Converters Options

 

 

The controls on this page let you define converters to apply on files at loading time so as to allow conversions from binary to text format for example. This is the primary place to edit converters.

The list contains all the registered converters (active or not). Use checkboxes to enable or disable converters. The  New and Edit buttons will open the Converter details dialog box. Use the Remove button to delete a converter from the list.
Removing a converter can be undone only by cancelling the whole Options dialog box.

An Auto-detection feature is provided with Ellié Computing Merge. This feature allows to configure converters by simply including detection scripts in the 'macros' application folder. We provide a variety of detectors built-in with Ellié Computing Merge. If you think that a particular tool would fit well this purpose and is not built-in, please contact us. We will study the possibility of including a detection script in the main build or in the Add-Ons part of our website (in fact, we'll make all efforts to make it work, but sometimes there is no way!).

Typically if your converter is covered by a plug-in, you just have to install it if it has an installer, or unzip it to the user-converters sub-folder aside ECMerge executable (for Mac OS X, it is within the package content, in Contents/MacOS).  Placing your converters in user-converters sub-folder is particularly practical if you placed ECMerge in a USB stick in its "portable" mode.

If you do not want to ask us for a detection script or the tool is not widely available. Please read and follow the below instructions to add converters.

Currently the converter mechanism is better oriented toward files but is able to handle folders as well. Converters take in fact a path in input and produces something at a location specified by Merge. The input file name is matched against a mask (e.g. *.doc), the converter can do anything you like.

ECMerge colours enabled converters in red when they are hidden by another more generic converter placed before in the list. Such a converter would be indeed never selected by ECMerge for use. The converter which hides another one is coloured in blue.

Each converter contains the following information:

If a converter is enabled for certain patterns, it will be used to preprocess files matching these patterns prior to comparison. If more that one converter is enabled for a pattern, all of them will be executed one by one in top-down order. You can change the order of converters with the  Move UpMove Down  buttons near the list.

This screen also let you Import/Export converters definitions.

 You cannot save converted files in place, since saving the converted data would destroy the original file. Though, you can edit them and save them elsewhere.

 Use of standard input and output streams: For technical reasons, it is not possible to use the standard input and output stream in converters. Please write a batch such as the following example. Note that under Unices, parameters use the $ prefix in place of % (i.e. $1 in place of %1)

You wish to use a converter with the following arguments:

app_name --options < $(input) > $(output)

Use the stdioconv converters located in the converters directory ( stdioconv.sh for Unix-like, stdioconv.bat for Windows and stdiocon9x.bat for old Win9x Windows) and call them as explained in their sources.

   A converter can take an archive and generate a folder from this archive. This is particularly useful for ZIP, tar or any archive format which can contain several files. You can also use converters for gzip, bzip files and generally any single-file compression formats.

See also