Change link path

[sketcg]

I am looking for a way to change the file path of all my links in a document. I just need to remove part of the file path...

If the original file path is
/Volumes/My Passport/HiRes/990/9906.psd

and I need to make it

HiRes/990/990.psd

Is there an action script or some hidden trick to rename all the links?

I'm working on a mac in OS 10.9.5

Thanks for any help!

[Daniel Sterchi]

Hi sketcg

I have put together a few lines. Try them if the meet your needs.

Would like to hear what you think.

kind regards

Daniel (from Switzerland)

/*
 * written by Daniel Sterchi moonsoft.ch GmbH
*/

main();
exit();

function main() {

    if (app.documents.length > 0) {

        const delimiter = "/";      // "/" for mac "\\" for windows at lieast I think so (have a mac)

        // the active document
        var myDoc = app.activeDocument;

        // get all the links of this document
        var oldLinks = myDoc.links.everyItem().getElements();

        // if there are any links
        if (oldLinks.length > 0) {

            // open a dialog
            var newPath = new Folder(oldLinks[0].filePath).selectDlg("Choose a directory").fsName;

            for (var i = 0; i < oldLinks.length; i++) {

                // to get the filename of the Link.
                // for windows you can use the folowing code
                //      var myFileName = oldLinks.filePath;
                //      myFileName = myFileName.substr(myFileName.lastIndexOf(delimiter) + 1, myFileName.length);
                //      var newFile = File(newPath + delimiter + myFileName);

                // This way you dont have to bother with HFS+ or UFS directory names with macs
                var oldFile = File(oldLinks.filePath);
                var newFile = File(newPath + delimiter + oldFile.name);

                oldLinks.relink(newFile);
            }
        }
        else alert("Information\nThis document has no links to pictures");
    }
    else alert("Warning\nNo document open");

    alert("Information\nI have done my job, what about yours");
}

[BSKTCreation]

Hi Daniel,

On line 12 in your comments you mention Windows possibly being back-slashes, that is true for Windows explorer but for InDesign JavaScript it is forward-slashes.

For example:

"/v/Folder Name/File Name.indd"

or

"//server.address.com/Folder Name/File Name.jsx"

Regards,

Brett

[Daniel Sterchi]

Hi Brett

Thats good news. I just don't have windows so I can't test it.

Thanks for your input.

Daniel (from Switzerland)

[Vamitul]

Regarding the Windows vs OSX delimiter:
Since the script uses ".fsName" you will have to worry about them because fsName will return the path in the standard platform format (eg. "c:\test\folder" or "/Users/Test/Folder").
My approach for these kinds of situations is to always use the Posix type of path for everything ("/c/test/folder"  works just fine on windows) and use fsName only for display purposes.

[Daniel Sterchi]

Hi Vamitul

The problem with the mac is that have HFS+ and UFS. I have to make sure that the old path and the new path are in the same format. Otherwise you have something like

newpath UFS: "/Users/…"

oldPath HFS+ "Macintosh HD:Users:USERNAME:directory

I just could do some tests on windows.

Here is what I get for Mac

and here what I get from Windows

Based on what I just saw i would change the script from:

var newPath = new Folder(oldLinks[0].filePath).selectDlg("Choose a directory").fsName;

to:

var newPath = new Folder(oldLinks[0].filePath).selectDlg("Choose a directory").fullName;

kind regards

Daniel (from Switzerland)

[sketcg]

Daniel! Thank you so much for taking the time to look at this. I am a novice with the actionscript.

I have taken your code and tried to use it but I get an error message

I will continue on trying to figure what I have wrong, but please let me know if you have a suggestion.

Again Thanks!

[Daniel Sterchi]

Hi sketcg

What the error message is telling you is, that there is a quotation mark missing at line 24 or above. And actually it is a JavaScript script 😉

Can you provide us the changed script, then I can tell you what goes wrong.

kind regards

Daniel (from Switzerland)

[Daniel Sterchi]

Hi sketcg

This is a much smaller variation of the code which also works. It is also faster as the first one.

kind regards

Daniel (from Switzerland)

/*
* written by Daniel Sterchi moonsoft.ch GmbH
*/

main();
exit();

function main() {

    if (app.documents.length > 0) {

        const delimiter = "/";

        // the active document
        var myDoc = app.activeDocument;

        // get all the links of this document
        var oldLinks = myDoc.links.everyItem().getElements();

        // if there are any links
        if (oldLinks.length > 0) {

            // open a dialog
            var newPath = new Folder(oldLinks[0].filePath).selectDlg("Choose a directory").fullName;

            // traverse the array and relink
            for (var i = 0; i < oldLinks.length; i++) {

                var newFile = File(newPath + delimiter + oldLinks.name);
                oldLinks.relink(newFile);
            }
        }
        else alert("Information\nThis document has no links");
    }
    else alert("Warning\nNo document open");

    alert("Information\nI have done my job, what about yours");
}

[Jongware]

It looks like the end double quote got converted to a curly one (hence "unterminated string constant" because the starting quote is still okay). If that's the case, it is kind of weird because it is correct in Daniel's code.

[Daniel Sterchi]

Hi sketcg

Did you get it to work? Found the problem?

kind regards

Daniel (from Switzerland)