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Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 3:51:48 AM

thinicer

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Joined: 5/17/2006
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Hello all,

I cannot figure out how to rename a bunch of folders in a directory from one naming convention to another. It's not as simple as adding a 1 in the front, or at the end of its name. Certain things need to be removed and added.

Here is an example of a directory that needs to be renamed:

Existing Folder: 05-0009.P0 Alpha Project
New Folder: 050009.00.P0 Alpha Project

Here is another folder:

Existing Folder: 01-0015.26 Beta Agreement
New Folder: 010015.00.26 Beta Agreement

As you can see, the new naming convention removes the hyphen and adds a .00 in the middle of the folder name.

The existing folders all have the same naming convention, that is....##-####.## Project Name and they need to be renamed to ######.00.## Project Name.

I would really appreciate it if somebody could assist me with a VBS script. I've exhausted many hours of research online to figure out how to do this, and the only scripts I have come across are ones that make all the folders in a directory lowercase, or adding a character to the beginning or end of the folder name.

Thank you all in advance.

- Michael

Post #: 1

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 4:14:46 AM

ehvbs

Posts: 2204
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From: Germany
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Hi thinicer,

try this:

(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 2

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 4:29:48 AM

thinicer

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Hi ehvbs,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm pretty green to the art of scripting.

Is it necessary for me to create an array of all the hundreds of folder names in the script, as well as their new names? This part has me a bit confused.

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 3

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 4:48:21 AM

ehvbs

Posts: 2204
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From: Germany
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Hi thinicer,

The script test the method

sMsg = Left( sMsg, 2 ) + Mid( sMsg, 4, 4 ) + ".00" + Mid( sMsg, 8 )

to change a name against the two examples you posted. You should add
some other test cases (old name - expected new name) to aTests and
see if the method still gives correct results.

(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 4

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 4:55:26 AM

thinicer

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The script came back with the following results:

05-0009.P0 Alpha Project 050009.00.P0 Alpha Project True
01-0015.26 Beta Agreement 010015.00.26 Beta Agreement True

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 5

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 5:03:28 AM

thinicer

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I tried two other folder names, and they both completed successfully.

(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 6

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 5:11:23 AM

ehvbs

Posts: 2204
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Joined: 6/22/2005
From: Germany
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yes - because these two sample inputs are renamed by the string manipulation method
to the expected results. If you are confident that these samples are representative
for (?) your hundreds of folder names, integrate something like

sOldName = <name of folder to rename>
sNewName = Left( sOldName, 2 ) + Mid( sOldName, 4, 4 ) + ".00" + Mid( sOldName, 8 )

in your script.

(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 7

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 6:26:17 AM

thinicer

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Thanks for the help. It works great!

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 8

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 7:15:15 AM

thinicer

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Joined: 5/17/2006
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Hey ehvbs,

I guess I spoke too soon. While the script works, I didn't count on something else.

All these folders are on a DFS. The script I made, instead of replicating just the simple file name change (2 KB), it is replicating ALL of the data in the folders, gigs and gigs worth.

Do you know if any way to write a script that will just do a simple name change but won't replicate all the data in the folders? If I were to do this manually, by highlighting the folder and manually changing the name using explorer, it would not force a complete replication.

Here is the script I'm working. Most of the code comes from another post on this forum:

Dim fso,f,fc
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set f = fso.GetFolder("c:\test")
Set fc = f.SubFolders
For Each f1 in fc
      RenameFolder(f1.Name)
Next
Sub RenameFolder(folder)
'Will rename directory to new naming convention
   strOldname = folder
   strNewFolder = Left( strOldName, 2 ) + Mid( strOldName, 4, 4 ) + ".00" + Mid( strOldName, 8 )
   f1.Name = strNewFolder
End Sub

Would be great if it didn't replicate all the data!

Thanks for all your help with this.

- Michael

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 9

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 8:15:21 AM

thinicer

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You know what? this script would probably work with DFS if it is run from the directory where it is stored, excluding all other areas.

I only want it to focus on one folder at a time, but I don't believe it is doing this.

So how do I set this script to focus on the current folder where the vbs file is?

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 10

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 8:19:09 AM

ebgreen

Posts: 5070
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Joined: 7/12/2005
Status: online

Change this:

Set f = fso.GetFolder("c:\test")

to this:

Set oWSHl = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strPWD = oWSHl.CurrentDirectory
Set f = fso.GetFolder(strPWD)

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(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 11

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 8:51:43 AM

ehvbs

Posts: 2204
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Hi thinicer,

I used

to verify that Folder.Name works as advertised in the VBScript Docs. I know
that rename and move are related and that to move to another drive means
copy. So what exactly is this DFS?
Your script shouldn't access anything outside c:\temp. Do you have links
in your folder tree?
Perhaps you should put some WScript.Echo Folder.Path in your code.
Sorry that I have no solution for your problem.

(in reply to ebgreen)

Post #: 12

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 9:09:39 AM

thinicer

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DFS = Distributed File System

DFS is used on WANs so that data between LANs can be replicated to each other. When somebody makes a change on one network, that change is then reflected in the other. All these folders that need to be renamed are on a DFS. Renaming a folder with a very simple click with the mouse, plus a couple of keyboard strokes, using windows explorer only replicates 2 kb of data. However, using the script I had before is causing all the data from the root DFS directory to replicate, all gigs and gigs worth. Weird.

Thanks for all your help and effort guys. I'll give these scripts a shot. If they don't work, I'm going to declare defeat simply because Saturday is when we're supposed to rename all these folders.

This was definitely a great learning experience.

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 13

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/17/2006 11:43:21 PM

dalemontgomery45177

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If the vbs 'rename and move are related ' then perhaps you can try using the REN command via command line prompt. Test it manually and if successful, the script you have can be adjusted to call the REN command do do the actual renaming.

(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 14

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/18/2006 11:38:42 PM

thinicer

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ebgreen, thank you very much for your contribution. It solved my problem. The script now executes within the directory and it doesn't cause a massive replication of all data in DFS. It just changes the names of the folders like it is supposed to do.

Outstanding! Thanks again!

(in reply to ebgreen)

Post #: 15

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/18/2006 11:39:57 PM

thinicer

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ehvbs, thank you also for your code that helped me rename the folders to the convention I want. Both you and ebgreen helped save my department and our operations team lots and lots of time.

THANKS! :)

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 16

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/19/2006 1:20:03 AM

ehvbs

Posts: 2204
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Hi thinicer,

thank you for your kind words. You are most welcome. Just because the
move/copy problem made me very nervous: Can you tell us something
about the reason/remedy for it?

(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 17

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/19/2006 1:24:29 AM

thinicer

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Move/Copy problem, you mean with DFS replicating all the data?

(in reply to ehvbs)

Post #: 18

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/19/2006 1:31:20 AM

ehvbs

Posts: 2204
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From: Germany
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yes, please.

(in reply to thinicer)

Post #: 19

RE: Script to rename lots of folders - 5/19/2006 1:50:07 AM

thinicer

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Joined: 5/17/2006
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It's kind of hard to explain since I don't know DFS that well, but I will give it my best shot.

When you set up DFS you have to specify a root of all the data you want to replicate. For example, suppose I want to replicate data all data in the D:\DFSdata\ on my server. D:\DFSdata is therefore the root.

Now, the script I was using before specified a path, so if I wanted to change all the folder names in D:\DFSdata\Work\Projects I would have to put that path in the script and I could theoretically run from the script from another folder or another drive if I wanted. Because of the way DFS is configured, and because that script I was using before uses a path, it goes up the tree. It goes to DFSdata, and then goes to Work, and then goes to Projects and changes the path of the folders from the ROOT itself.

So, it changes D:\DFSdata\Work\Projects\Old Folder Name to D:\DFSdata\Work\Projects\New Folder Name.

So when it did these changes, it just began replicating all the data on the server for some reason because the root was included in the path.

The new script that ebgreen assisted me with runs from within the folder it is located in, so the only path it concerns itself with where it is located onwards. It runs from the current folder, kind of like running an executable where it is located instead of just using a shortcut on your desktop.

That's the best way I can describe it.

(in reply to ehvbs)