Topic: Opinion on new feature : expression filters
Hello,
I am planning to add a new feature to Siren and I would like your opinion about it.
Here is the problem :
1) I have a folder containing different types of file : music and video
2) I want to rename all the files following different patterns based on their types/names
3) With current Siren version two batch steps are necessary. One for each file type (select the files, choose an expression and rename)
To limit the work the idea is to be able to make an expression "file filter aware".
As you may know a rename expression can be composed of different sub-expressions separated by ';'.
Prefixing each sub-expression with a file filter could do the job. File filters could be enclosed in "[]".
For example :
[*.jpg]Photo_%f;[*.avi]Video_%f
or more complicated
[*.jpg;*.nef]%Xdo_%f;[[A-M]*.avi;[A-M]*.mpeg]AAA_%dm_%f;[[N-Z]*.avi;[N-Z]*.mpeg]ZZZ_%dm_%f;[*.mp3]%Aa - %At.%e
What this last expression will do :
1) %Xdo_%f will be applied only to *.jpg and *.nef selected files
2) AAA_%dm_%f will be applied only to *.avi and *.mpeg selected files with current names starting with a letter between 'A' and 'M'
3) ZZZ_%dm_%f will be applied only to *.avi and *.mpeg selected files with current names starting with a letter between 'N' and 'Z'
3) %Aa - %At.%e will be applied only to *.mp3 selected files
Notes :
- Any file matches an empty filter. This makes this feature backward compatible
- The sub-expressions are not exclusives. If a file pass a filter the associated sub-expression is applied to it.
For example, this expression will prefix all names with the modification date : [*.jpg]Photo_%f;[*.avi]Video_%f;%dm_%f
- This feature can be seen too as a simplified "if"
- I know it will only be used by a few power users
For now I have not fixed all details and anything can be changed.
Regards
Remi