Using ColdFusion and RegEx on a special file naming convention

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:49:00 -0700

I had a project where we had a graphics library, and a bunch of zip files were placed in a directory. The zip files contained 1 or more images packaged up. It was mostly used for product shots to show views of front, back, left, or right. Each zip file could have an associated thumbnail preview image. The files followed a special naming convention, with file names in a format of: SUBJ_DESC_VIEW_FORMAT_TYPE.zip. I used a RegEx (regular expression), as well as the Find() function to parse the file name. SUBJ is the subject, and should describe the file, and helps order the files alphabetically in the directory. DESC is the description, such as: LOGO, Model, Version-3, etc. (hint: you can lengthen the description with up to 3 dashes -'s) VIEW is optional, and can be either: Ft (front), Rt (right), Lt (left), or Bk (back) FORMAT can be either: PPT, PRINT, or WEB TYPE is optional, and can be either: EPS, JPG, TIF A thumbnail preview can be used, and must be named: SUBJ_DESC_VIEW_thumb.gif (or .jpg). If VIEW was used for the zip file name, it must also be used in the thumbnail file name. Example zip file: UTM_1100D_Ft_PRINT_EPS.zip Example thumb file: UTM_1100D_Ft_thumb.gif Here was the code I used to parse the file name and display a friendly version without dashes to the user.






#Replace(Mid(name,found.pos[1]+1,found.len[1]-2),"-"," ","ALL")#



	(Front view)

	(Right view)

	(Left view)

	(Back view)




	(EPS High-Res)

	(JPG High-Res)

	(TIFF High-Res)

	(PowerPoint)

	(WEB Low-Res)

	(PRINT High-Res)



	File: #name#

	#file_desc#

Here is an example of what the parsing accomplished. Example zip file: UTM_Model-1100D-Silver_Ft_PRINT_EPS.zip The user would see: Model 1100D Silver (Front view) (EPS High-Res)

Speedy CSV file parsing using ColdFusion

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:23:00 -0700

A client of mine needed a solution to bulk import CSV files of affiliate coupon data into his database. I found a great blog by Ben Nadel who covered the exact topic I was looking for: CSVToArray() ColdFusion UDF For Parsing CSV Data / Files After I implemented Ben's function, we were able to import 1000 records in about 1.6 seconds. Not bad, considering it used to take him hours of time to manually input the coupons one at a time. Thanks Ben (and Steven Levithan who helped improve the RegEx)

WebDH blog - RegEx

Using ColdFusion and RegEx on a special file naming convention

Speedy CSV file parsing using ColdFusion