Question

I’m looking to create aAppleScript that when run will:

1. Search the document for a given string
2. Replace that string with another given string

The strings will always be the same

Search for

This will be used in textmate – I was trying to do this in textmate

I know I can use textmate’s find and replace functionality – I’m just trying to automate a little.

This should only make changes on the current page.

Is this possible?

UPDATE:
So I’ve found some code that has got me started…

tell application "TextMate" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "f" using {command down}
        tell process "TextMate"
            keystroke "<?"
            keystroke tab
            keystroke "<?php"
            click button "Replace All"
        end tell
    keystroke "esc"
end tell

but I get the following error:

error "System Events got an error: Can’t get button \"Replace All\" of process \"TextMate\"." number -1728 from button "Replace All" of process "TextMate"

On the find and replace dialog of Textmate the button is labeled “Replace All” Am I missing something here?

Answer 1

You’ll have to send the keystroke to the proper window. Something like tell window "find dialog" (or whatever). You have to be completely specific, so it might be

tell tab 1 of pane 1 of window "find and replace" of app textmate... 

User interface scripting is so hackalicious you should only do it as a last resort.

Looks like you need sed.

on a command line, or with do shell script:

cat /path/to/your/file.php|sed "s_<?_<?php_g">/path/to/your/newfile.php

or for a whole folder’s worth

cd /path/to/your/folder
for file in *.php; do  cat "$file"|sed "s_<?_<?php_g">"${file/.php/-new.php}"; done