* Search and Replace Plugin

[dewilkinson]

I make extensive use of this very helpful plugin, particularly because I use a number of unique abbreviations to speed up data entry and convert them at the end of each month before I update my website. A couple of examples are v: = volume: mmn = mother's maiden name.

A very useful enhancement would be that it doesn't exit after completing a run reverting to the options screen. It is a little tedious having to restart it each time. If the plugin doesn't find anything it leaves the options screen open. The problem might be that you can't look at the results query output if it makes replacements, if so, could an option to leave open be added, default off?

[tatewise]

Hi David,
I have moved this to the Plugin Discussions Forum.

When nothing is found the popup window says No matching items have been replaced/reported.

How about always having a similar popup window saying how many matching items have been replaced/reported?
That window could have two buttons, one to Continue and one to Close the Plugin instead of the single OK button.

When the Plugin eventually closes, the Result Set would list the entire series of items replaced/reported.

There is one snag I can think of...
If you perform a series of various replacements there will be only one Result Set and Edit > Undo Plugin Updates will be an all or nothing option, so if one of the various replacements did not work as expected you cannot roll back just those changes.

[dewilkinson]

Mike,

That sounds the sort of solution I was looking for. I think an explicit warning would need to be visible about the potential consequences of repeat runs if you haven't taken a GEDCOM file backup first, which I always do as it takes seconds before using this plugin.

[tatewise]

Firstly, taking a GEDCOM backup is often unnecessary as the default Snapshot backups may suffice.
Secondly, such a backup is no better than Edit > Undo Plugin Updates as they are both an all or nothing option.
Neither option will allow you to undo just a subset of the multiple replacements.