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 Up/ Move 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