• Literal text search and replace.
• Regular expression search and replace using Perl regular expressions.
• Multiple Replace Rules per task, that can be saved for later use in a Replace Plan.
• Perl scripting within Replace Rules and Replace Plans.
• Interactive as well as non-interactive modes of operation.

With Eluent Replace, you can create any number of Replace Plans that you can apply to Path Plans as the need arises, forming Replace Tasks. You can mix and match these plans graphically, and you can easily combine them on the command line or in batch files. Because Eluent Replace uses the Perl language, you get the full power of Perl regular expressions, and you can even include Perl code in your Replace Plans. Eluent Replace gives you all the benefits of Perl in an easy to use interactive environment.

Visual C++ Users

If you're looking to add Replace in Files capabilities to Microsoft Visual C++, Eluent Replace makes a great addition to the Tools menu. The Visual C++ Chooser lets you refer to files and projects currently open in the Visual C++ Developer Studio, as well as various important folders relevant to Windows programming in VC++, while Path Plans let you define and save complex folder searches for future use.

FrontPage 2000 Users

See this scripting example for a detailed description of how we're using Eluent Replace with FrontPage 2000. In brief, we've used scripting to work around a problem FrontPage 2000 has with external programs that modify webs, allowing us to apply Eluent Replace to FrontPage webs with a minimum of fuss.

Eluent Replace Mini-Tour

The Replace Task dialog box appears below. This is where you define your Replace Plan and Path Plan, and it's the first thing you encounter when you start Eluent Replace. The Replace Task below will apply an unnamed Replace Plan consisting of two Replace Rules to the Path Plan named "Web Projects", whose definition appears in the Path Plan Editor. The first Replace Rule is a literal text, case-insensitive rule that changes background color tags from #000080 to #800000, while the second is a case-insensitive, regular expression rule that changes the domain part of certain (imaginary) www and ftp URLs.

The Replace Rule List is shown below editing a rule in place, but it's obviously and unavoidably somewhat cramped. However, notice the icon that precedes the Replace Rules label. This icon signifies an Active Label, and clicking it or pressing Shift+Alt+U opens the Replace Rule Editor, a separate window that is resizable and provides multi-line editing of both the search pattern and replacement text. Each rule has its own set of options, which control whether the rule is active, requires confirmation, is case-insensitive, is a regular expression, etc., and passing the mouse pointer over an option column header displays a tooltip describing the option. You can also set these options in the Replace Rule Editor, which has room to spell them out. 

After pressing OK, Eluent Replace's main window appears, and Eluent Replace begins to carry out your Replace Task.

Next: The Main Window >>