Replace Text After Find

Many thanks to everyone for your excellent comments.  The line reducing the end-offset by 1 resulted from using some code I found and tweaking it until I was beginning to get a result that approximate what I was looking for.  I'm a JavaScript novice, so didn't realize I was reducing the end-offset--.  Also, much appreciate the point out to text conditions. I spent hours yesterday trying to find anything that explained how to do it, including playing with the Constants.FP_TrackChangesOn. 

Yes. So, combining the comments of all the others, here is a script that seems to work for me. It is especially tricky to simulate the track edit function, because it is apparently just a conditional tag (?) and it is not straightforward to apply a condition tag with ExtendScript. At least, you have to do things that are not in the documentation and probably would never figure out on your own. I found the answer by searching this forum. Hope this helps. -Russ

function findAndReplace(findString, replaceString)
{
    var textRange = app.ActiveDoc.TextSelection;
    if(!textRange.beg.obj.ObjectValid())
    {
      alert("No insertion point or active document. Cannot continue.");
      return;
    }
    var doc = app.ActiveDoc;
    
    // Set up the propVal to apply the track changes condition
    var condFmt = doc.GetNamedCondFmt("FM8_TRACK_CHANGES_ADDED");
    var textProp = doc.GetTextPropVal(textRange.beg,Constants.FP_InCond); 
    textProp.propVal.isval[0] = condFmt.id;
    textProp.propVal.osval[0] = condFmt;
    
    // Set up the find parameters
    var findParams = AllocatePropVals (2);    
    findParams[0].propIdent.num = Constants.FS_FindText;    
    findParams[0].propVal.valType = Constants.FT_String;    
    findParams[0].propVal.sval = findString;    
   
    findParams[1].propIdent.num = Constants.FS_FindWrap;    
    findParams[1].propVal.valType = Constants.FT_Integer;    
    findParams[1].propVal.ival = false;  
     
    // Start the search 
    textRange = doc.Find(textRange.beg, findParams);
      
    while(textRange.beg.obj.ObjectValid() && FA_errno == Constants.FE_Success) 
    {
      // Set up the text range that will ultimately represent the new string (after the replacement).
      // This will be used to apply the track changes condition.
      var replaceTextRange = doc.TextSelection;
      replaceTextRange.end.offset = replaceTextRange.beg.offset + replaceString.length;

      // The search string is already selected. Delete it.
      doc.Clear(0);
      
      // Add the new text.
      doc.AddText(textRange.beg, replaceString);

      // Apply the track changes condition to the new text.
      doc.SetTextPropVal(replaceTextRange, textProp);   
     
      // if(!confirm("Found something. Continue?")) return;
    
      textRange = doc.Find(textRange.beg, findParams);
    
    }
}

There are a few problems with your code. The Find method already returns a TextRange there is no need to create a new one. You can simply do this to delete the old text and add the new text:

doc.DeleteText (foundText);

doc.AddText (foundText.beg, "WIDGE");

Why do you reduce the end-offset by 1 with

textRange.end.offset--;

I would not do that.

Hi,

I cannot comment why the last character of your original text is not replaced.

Regarding the Track Text Edit: Internally Track Text Edits is text which has a condition:

FM8_TRACK_CHANGES_ADDED for new text.

FM8_TRACK_CHANGES_DELETED for deleted text.

You can check this also, when you save your file as MIF and check the code.

Therefore FrameMaker will not apply these Track Text Edits conditions automatically, when you run a script. You have to apply these conditions.

Some of our ExtendScript developers here could comment, if my explanation is correct.

Best regards

Winfried