Automate this

[mousapelli]

Apple's stupid Automator is such an example of something that could be glorious, but is instead just making me want to punch Steve Jobs.

Because here is what I want to do: Open the first HTML file in one folder. Replace the phrase "sprunkers.com" with "theratbox.com" wherever it appears. Save the file (preferably someplace new so i can keep track, but i'm not picky). Close the file. Open the next HTML file in the same folder.

THAT IS ALL I WANT. MONKEYS COULD DO IT. LITERATE MONKEYS, BUT STILL.

I know there is a way to trick the automator into doing these tasks, but I cannot figure it out. And in the time i have spent trying to find actions such as 'replace' or even 'open stuff in this one folder', I could have recoded like 50 of these by hand myself. I even tried the "attach an action to a dropbox folder and it will do it to whatever you put in there" option, with no result.

I hate you, Automator. I hate your stupid-looking little robot, and your stupid useless actions. I was at one point close to weeping with rage, and that is when I decided that the experiment was over.

And now, having wasted an hour and a half of my life and coming out so angry as to be useless to put up with NVU and RBrowserLite's bullshit, I will actually start to fix the site.

Comments

[yabamena]

...um, maybe try UltraEdit? I'm pretty sure you can download it on CNET's download.com.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

i think at this point adding new sources of stress to the mix is probably not a good plan. NVU has a find and replace key, and although it's irritating to open and close every single file, Ellen says that if i put another hole in the wall we might lose our security deposit.

If only I could get the rat trained....

[kittiec.livejournal.com]

I have no advice for you, I've never automated anything. I just wanted to say:

Gwendal is love.

Gwendal + Gunter 4eva

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

apparently, neither have i.

*feels gwendally*

[prillalar]

I just do all of that with BBEdit, which is the one app I cannot live without. However, it is not free. The student price might not be that bad though. Text Wrangler is the light version, but I have never tried it.

These have a 30 day free trial:

http://www.barebones.com/products/bbedit/index.shtml

http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/index.shtml


I use BBEdit for everything and have for years -- all my writing, all my HTML/CSS, all my programming. I think the only apps I use more are Firefox and Eudora.

At this stage of the game, I don't know whether new software will help or not. But the task you're trying to do would take me two minutes, if that, to do in BBEdit. (Caveat which I'm sure you don't need: always back up the files before doing any sort of global search and replace.)

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

thanks, i'll take a look when this is all over. Everytime i do something major to the site i end up with a new application that does exactly what i needed it to do when i was doing the stuff in the first place.

The inside of the automator thing works fine, so I just have to keep choosing the file manually that i want it to do something to. Since I'm running two different search and replaces, this is a lot faster than doing it myself, but still irritating. Tolerable, however.

[contrariwise.livejournal.com]

My absolute favorite for any kind of coding or writing is smultron (http://smultron.sourceforge.net/). It's free, and this kind of global replace is easy.

mousapelli: If you go with this, what you do is: open a folder with smultron, hit 'advanced find' with 'in all documents' ticked, and then replace away!

and yeah, backup and whatnot.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

wait, how do I open a folder though? Is that like a separate command someplace? It's still doing the usual, only let me select individual files thing.

[contrariwise.livejournal.com]

The way I do it is hit 'file > open' and then just select the folder, not a file. They all open in the side tabs, and then you can do the search.

I do have smultron set as my default app to open .txt, .html, and .php files. I don't know if that makes a difference. It shouldn't.

[mousapelli.livejournal.com]

aha, there was a preference that defaults to only opening single files, I just had to check a box. Got it now.

That was pretty cool, it made finishing this take like ten minutes instead of two hours. I wouldn't want to start webpages on there, but for fixing stuff like this, it's great.
thanks!

[contrariwise.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much in love with smultron. Heh. Of course, before I just used textedit for everything. I just like the whole hand coding thing. *g* The sidebar with all your open documents is what got me. One window!