Global Search and Replace Help
Rows Explained
The three rows with
blue headers are used to find topics that contains text to be replaced. The three rows with
black headers are used to find and replace text within the topics found in the previous three
blue rows
Row | Meaning | Default |
Topic Search String | Fully supported regular expression search | empty string |
Search Scope | text or topic | text |
Web | A single web name, e.g., TWiki | current web (now TWiki04) |
Replace Search String | Fully supported regular expression search. Up to four substrings in the found string may be "captured" by enclosing them in parentheses | empty string |
Replace String | Text that will replace the found text. Captured substrings from the Replace Search String are accessed with $1, $2, $3, and $4 | empty string |
Case Sensitive Replace Search | yes or no | yes |
Using Global Search And Replace
Example Global Search and Replace:
Note that there are two different search strings to define:
- The search string to select a set of topics (the
Topic Search String
)
- The search string to find the expression to replace within a topic (the
Replace Search String
)
These strings may be the same, especially when searching within the text, but both must be specified.
Note: Steps 1 and 2 may be combined.
Step 1: Select the Topics
Start by specifying the search criteria that will select the set of topics that contain the expression that is to be replaced. Using the top three rows first, you can try out different expressions. The
Topic Search String
fully supports regular expressions.
Select a
Search Scope
of
text
to search within a topic (the default), or select
topic
to search within the topic name only.
Enter the web to search (default: the current web). Only a single web is supported.
Click
Search
.
TWiki will display a list of topics meeting the search criteria. If the list is correct, proceed to Step 2; otherwise, go
Back
in your browser, correct the search criteria, and click
Search
again. (Or click
Start Over
to clear all fields.)
Note: You do not need to escape special characters, i.e. the double quote ("), or worry about TWiki variables rendering in
Replace Search String
and
Replace String
. However,
Topic Search String
must be written as you would for the
search
parameter of a %SEARCH%. Thus, to have
%WEB%
search correctly in
Topic Search String
, you must use
%WEB[%]
to escape the TWiki rendering. There is a known bug that if you escape a double quote with
\"
upon hitting the
Search
button the escape character, '\', will disappear but the search will have functioned properly.
Step 2: Find the Text to Replace and Specify the Replacement
The next step is to define a
Replace Search String
: the string to search for and replace within each topic selected by Step 1. The
Replace Search String
also fully supports regular expressions. Like regular expressions, you can capture up to four substrings using parentheses. Then use $1, $2, $3, and $4 in the
Replace String
to insert the captured substrings. See above example.
Set the
Replace String
to the new string which is to replace the found strings. The
Replace String
can be blank (which will delete the strings found in the selected topics). A known issue with the replace string is documented below.
Again click
Search
. TWiki will display a page of all "hits" on each topic selected in Step 1. Each hit has a checkbox and shows the
Replace Search String
highlighted in red and the
Replace String
in orange. If possible, the results will display the 40 characters on each side of the hit for context.
Nothing will be saved until completing Steps 3 and 4 below.
Once satisfied, proceed to Step 3. If the results are not as required, go
Back
in your browser, correct any of the fields in the form, and click
Search
again to display a new set of results.
Step 3: Select the Hits to be Replaced
Click the checkboxes for the hits you want to replace. Use the
Set All
and
Clear All
buttons below the hits if convenient.
Step 4: Make the Replacements
Once the checkboxes are as required, click
Replace All Check Marked Hits
to commit your changes.
Only members of the
TWikiAdminGroup will be allowed to commit changes.
Known Issues
- Currently, the
Replace String
cannot handle more than one set of double quotes. For example, %META:FIELD{name="TopicClassification" title="TopicClassification" value="TWikiChangeRequest"}%
will be truncated to %META:FIELD{name="TopicClassification"
if you try to commit the changes.
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