Selecting which part of filenames is affected by criteria

[JMM]

Reading topic viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3045 I have found myself on the same situation, wanting to use BRU to affect only one part of the filename. For example, applying a replace only after certain word happens, or changing case and removing symbols after the first six chars, or adding a numbering scheme after the first slash found. Usually it involves decomposing the filenames in parts in a spreadsheet, applying the changes, throw it all inside a .bat file, and run it, when BRU has all the power to make it very easy.

Basically it's just selecting what part of the filename is affected by the rename. For now you only have two options: everything with the extension, or everything without the extension. I would like to be able to have a simple but effective and flexible way to select what part of the filename is affected. This would need a new criteria at the beginning of it all, and some handing of data before and after applying the rest of the criteria. So this criteria (I can't even imagine a good name for it) would be able to choose only a certain part of the filename, pass it to the rest of criterias, have it changed, and then get it back and composed together.

The partial name to be affected must have a start and an end. Both points could be selected by the following controls, one set for the start and another for the end:
* Before or after a match. The match could be RegEx or a simple string, selectable with a checkbox. The difference between before and after is if the match would enter the selected part or not. This might be confusing since they would work the opposite depending on if you're selecting the start or the end point.
* Length. Skip the first n chars, then skip the last n chars.

One should be able to combine, like 'process the part of the name between the sixth char until you find a comma and a space'.

Then, for creating the new name, BRU would split the name into beginning, middle, and ending components, pass just the middle to process, and when getting the processed result, combine them again to obtain the final new name.

This one goes beyond my other suggestions, since this changes how BRU handles the processing, but all in all it shouldn't be more complex than anything you've done until now. I hope you and others like this idea which could give a lot of more flexibility to the amazing BRU.

Regards, JMM.