Version 9.0

[Lee Montgomery]

Love the new UI with Text Soap version 9.0!

But HELP, I can't find any of the custom cleaners I had been using in version 8!

Please instruct me on how to find and re-import them.

Thanks!

[Mark Munz]

Thanks. Happy to hear you love the new UI.

I will investigate why it didn't initiate an import on initial launch. A lot of moving bits the last couple weeks, so could be I introduced an unexpected bug.

To import your old cleaners by hand. Go to MyLibrary : Import… 

Select file and go to ~/Library/Application Support/TextSoap/textsoap8.textsoap8data where ~ is your home folder.

You can get to that file in the Finder by selecting Help > Reveal Application Support Folder

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Mark Munz
unmarked software
http://www.unmarked.com/

[Mark Munz]

Not perfect, but a slightly better option is now available with 9.0.1 update. 

TextSoap 9.0.1 now prompts you to Review cleaners to import if it finds a previous database.

Select Review to go to the import panel and then select "Import selected" when you're happy with the cleaners.

Once you've successfully imported your cleaners, select "Don't ask again" and then "Skip" to ignore when you are prompted again.

Mark

[Lee Montgomery]

I was able to import textsoap8.textsoap8data, and I now have my custom cleaners again.

Thanks for your prompt response! #Impressed

TextSoap ROCKS!

[Thijs De Block]

The new update seems great!

One big downside is that the batch file cleaning seems to have stopped working completely. It used to work but now has no effect on my .md files.

Is there a way I could fix this?

On setapp version 9.0 (3003)

Osx 12.0

[Mark Munz]

Apologies. I was able to reproduce your issue and it definitely looks like a bug. Not quite sure what is going on, but I am investigating the details now and hope to get a fix in the next update.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/textsoap/f49f847d-7e66-40b2-8f15-161a2279c995n%40googlegroups.com.

[Thijs De Block]

Thanks a lot for taking a look at it so quickly. 

I hope you can locate and eliminate that dirty bug. In the meanwhile, I’ve been able to restore version 8.6.3, which has no issues when batch cleaning. A good temporary fix for me.

In any case, it’s a good reminder to see how crucial TextSoap is for my workflow.

[Mark Munz]

Well, thanks for catching the bug. There are lots of moving parts within the app and sometimes things… um… seem to move on their own. 😉

I'm happy to hear you were able to revert back until it gets fixed (9.0.2). It's just figuring out when that happens. Always a few extra hiccups right at launch, but in the 23 years of publishing TextSoap, I've learned to get used to that.

 Batch cleaning didn't get any major changes this time. But I think it deserves a bit more attention. As an example of what I would like to see as a user:

- the ability to save the options under a name and recall them.

- maybe a way to set the default options whenever the window is brought up

- support the processing of markdown files w/o any extra effort

 

As a batch cleaning user, I'd love to hear any additional feedback on what you'd like to see.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/textsoap/3dbd8b9c-b301-4c18-bd13-78bbc95326d2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Thijs De Block]

Glad to hear the batch cleaning will be getting some love. It’s really a powerful tool that I haven’t seen anywhere else.

- the ability to save the options under a name and recall them.

Cool idea! Also, I tend to make lots of changes to the same folders, could be useful if TextSoap remembered these.

- maybe a way to set the default options whenever the window is brought up

This is the biggest one for me. I’ve already messed up entire libraries by forgetting to change the cleaner function after opening textsoap (had backups though). It would be nice if TextSoap remembered the last used setting or had no settings selected upon launch, so you’d be reminded to select a cleaner before mindlessly smashing that “Process Files” button.

In addition to this: The way the options are presented here makes it hard to find the cleaner you’re looking for. Something in my brain expects a list of this length to be alphabetical. A better option may be to include the same headers (Basics, Remove Extraneous…) as elsewhere in the app. However, your first idea might make this less needed.

- support the processing of markdown files w/o any extra effort

No idea if this is what you mean, but a great workflow might be if you were able to select the files/folders you’d like to clean in finder, right click -> services menu -> select the cleaner you prefer -> done. 

Additional feedback
- Not essential, but a progress bar would be useful when changing big piles of text.
- Apart from the “Filter” and “Cleaner” I don’t really touch the other options in batch cleaning. Most of them are not 100% obvious to me in what their effect would be. But haven’t felt the need to look into these either.

An issue I had not related to batch cleaning: None of the TextSoap functions seem to work within Obsidian. Any thoughts on why this might be? It’s an Electron app, so i assume this has some kind of limitation?

Also, this seems to be some kind of bug? Doesn't bother me but is present in 9.0.1.

In any case, it’s awesome that you’ve been maintaining and improving this app over the years! Thanks for being open to suggestions.

[apkawel]

Ugh, this happened to me and all my custom cleaners are gone. I tried the solution Mark suggested, but all of the custom cleaners that I added to the Version 9 Beta weren't included in the TextSoap 8 data file. 

Mark, is there a way to save the day?

Thanks in advance,

—Andy

[Mark Munz]

As can happen, no matter how broad a net you throw in trying to test a product before release, having tons of real world users take it on can sometimes show what beta testing does not. Version 9.0.2b2 was put out last night on the beta feed. Related changes to your problem:

9.0.1 prompts you to import TextSoap 8 cleaners on launch. They live in separate files.

9.0.2b2 fixes a problem with custom group importing that caused the data to not get transferred over correctly.

If you want to grab the latest beta, you can option-click TextSoap > Check for Beta Updates. If you want to stay with beta updates, go to Preferences > Updates and enable the Show Beta Releases (along with Automatically check for updates)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/textsoap/0ca2e78c-0b0f-4f74-9a88-93b136d0b5e4n%40googlegroups.com.

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Same as Andy. All the custom cleaners I had during the beta are gone… I looked inside the ~/Library/Application Support/TextSoap/textsoap9.textsoap9data
file with BBEdit and I can see them all there, but they do not appear inside TextSoap 9.0.x itself (including in 9.0.2b2).

Corentin

[Mark Munz]

That is strange because the difference between the beta and final releases don't do anything different with how the library is handled.

Can you zip the textsoap9.textsoap9data file and email it to support @ unmarked.com so I can investigate? I would definitely like to get that resolved. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/textsoap/a291116f-2b28-4d7b-9ad3-3dee5f026bf5n%40googlegroups.com.

[Mark Munz]

Can you zip up and email your textsoap9.textsoap9data file? I'm trying to duplicate the problem so I can track down what is going on.

Email it to me at support @ unmarked.com as an attachment.

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Sent!!

I played a bit with the textsoap9.textsoap9data on one of my Mac. If I start fresh, everything works as expected (I can import and export cleaners, etc.). I now wonder whether my textsoap9.textsoap9data file got corrupted in one of the betas (on all my Mac). That would sure explain the issues I've had importing cleaners and the fact that now none of my previous cleaners show up in the final version. 

Corentin

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

As a side note, I found a way to rescue the data.

I exported a cleaner from TextSoap.

I used BBEdit to open the old textsoap9.textsoap9data package and show me the content of the main0090.textsoap9Lib file inside. I then copied the data between <dict></dict> tags between each of the UUIDs in the file.

I replaced the equivalent portion in the exported cleaner with the one I had extracted from the textsoap9.textsoap9data file, and re-imported it in TextSoap.

One by one, I was able to reimport them all and get TextSoap to show them all :-)

Corentin

[Mark Munz]

Thanks. I will take a look at it and see if I can figure out what is going on.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/textsoap/3669b6d9-7951-433c-bb7e-ca589a422af2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Mark Munz]

9.0.2b3 is out and should fix the database loading problem seen by some.

[Joyce]

I just wanted to say how great the new version is! I already loved Textsoap but love the new design. I'm sure I'll find more, but on an initial play I love:

- Having the 'My Library' icon for easy access to custom cleaners - I was always forgetting where these were before!

- The 'preview' option for designing custom cleaners - this has really made it so much easier to build complex cleaners

- The Help menu has so many more options, I only just found this Discussion Group through there

- 'For each line' tool is a great tool

- The custom cleaners are much more attractive now, and a bit more intuitive - for some reason I always found it hard to delete cleaners before, it is much easier now.

I had a couple of minor questions though:

- How do I add a new cleaner to an existing group? I expected I might be able to right-click on it or drag and drop it, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

- I feel like I might need more of an explanation of the new 'Table' actions/cleaners. At first, I thought I would be able to use it to clean up rich text tables (which is something I'd love to have) but I couldn't quite work out how I was supposed to 'define the table' - pasting the table in made it all one column. I think I might just not quite understand what the purpose of it is.

And another question - I'm not sure, but did there use to be a 'duplicate' cleaner function when creating a custom cleaner and, if so, has this moved? It's not a function I use a lot, but I did go to to right-click to duplicate and couldn't find it, so my guess is I might have tried that before!

All in all though this is really a fantastic utility, it's my No. 1 app and reason for using Setapp.

Joyce.

[Mark Munz]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad you like a lot of the changes.

> - How do I add a new cleaner to an existing group? I expected I might be able to right-click on it or drag and drop it, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

If you mean one of the built-in cleaners groups, that is not an option.

You can, however create a custom group based on an existing group. Then, you can add cleaners to it. 

For example, if you wanted to add custom cleaners to the existing 'Markdown' group

 - Create a new group, call it something like 'Markdown+' and base it on the Markdown group

 - Now you have a custom group that you can add additional cleaners to.

 - In the custom group editor, double-click the cleaner in the list to add it to the workspace

> - I feel like I might need more of an explanation of the new 'Table' actions/cleaners. At first, I thought I would be able to use it to clean up rich text tables (which is something I'd love to have) but I couldn't quite work out how I was supposed to 'define the table' - pasting the table in made it all one column. I think I might just not quite understand what the purpose of it is.

A List (Table) is defined as a tab-delimited collection of lines, with the first 4 columns recognized. This mimics the data you might have in a spreadsheet. Each row is treated as a single "record". When you process a list (using the Process List action), each row is taken and find/replace actions replace $v{A} with the item in column A, $v{B} with the item in column B, etc.

So if your data looks like this (assuming <tab> is an actual tab, <return> is actual return)

Unmarked Software<tab>https://unmarked.com<return>

TextSoap<tab>https://textsoap.com<return>

Apple<tab>https://apple.com<return>

Setapp<tab>https://setapp.com<return>

Add a Define List action and select edit. Option click edit to edit the data as a text-list, otherwise it will be a table. Give it a name.

If you option-click the Define List edit button, you can edit it in its plain text form. It also shows what the underlying data looks like

Then add a Process List action and select your list from the popup.

Here I added a Regex Find and Replace. I selected "Match Case" to prevent accidental matches from the list like apple and unmarked things.

When I create the expression, I can pull information from each column using $v{A}, where A-D are the column names

In this case, I use the text in column A followed by a \b (word break). Note: It is a simple text replacement, so you can put expressions in the table as well if you like.

The replacement then converts this to a Markdown hyperlink, which is in the form of [Text](link)

Process List will take each row in the list and apply the actions it contains, replacing the $v{A} with the contents of column A, $v{B} with the contents of column B, etc.

Here is a simple example of text

And after the cleaner is applied:

Now, if I want to add another term (or ten) to add a link to, I just add it to the list.

If you find yourself repeating a find/replace action but with slightly different text data, it could be a candidate for using a List.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/textsoap/068b1e94-6e1b-4cda-bde4-a6209b3a7aa3n%40googlegroups.com.