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History of Siren's versions
2.01 : 2010/06/29
- Correction of a compatibility problem with the 64 bits versions of Windows
Under Vista 64 bits and 7 64 bits Siren "crashed" during the opening of the completion window
2.00 : 2007/07/02
- New data extracted from files
- Video: mov, m4v, mp4 (uncompressed header)
- Video DV AVI: date and timecode (to be validated due to lack of test files)
- Executable: exe, dll, com, ocx, cpl, tlb, vbx, olb, cnv, rll (a new group has been created)
- Torrent: The information is stored in the "Document" group
- EXIF: ImageUniqueID
- IPTC: ProgramVersion
- HTML: "date-creation-yyyymmdd" and "date-revision-yyyymmdd"
- Lines extracted from the clipboard
%C: line number relative to the file selection number
%Cn (%C1 ... %C9): absolute line number
A new example uses this feature to rename "associated" files (avi/srt, crw/thm, raw/jpg ...).
- Lines extracted from text files
The file name is specified between '{' and '}', the '\' have to be doubled.
If a "%T" is not associated to a filename it makes reference to the last previously named.
%T: line number relative to the file selection number
%Tn (%T1 ... %T9): absolute line number
Example: File_%T{"C:\\List.txt"}.jpg
- Date and time format
A new entry in the options ("Dates") enables to define:
- The default formats for the variables: date, time and date/time. It is the "strftime" syntax which is used. A specific help has been added.
- An eventual time value to add (positive or negative)
It follows the format already used for the durations: +999h99m99s
- New modifier "{}"
Its action, parameter list and their types depends on the variable it is associated to. Some parameters were already present in the options but not definable directly in the expression. By default, the values defined in the options will be used.
- All date and time variables: { f, t }
f: format, it is the "strftime" syntax which is used
t: time to add (positive or negative)
Example: using "%D" being equal to 01/02/2007 03h04m05s
%D{"%Y-%m-%d"} gives 2007-02-01 %D{"%jd %Hh%Mm%Ss"} gives 032d 03h04m05s %D{"%Hh%Mm%Ss",-2h} gives 01h04m05s %D{"%Hh%Mm%Ss",10h1s} gives 13h04m06s
- Selection numbers (%n, %np ...): { p, s, i }
p: number of digits
s: start value
i: step
Example:
%n %n{5,10,2} %n{4,100,-1} 1 00010 0100 2 00012 0099 3 00014 0098
- Numbers in names (%N1..%N9): { p, v, n }
p: number of digits
v: value to add (positive or negative)
n: position of the number. If negative the extraction is done from the end.
Example:
%N{5} %N2{3,5} %N2{1,-3} %N{3,0,-1} Fic5_of_10.txt 00005 015 7 010 DSC15-20.jpg 00015 025 17 020
- Non numeric strings in names (%NN1..%NN9): { n }
n: position of the string. If negative the extraction is done from the end.
Example:
%NN %NN{-1} %NN{-2} Fic5_of_10.txt Fic _of_ Fic DSC15-20.jpg DSC - DSC
- %ns and audio track number: { p }
p: number of digits
- Move/copy files to another directory
If necessary the missing directories are created. The '\' delineating the path elements have to be doubled. Examples:
C:\\Video\\%f Move files to the "C:\Video" directory C:\\Video\\%ub(5).* Move and change the name C:\\Music\\%Aa\\%f Move the file in a subdirectory named with the Artist name defined in the audio tag %b[1]\\%b[2].%e Move in a subdirectory corresponding to a part of the name C:\\Photo\\%Xdo{"%Y\\%m\\%d"}\\%f Move of the images in a directory tree corresponding to the date they have been taken
Add copy to rename:
It is possible to copy the selected files and name them with their associated "Future name". A new command line option "/C" enables to do this in "batch" mode.
Induced modifications:
- New option in the "Action" menu (Ctrl+G): Go into the current file's directory
- The operations done by filter: selection, unselection, highlight and search are done on the full file name (including the path). Before, the filter was not applied on the path
- All the paths "returned" by variables (%pa, %P ...) end with a '\'
- Sub-expressions
Separated by ';' and evaluated one after another on all the files.
Any reference to the file name is done to the "Future name" composed by the preceding sub-expression.
A specific example has been added.
Examples:
%lf;%f(s/^dtj /DTJ /)
%AT.%e;%N{4,10} - %At.%e
- Force case of some words
In the options it is possible to specify a list of words whose case has to be forced.
This only applies to variables content.
Two new character modifiers: '+' and '-' enable to force or prevent the use of this feature directly in an expression.
Examples: if "AbbA" is part of these words, on "abba - waterloo.mp3"
%b.%e gives AbbA - waterloo.mp3 %Ub.%e gives AbbA - Waterloo.mp3 %-Ub.%e gives Abba - Waterloo.mp3
- New variables
%fa: file name with the absolute path
%fc: the file name as displayed/computed
%pa: the absolute path to the file (ending with a '\')
%pr: the relative path to the file (ending with a '\')
%ncf and %ncfs:
Their principle is identical to the ones of %nc and %ncs except that the collision test doesn't take the path into account.
Modification of existing variables:
%F becomes %fd
%B becomes %bd
%E becomes %ed
%P was "absolute path to the file" and becomes "Siren's current directory", an eventual last '\' is added to its end
- Modification of the combos behavior: Expression, Directory and Filter
- The add of a directory to the list of the "Directory" combo becomes "manual".
A '+' button on their right has to be used- The "Del" key enables to delete elements from the lists
- The maximum number of elements in a list has been increased to 15
- Search in text windows
"Ctrl+F" enables searching text in the windows "Help", "Examples" ...
- New options
- Default date/time formats and default time to add (Options/Dates)
- Value to add to "number in names" (Options/Numbers)
- Use of the regional decimal separator (Options/Numbers)
- Sort files "à la" XP (Options/Display)
- Extraction (or not) of the files meta data (Options/Display)
- Lock the toolbars (Option in the "Display" menu)
Some elements go into the options
- Choice of the language (Options/General)
- The toolbar buttons "Automatic group selection" and "Display of empty columns" (Options/Columns)
- Minor modifications
- Vista compatibility
- New option in the "Edit" menu: Highlight the selected files
- Video codecs information improvement
- Keyboard shortcuts
- Most part of the keyboard shortcuts become usable too when the cursor is in a combo (Ctrl+R, F5 ...)
- In the main window, where text is modifiable, "Ctrl+Shift+E" displays information about the current editing operation
- In the "Expression" combo:
- F1 displays the help window
- Ctrl+I becomes Ctrl+Shift+I
- Ctrl+P disappears (included now in "Ctrl+Shift+E")
- Add of Ctrl+Shift+B which double the '\' in the current selection
- Ctrl+Y launches "Redo"
- Ctrl+W causes the exit of Siren
- Alt+W starts Window's explorer
- The "Create DOS batch file" feature has been deleted
- Favorites
- Edit favorite by Right Clicking on its entry in the "Favorites" menu
- The expression associated to "Favorites" menu option is displayed in the status bar
- Column header contextual menu
Copy of the selected files data to the clipboard- In the filter operation windows (search, selection, unselection, highlight) a new option enables to specify if the directories have to be taken into account.
- The step value for the "selection numbers" can be <= 0
- By default the columns size and modification date of the files are displayed
- Add/modification of examples
- and many others ...
- Bugs correction
- Data extraction of some files: raw images, Exif UserComment, pdf
- Start of the program associated to some file types
- Modification monitoring "lost" if answered "No" and "Don't ask again"
1.90 : 2006/04/13
- New information extracted from files
- html: tags "title", "base" and some "meta"
- url: address of the internet shortcut
- au: audio
- crw: FNumber, Exposure Program, Flash and Orientation
- New modifier: Regular Expression
Its format follows the standard: (s/exp/fmt/gi)
The library used is Boost's one.
Examples:
Image_%dmd(s/..(..)(..)(..)/$3-$2-$1/).*
%b(s/^S/#/i)(1,20)[1,"_"](s/\d+/@/g).%le
- New variables
- %nc: selection number relative to a name collision (same beginnings)
Even if its main purpose was to rename images taken in the same second, it is perfectly usable in any context.
For example:
Name Date of the shot %Xdo_%nc.%le IMGAAAA1.JPG 01/01/2005 00:00:00 20050101_000000_001.jpg IMGAAAA2.JPG 01/01/2005 00:00:00 20050101_000000_002.jpg IMGAAA45.JPG 12/12/2005 11:11:11 20051212_111111_001.jpg IMGAAA50.JPG 01/01/2005 00:00:00 20050101_000000_003.jpg
- %ncs: same principle as "%nc" except that it is empty for the first element of the "collision group" and prefixed by a "_" for the others.
For example:
Name Date of the shot %Xdo%ncs.%le IMGAAAA1.JPG 01/01/2005 00:00:00 20050101_000000.jpg IMGAAAA2.JPG 01/01/2005 00:00:00 20050101_000000_001.jpg IMGAAA45.JPG 12/12/2005 11:11:11 20051212_111111.jpg IMGAAA50.JPG 01/01/2005 00:00:00 20050101_000000_002.jpg
- %NN: non numeric string extracted from the base name
For example for: File.12jan06_host.txt
%NN corresponds to "File.", %NN2 to "jan", %NN3 to "_host" ... %NN9 to "" (empty string)
- %ns: number of selected files
- %R: a four digits pseudo random number
- %Ou: associated to the new column of the "Document" group: URL
- Display images according to their Exif/Ciff orientation
- "Directory" toolbar improvements
- Navigation history
- Choice of the disk
- All the "explorer" windows are taken into account
- Copy the names of the selected files to the clipboard
- New options
- During the loading of a directory, the subdirectories have to be filtered ?
- Display images according to their Exif/Ciff orientation ?
- Cleaning
- The Karaoke group disappears: its metadata are transferred to the groups "Audio" and "Audio tag"
- Deletion of redundant variables: %d, %dd, %dt, %t, %tc, %ta, %tm, %T
- The "%M" prefix doesn't exist anymore, it had an equivalent: "%A"
- The "%m" prefix doesn't allow access anymore to the "audio" variables group
The expressions using these deleted elements will have to be modified.
- Bugs fixes
- Rename if the "Future name" is empty
- Duration of MPEG files bigger than 2 GB
- and some others ...
- Minor modifications
- Improvement of the monitoring of the current directory modifications
- Maximum size of an expression is now 1024 characters
- The colour of the text of information windows is now the default value
- The group "Office&pdf" becomes "Document"
- Modification of the text associated to the Exif column "Orientation"
- The starting value of the selection numbers can be lower or equal to 0
- Infotip in the file list
- By default the display option is deactivated
- Add of the file modification date
- User interface improvement
- Three new examples
- and many others ...
1.80 : 2005/04/07
- Support of new information extracted from files
- Image info and tags: raw images (nef, cr2, crw, orf, pef, mrw, raf, srf, dng)
- IPTC: jpg, tiff, ...
- Exif:
- Extracted from tiff files
- SubsecTime, SubsecTimeOriginal, SubsecTimeDigitized
- Thumbnail: offset and size
- Audio info and tags: mp3 id2v2.2
- Thumbnail display
A new toolbar button enables you to visualize the main image or the thumbnail associated to the active file. An icon at the top left of the window indicates which one is displayed.
- File drag
The standard operations "Copy/Move/Create link" are available
- Highlight with a filter
Useful for file management operations (drag, delete, execute ...)
- Rename from command line
New parameters make it possible to automate the renamings. A specific help window has been created.
- Favorites
- "Add to favorites" opens an initialized edit window
- Button to copy the main expression
- Options
- List system/hidden directories and files
- Copy file list in the clipboard: replacement character of the column separator if it is present in the data
- Miscellaneous
- Focused and highlighted files keep these attributes after a sort or a directory reload
- If a loading is interrupted, it's the partially loaded part which is kept
- "Example" window modeless. This allows to access it while using Siren
- Audio track number <= 0 supported
- GPS Exif variable "%Xts" becomes "%XTS"
- During startup:
- If the last used directory is not reachable, Siren climbs back down the tree
- The invalid directories are deleted from the directory combo
- Bugs fixes
- Sort on Exif date columns
- Crash under XP SP2 during intensive reloads (F5) on an overloaded computer
- Problem with the "/I" command line parameter if the associated ini file is stored in the root directory
- Exif UserComments
- and others ...
- Minor modifications
- "History of the versions" menu option deleted
- Putting a value at the first place in a combo box only occurs after a choice made by opening its list box
- In "Options/Columns", the choice of a group is done with a combo
- and many others ...
1.70 : 2004/03/10
- Support of new information extracted from files
- Document info and tags: pdf ( information grouped with the office document ones)
- Audio info and tags: mpc (MusePack. Ape1, ape2 and id3v1 tags)
- Favorites
You can now keep and access easily to your preferred rename expressions (except combo)
- DOS rename commands file
This ".bat" file will contain the DOS commands that Siren would have executed
- Exif
14 new data extracted, dates in system format ...
- Replacement string modifier completed
An optional parameters has been added: search case sensitive (upper/lower)
For example for the file "AA_aa.txt":
%f("AA","BB",1,2,0) gives "BB_BB.txt" %f("AA","BB",1,2,1) gives "BB_aa.txt"
- New options:
- Display file size in bytes or most appropriate unit (byte, Kb, Mb, Gb)
- Empty variable if the associated data is invalid (dates)
- Display infotip in the file list
- New variable "%sb" size in bytes
%s gives now the size in the most appropriate unit
- Many user interface improvements
- button to recompute the "future names"
- "don't ask again" option during reload confirmation
- 2 new examples
- etc ...
- Bugs fixes
- Minor modifications
1.60 : 2003/11/06
- Image visualization
If the active file is a valid "jpg", "gif", "bmp", "ico" or "cur" file, its image is displayed in the bottom part of the main window.
- Image in the tag of a mp3, wma, wmv or asf file
You can view it and see or use all its associated information (even Exif).
- New columns/variables: attached image format (jpg, bmp ...)
- Column drag & drop
- Column contextual menu
- New completion window
It uses tabs, one per variable group. It is movable, resizable and isn't closed anymore after selection.
- Accented characters taken into account during sorts and case modifications
"è" and "È", "À" and "à" etc ... are equivalent.
For example, for the file "copia ÁÉÍÓÚ_áéíóú.JPG":
%uf gives "COPIA ÁÉÍÓÚ_ÁÉÍÓÚ.JPG" %f("é","#") gives "copia Á#ÍÓÚ_á#íóú.JPG"
- Accented characters to standard ASCII conversion
With the new character modifier '@', the accented characters can be automatically converted to standard ASCII.
For example, for the file "copia ÁÉÍÓÚ_áéíóú.JPG":
%@f gives "copia AEIOU_aeiou.JPG" %@Lf gives "Copia aeiou_aeiou.jpg" %@ub.%le gives "COPIA AEIOU_AEIOU.jpg"
- Column width to default value
You can easily come back to default widths. Globally through Options/Columns or individually through the column contextual menu.
- Bugs fixes
- Minor modifications
1.50 : 2003/06/26
- Support of new information extracted from files
- Audio info and tags: wma, ogg (compatible with the last Tag&Rename betas)
- Audio tags: wav
- Video info and tags: asf, wmv
- Image info: png
- Prefixed variables "%M" have a "%A" equivalent
After adding support for many new audio formats other than MP3, the prefix of variable "%M" had lost a little of its significance.
- Call of the shell contextual menu
Through Siren's contextual menu or by pressing the "Apps" key (key on the left of the right "Ctrl" key).
- Copy the value pointed by the mouse to clipboard
- Option to limit file name length
In Options/Modifications you can specify the maximum length a file name can be.
Siren will try to preserve intact its extension.
- Negative parameter "number of characters" for the extraction modifier "()"
This permits to specify a number of characters to extract relative to the length of the string.
For example, to rename "ABCDEF_123.txt" and "ZY#789.txt" to "ABCDEF.txt" and "ZY.txt"
use the expression: %b(1,-4).%e
- "[]" modifier completed
An optional parameter has been added: substrings list separators to use in place of the one defined in Options/Modifications.
For example: to rename the file "garden_house.jpg" to "house - garden.jpg"
Use the expression: %b[2,"_"] - %b[1,"_"].%e
- Delete heading and trailing spaces
By passing "0" as parameter, "[]" will give now the complete associated string after having deleted its begining and ending spaces (full trim).
(this work was already done on the extracted substrings)
- Undo/redo rename info in infotip
- Moves between combos/list with tabulation key
- Bugs fixes
- Minor modifications
1.40 : 2003/04/24
- Support of many new information extracted from files
- Video info: avi, mpg
- Video tags: avi
- Exif tags
- Audio: wav
- Images: jpg, tif, gif, pcx, bmp, dib, ico et cur
- Karaoke: mid, kar
- "Office" documents: doc, xls ...
- Paste the variable/value pointed by the mouse
By a right click on a displayed data, you can directly insert the associated variable or the value in the current expression.
- Buttons for automatic columns selection
You can let Siren choose automatically the groups of used columns and eventually display only the non empty ones.
- Add mp3 info: mono/stereo
- Modification of the Options/Columns interface
It's now possible to "manipulate" many columns simultaneously after a multiple selection (click -> shift+click, ctrl+click ...). Then you can move, unselect ... all of them.
- Replacement string modifier completed
Two optional parameters have been added: the starting occurrence and the number of replacements to do. If the starting occurrence is negative the replacement is done from the end.
For example for the file "autoexec.bat":
%f("e","E") gives "autoExEc.bat" %f("e","E",2) gives "autoexEc.bat" %f("e","E",1,1) gives "autoExec.bat" %f("e","E",-2,1) gives "autoExec.bat" %f("e","E",-2) gives "autoExEc.bat" ...etc ...
- Modification of variables %d and %D
To be more coherent, all "date" variables containby default the date and time in format: "YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS". To "extract" only the date just add a "d" to it and a "t" for the time.
- Parameters for variable %p: %pn
%p corresponds to the name of the "parent" directory (the directory containing the file). By adding a digit to "%p" you can choose the level.
Let's take, for example, the file: \image\house\garden\img1.jpg
%p gives "garden" %p2 gives "house" %p3 gives "image"
- Parameter for variable %n: %np
%n corresponds to the selection number, but as some users made me the remark, it was "judicious" that this selection number could be relative to the file path.
For example:
File %n %np \Dir1\Img1.jpg 001 001 \Dir1\Img2.jpg 002 002 \Dir2\Img3.jpg 003 001 \Dir2\Img4.jpg 004 002
- Parameters for variable %s
If %s gives the size in bytes, %sk gives it in kilo, %sm in mega et %sg in giga bytes.
- Selection filter in command line parameter list
You can access the command line parameter list by starting Siren with the parameter "/?" or "/help".
- "Examples" window
To facilitate the learning of expression syntax, a new window, accessible through the "?" menu, gives some detailed examples.
- Support of Fraunhofer MP3 VBR headers
- Bugs fixes
- Minor modifications
1.30 : 2002/12/18
- Load sub-directories (recursion)
It's possible to work on a complete directory tree, all previous operations are allowed.
- Directory loading in thread
The loading of a directory (and eventually his sub-directories) is done in a "thread". This keeps the main window accessible to any other task, especially to stop the loading.
- Display/hide groups of columns
Group of columns have been defined: base, mp3 v1 and mp3 v2. Toolbar buttons allow or not to display "active" columns (checked in options) associated to them.
- Replace/delete strings
The modifier "()" has been completed. His usage is very near of the standard "replace":
("string to replace", "replacement string")
For example, with the file "autoexec.bat":
%f("auto","automatic") will give "automaticexec.bat"
It's possible to concat as many modifiers "()" and "[]" as necessary
%b("auto","au-to")("ex")[1](2).bat will give "u.bat"
- Select/unselect with a file filter
- Search in the list with a file filter
- Set current position on first/next selected file
- %N variables: number contained in the base file name
For example, with the file "File12_15zzz784.txt"
%N corresponds to "12", %N1 to "12", %N2 to "15", %N3 to "784" ... %N9 to "" (empty string)
- 'L' modifier
It modifies the case of a string: first character uppercase, the rest lowercase.
- Negative parameter for "[]"
Like for substrings, this allows "right" extractions.
Let's take, for example the files:
"Jean Jacques - Album - Title 1.mp3" and "Jean-Jacques - Album - Title 2.mp3"
Knowing that the separator '-' isn't present between "Jean" and "Jacques" in the first name, what expression can extract album and title ?
%b[-2] - %b[-1].%e will give the expected result.
- "ini" file name in parameters list
By default Siren uses the file "Siren.ini" to keep all options values and his state at the end of the last execution. It is possible to specify a specific file name on the command line and so be able to use different Siren "configurations". You can access the command line parameter list by starting Siren with the parameter "/?" or "/help".
- New options:
- Directories are loaded in the list
- They appear at top of list. (directories and files are sort separately or not)
- File list displayed using a fixed font
- Expression combo displayed using a fixed font
- Filter combo displayed using a fixed font
- File filter to UNIX standard
The dos/windows filter standard has been extended to UNIX standard ("[!-]" meta characters)
- Add management of other shortcuts to Siren
The shortcuts management has been moved and new ones have been added.
- XP themes support
- Key sequences usable while writing an expression
- Ctrl-I: "Paste" current file name
- Ctrl-P: Current cursor position in status bar
- Modeless help window
This will allow you to access the help while using Siren.
- Bugs fixes
- Minor modifications
1.20 : 2002/09/10
- Monitor directory modifications
Siren can detect modifications made by other programs into his current directory.
Two options are available:
- Enable or not this monitoring
- Ask for confirmation before refresh
- Drop files / directories
You can "drop" files onto Siren. This will eventually load the concerned directory and select chosen files. A "dropped" directory will be loaded if the "drop" is done on the "Directory" combo.
- Siren's "Send To" shortcut management
The Windows Explorer's contextual menu contains a "Send To" sub-menu in which Siren can appear. You can create, modify or delete this shortcut through the options. The "Sent To" files will be automatically selected.
- Strings as arrays, modifier "[]"
You've noticed that many file names are in fact the concatenation of strings generally separated with '-'.
For example, a "mp3": 01 - Artist - Song Title.mp3
The modifier "[]" allows you to split a string into array elements. This operation will be done "around" a character (the list can be modified in the options), in our case, the '-'.
The expression: %b[1] - %b[3].%e
will give: 01 - Song Title.mp3
All other modifiers can be used, so: %b[1] - %ub[3](1,4).%e
will give: 01 - SONG.mp3
- Negative starting position for "()"
"()" can extract a substring, knowing "left" structure of the source. The "right" extraction was missing, it's now done using a negative "starting position".
Let's take, for example, the files: AA_AA_B21.txt, CCC_C32.txt and ZZ_ZZZ_T18.txt,
only the last 3 characters interest us.
the expression: %b(-3).%e
will give: B21.txt, C32.txt et T18.txt
and the expression: %lb(-3,1).%e
will give: b.txt, c.txt et t.txt
- Add command line parameters
You can access the list by starting Siren with the parameter "/?" or "/help".
- Improve MP3 analyze
- Calls to "Explorer" and "Properties"
- Current file name in status bar
This will allow you to know the current file even if the column "Name" can not be seen.
- Word separators list
The words can now be separated by something else than a "space", you can specify yourself the list.
- Bugs fixes
- Minor modifications
1.10 : 2002/07/12
- V2 MP3 Tag
- Add columns Bitrate, Sampling and Duration
- Add buttons for columns selection and order
- History of the versions
- FAQ, Credits
1.00 : 2002/06/14