Hey Randal,

I wouldn’t try to script that. it would be gruesomely slow.

Just use TW’s Multi-FIle Find/Replace (Cmd-Shift-F) and a little regex.

But make sure you have a backup before running on the whole shebang.

#3

Thanks for that tip. I hadn’t thought about the regex option on \r. I was thinking of the command instead.

#4

Hello.
You can also execute this applescript after you substituted the path ~/Desktop/lft with the path to the Backup folder of your files.


do shell script "find " & "~/Desktop/lft" & " -name \\* -exec  /usr/bin/sed -if 's/" & return & "/\\" & linefeed & "/g' {} \\; "

Edit

The above doesn’t remove line breaks, it converts them into linefeeds, if you really want to get rid of them, the proper command would be:


do shell script "find " & "~/Desktop/lft" & " -name \\* -exec  /usr/bin/sed -if 's/" & return & "//g' {} \\; "

:smiley: But it is quite more efficient to do like Chris Stone said, and just replace the \r in a multi-file search of course.

#5

Hi,

Finder doesn’t know posix paths (“users/abc/sites/help_file”). To change a posix path to one Finder can understand:
Ex. 1


set posix_path to "/Users/kelhome/sites/help_file"
set mac_ref to POSIX file (posix_path)

From there there’s more.

Anyway, as ccstone wrote, using another app might make it slow. You might want to use vanilla AppleScript (Standard Additions) read/write commands. It’s not to slow if you read the whole text, modify, and rewrite the whole file.

Just for starters.

gl,

#6

Hello.

A fast way to get the posix path of a selection, when you just want to operate on one item:

tell application "Finder"
	if selection = {} then
		beep
		return
	end if
	set n to (count selection as list)
	if n > 1 then
		beep
		return
	else
		set a to POSIX path of (selection as alias)
	end if
end tell
#7

I use aliases pretty much everywhere (except in the shell of course).

tell application "SystemUIServer" to activate -- Work around L/ML Finder-selection bug.
tell application "Finder"
	activate
	set _sel to selection as alias list
	if _sel = {} then
		error "No items were selected!"
	else
		repeat with i in _sel
			set contents of i to "alias \"" & contents of i & "\""
		end repeat
		set AppleScript's text item delimiters to linefeed
		set _sel to _sel as text
	end if
end tell

set the clipboard to _sel

I use FastScripts rather than the SystemUIServer on my system, since I run nearly all my Applescripts with it.