FileBot

Posted: **13 Oct 2014, 21:47**

As a hidden bonus feature, FileBot supports quick and efficient generic batch renaming, and you can rewrite the filenames with awesome Groovy expressions just like in Episode / Movie mode.

1. Drop files into Original Files
2. Click on the empty New Names component
3. Now that New Names has focus press F2 (for Plain File Mode) or F3 (for Local Xattr Mode)
4. New Names will instantly filled with File objects (in Plain File Mode) or Movie / Episode objects (in Local Xattr Mode)
5. Double Click any item in New Names to apply a new Format Expression

Create Presets for repetitive tasks.

Hit F2 after selecting an item to edit the name.

Hit F3 after selecting an item to select a different metadata object.

--db file and --db xattr can be used for Plain File Mode and Local Xattr Mode on the command-line.

Rename photos

Add a fixed prefix (e.g. place taken) and a serial number at the beginning of the file name for sorting purposes, followed by which camera model took the photo, and preserve the photo number from the original filename at the end of the new file name.

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Taiwan { i.pad(3) } - { camera.model } { fn.after('IMG_') as int }

i ... item number, fn ... current filename

Pre-Process badly named episode files

FileBot cannot process badly named files like B&B Aug 4 - 14 so you will need to fix it first. The Bold and The Beautiful - 2014.08.04 is much more sensible.

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{Date.parse('MMM dd - yy', fn.after(/\s/)).format('yyyy.MM.dd')}

Extract, parse and re-format the date.

Move files into a new folders based on the file name

You can convert a flat file structure into a nested file structure (e.g. one file per folder) by generating a new file path for each file based on the current file name.

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~/Movies/{fn}/{fn}

e.g.

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$ filebot -rename /path/to/files --db file --format "{fn}/{fn}"
Rename files using [Plain File]
[MOVE] from [Avatar (2009).mkv] to [Avatar (2009)/Avatar (2009).mkv]

Rename media files based on embedded media title tags

If you have suffered from data loss, and your data recovery software was only able to restore file contents, but not file names or folder structures, then you may be able to use metadata embedded in the file content to restore the original filenames.

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{mediaTitle}

e.g.

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$ filebot -rename -r /path/to/files --db file --filter mediaTitle --format {mediaTitle}
Rename files using [Plain File]
[MOVE] from [Babylon.5.S04E22.mkv] to [bab4d6-VTS_01_0-PGC3.mkv]

Organize files based on information present in the file path

You can use Groovy code and regular expressions to extract pieces of information from the file path, and then use those pieces to generate a new file path.

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{
	def n = folder.dir.name
	def s = folder.name.before(/[.]/)
	def c = folder.name.after(/[.]/)
	def e = fn.before(/[.]/)
	def t = fn.after(/[.]/)

	"$n/Season $s - $c/$n - S${s.pad 2}E${e.pad 2} - $t"
}

Rename media files based on Plex database

Tautulli allows us to export everything that Plex knows as machine-readable XML file, so we can write a format that generates file names based on that.

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{
	// find <part> element for the file at hand
	def dom = xml('/path/to/library.xml')
	def part = dom.show.season.episode.media.part.find{ it.'@file'.text().toFile().name == f.name }

	// navigate parent elements and access attributes
	def n = part.'..'.'..'.'..'.'..'.'@title'.text()
	def s = part.'..'.'..'.'..'.'@index'.text() as int
	def e = part.'..'.'..'.'@index'.text() as int
	def t = part.'..'.'..'.'@title'.text()

	// generate file name
	"${n} - S${s.pad 2}E${e.pad 2} - ${t}"
}

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Firefly - S01E07 - Jaynestown

Rename files based on sibling XML files

In your format you have access to other files or web resources so you can easily build powerful rename logic for your own unique use cases.

Let's assume a file structure where each media file is accompanied by an XML metadata file:

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name.cbz
name.xml

e.g. name.xml

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<ComicInfo>
	<Title>Ask Not</Title>
	<Series>The American Way</Series>
	<Number>1</Number>
</ComicInfo>

Generate the desired file path based on the information in the sibling XML file:

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{
	def i = xml(folder / fn + '.xml')
	[i.Series, i.Number, i.Title].join(' - ')
}

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The American Way - 1 - Ask Not

Additional Examples and Use Cases

Re-organize previously organized files using local xattr metadata
Offline Cleanup (i.e. strip release information from file name)
Strip brackets [...] from the file path
Rename subtitle files to match the name of a nearby video file
Match custom patterns and rewrite file paths

FileBot

[Plain File Mode] Batch Rename any type of file

[Plain File Mode] Batch Rename any type of file