[VB, CS3] How to place images using wildcards in filenames

[_Nigel_Beames_]

Dear all,

Can anyone think of a way to place an image using a wildcard in the filename?

I can place the image fine if the complete filename is known, but what if the filename changes from day to day? - eg it could be House1234.tif for one document then House56r.tif for another. So I'd like to place House*.tif sort of thing. The files are in different folders, of which the path is known.

Any ideas?

Nigel

[Peter Kahrel]

Get the contents of the whole folder in an array, then you can check each item to see if it matches some criterium. In Javascript (VB should be similar):

function find_file (dir, mask)

   {

   var f = Folder (dir).getFiles ('*.*');

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

   if ( // compare f.name and mask here

      return f;

   }

This returns the first file in "dir" that matches "mask".

Peter

[Jeremy bowmangraphics]

I found this very helpful, thanks!

I scan the crossword every day and use a script to place it in InDesign, create a matching grid and so on, to do the crossword on screen. I wanted to use the scanner's default choice of folder and filename, which is something like "15-05-2019_103515.jpg" (from today's date + time). Although I didn't use a wildcard in my mask, I used the slice method to remove all but the date.

[Laubender]

Hi Jeremy,

method getFiles() supports a filter function as well.

var myFilteredFilesArray = myFolder.getFiles
(
function( file )
        { 
            if
            (
                file instanceof File
                &&
                file.name.match( /* testForSuffixRegExp or whatever you like */ )
                &&
                !file.hidden
            )
            return true
        }
);

Hope, you'll get the idea.

Regards,
Uwe

[Jeremy bowmangraphics]

Hi Uwe,

That looks very useful too, thanks very much! I'm sure I'll use that approach in future. For what it's worth, here's the code I was using before I decided the slice method was easier:

var myRegex = new RegExp(myYear + "-" + myMonth + "-" + myToday + "_\\d{6}\\.jpg");

var myFile = findFile("Macintosh HD/Users/jeremy/Pictures", myRegex);

myPage.place(myFile, [36,36]);

function findFile(myFolder, myRegex) {

    var myFiles = Folder(myFolder).getFiles("*.*");

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

        if (myFiles.name.match(myRegex)) return (myFiles);

        }

    }

Jeremy

[Jeremy bowmangraphics]

(Works beautifully too, by the way — thanks again!)