Recursive function for getting files from folders

[Guest]

I want to search "indd" files from my whole directory (including subdirectories).

Arivu..

[Loic.Aigon]

Look into the archive, Kasyan has posted such a script, or was it Harbs, Jongware...Don't remember but the script is somewhere around.

[Harbs.]

I think it might have been Peter Kahrel, but I don't remember for sure either...

Harbs

[Peter Kahrel · Accepted solution]

So it was -- the function is below. You call it like this:

var myFiles = ("/d/test" );

It starts searching at the specified path and includes all subdirectories. It returns an array of file objects.

Peter

function find_files (dir)
    {
    return find_files_sub (dir, []);
    }

function find_files_sub (dir, array)
    {
    var f = Folder (dir).getFiles ("*.*");
    for (var i = 0; i < f.length; i++)
        {
        if (f instanceof Folder)
            find_files_sub (f, array);
        else
            if (f.name.slice (-5).toLowerCase() == ".indd")
                array.push (f);
        }
    return array;
    }

[Loic.Aigon]

Sorry Peter not to have mentioned you 😉 The only one I forgot and it was the one to te quoted 😄

[Guest]

Thank you Peter.

Just now i have seen your InDesign script site. It is quite good.

http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesignscripts.html

Arivu..

[Peter Kahrel]

I was blowing the dust off another file finder which I could not find earlier, and while trying that one out I discovered that getFiles ("*.*") also finds the recycle bin and everything in it. I don't know if this is a Windows-only thing or whether it affects Macs as well. To exclude the recycle bin, in the script I posted earlier, this line:

if (f.name.slice (-5).toLowerCase() == ".indd")

should be replaced with this one:

if (f.name.slice (-5).toLowerCase() == ".indd" && myFile.fullName.toLowerCase().indexOf ("recycle.bin") < 0)

The same goes for Kasyan's (nice and very compact) script. Change this:

if (myFile instanceof Folder){

to this:

if (myFile instanceof Folder && myFile.fullName.toLowerCase().indexOf ("recycle.bin") < 0){

The other script I meant is a file finder in which you can use the standard OS wildcards ? (any single character) and * (any range of characters). Here are some examples ("true" is a flag for subdirectory-inclusion: "true" means "include subdirs, "false" stands for "specified dir only"):

f = find_all ("/d/*.indd", true);

"Find all .indd files on drive d:\"

f = find_all ("/e/work/ch*.indd", true);

"Find all InDesign files on in folder e:\work\ whose name starts with ch"

f = find_all ("/d/*.ind?", true);

"Find all InDesign-related files (.indd, .indb, .indl, etc) on drive d:\"

f = find_all ("/e/test/*_*.jpg", true);

"Find all jpg files in the folder e:\test\ that have an underscore in their name"

Here is the script:

#target indesign;

f = find_all ("/d/*.indd", true);  // returns an array of file objects

// uncomment the next few lines to get visible output
/*
str = "Found " + f.length + " files\r" + create_string (f);
if (f.length > 50)
    app.documents.add().textFrames.add ({geometricBounds: ["36pt", "36pt", "806pt", "560pt"], contents: str});
else
    alert (str);
*/

function find_all (mask, include_sub)
    {
    return find_all_sub (File (mask).path+"/", [], grep_mask (File (mask).name), include_sub)
    }


function find_all_sub (dir, array, grep, sub)
    {
    var f = Folder (dir).getFiles ("*.*");
    for (var i = 0; i < f.length; i++)
        {
        if ((f instanceof Folder) && sub)
            find_all_sub (f, array, grep, sub);
        else
            if (f.name.match (grep) != null && f.path.toLowerCase().indexOf ("recycle.bin") < 0)
                array.push (f);
        }
    return array;
    }

// Change the OS wildcards * and ? to GREP classes

function grep_mask (m)
    {
    // First protect any original dots
    m = m.replace (/\./g, "###");
    // Replace ? with . (any single character)
    m = m.replace (/\?/g, ".");
    // Replace * with .+? (shortest string of any character)
    m = m.replace (/\*/g, ".+?");
    // Restore the original dots
    m = m.replace (/###/g, "\\.");
    // Create GREP string: from start to end of input, case-insensitive
    return RegExp ("^" + m + "$", "i");
    }


function create_string (file_array)
    {
    var list = "";
    if (file_array.length > 0)
        for (var i = 0; i < file_array.length; i++)
            list += file_array.fullName + "\r"
    return list
    }

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Here is a script that illustrates how to process all subfolders in the selected folder.

See getSubFolders function.

// Get all subfolders in the selected folder
function getSubFolders(theFolder) {
     var myFileList = theFolder.getFiles();
     for (var i = 0; i < myFileList.length; i++) {
          var myFile = myFileList;
          if (myFile instanceof Folder){
               mySubFolders.push(myFile.absoluteURI);
               getSubFolders(myFile);
          }
     }
     return mySubFolders;
}

Hope this helps.

Kasyan