How do I move bookmarks to a copy of the same file?

[tehmasterer]

I have a document with 4987 lines and 62 bookmarks. I made a copy of this file to another hard drive and want to import those bookmarks. The file name, modified date, and creation dates are the same for now. I tried saving the session and editing the session file by copying the marked lines to the new document. That didn’t work. Seems like the only way to do what I want is manually place the bookmarks again which would be very tedious and time consuming.

[ArkadiuszMichalski]

Bookmarks are stored in session file. You can copy session file (which has this bookmark file saved) to other place, edit them and correct path to new localization for this file (filename attribute). After this you can load this new session file.

[tehmasterer]

@ArkadiuszMichalski said in How do I move bookmarks to a copy of the same file?:

Bookmarks are stored in session file. You can copy session file (which has this bookmark file saved) to other place, edit them and correct path to new localization for this file (filename attribute). After this you can load this new session file.
Didn’t work. I loaded the session file and it did two wrong things:

• It added double bookmarks to a file that already had bookmarks.
• It bumped certain bookmarks down multiple lines. They were not on the correct line where I originally placed them.

[Alan Kilborn]

@tehmasterer

Here’s how I might do it, using the Pythonscript plugin and the following script:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION, SCINTILLANOTIFICATION

NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER = 24  # from N++ source code: MARK_BOOKMARK = 24;
NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK = 1 << NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER

if 1:
    line_nbr = editor.markerNext(0, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
    bookmark_line_list = []
    while line_nbr != -1:
        bookmark_line_list.append(line_nbr)
        line_nbr = editor.markerNext(line_nbr + 1, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
    print(bookmark_line_list)
else:
    for line_nbr in bookmark_line_list:
        editor.markerAdd(line_nbr, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER)

Have both the file with the original bookmarks (call it “B1”) and the file you want to apply the bookmarks to (call it “B2”) open in Notepad++ tabs.

• Make B1 the active file.
• Run the script as written above.
• Change the if 1: line in the script to if 0: and save the script.
• Make B2 the active file.
• Run the (modified) script.
• B2 should now have the same bookmarks as B1.

[S. Merk]

@Alan-Kilborn
Hi, you just did help me a lot (python tabulator).
And now the next question already:
I found your (quite old) python-script, but it won’t work here. I can run it, but it does not find any bookmark (even not the first one, so it looks like
line_nbr = editor.markerNext(0, PP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
does not work - it always returns -1.
Is it possible, that it does not work with the actual npp?
Thanks

[Alan Kilborn]

@S-Merk

The first thing that comes to mind is that if you are using N++ 8.4.6 or later, the “number” of the bookmark was changed in order to support the ChangeHistory feature. It changed from 24 to 20.

Thus, this line in the script:

NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER = 24

would need to change to:

NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER = 20

Try that as a first step…

[S. Merk]

@Alan-Kilborn UUps, so fast again… Thank you, and yes, thats it. It is working now. I will use your example to make my own script to save and reload my bookmarks…
Thanks a lot again.
Last question: where could I (as a normal user) find this information if nobody like you would help?

[Alan Kilborn]

@S-Merk said in How do I move bookmarks to a copy of the same file?:

where could I (as a normal user) find this information

Which information?
If it is what I think you’re asking, some good resources are:

• PythonScript documentation (installed when you install PS)
• Scintilla documentation
• Notepad++ source code

[S. Merk]

@Alan-Kilborn said in How do I move bookmarks to a copy of the same file?:

It changed from 24 to 20.

I meant for example this information (ID-Number of Bookmarks)

[Paul Wormer]

@Alan-Kilborn I need your help in writing a plugin that I would call “all”. You may know that Kedit and Xedit have the command “all /string/” (both editors have a command line). This has the effect that only the lines with “string” in it are displayed and may be edited. I used that command a lot in my Xedit/Kedit days.

Looking at your script it occurred to me that it is fairly easy to write a script with nearly the same functionality. I experimented with the following Npp steps:

1. “Mark All” of selected string with bookmarks on.
2. Invert the bookmarks.
3. Apply the following derivative of your script:

NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER = 20  # from N++ source code: MARK_BOOKMARK = 20;
NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK = 1 << NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER

line_nbr = editor.markerNext(0, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
editor.hideLines(line_nbr, line_nbr)
while line_nbr != -1:
    line_nbr = editor.markerNext(line_nbr + 1, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
    editor.hideLines(line_nbr, line_nbr)

As far as I can see the result is very near the behavior of Kedit’s “all /string/” . What I very much like to have is a script that combines the three steps into one. I assume that you (and Peter) know how the first two steps can be achieved by Scintilla commands. This then could be cast into a single script, which in turn could be assigned to a key combination.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Paul-Wormer

I think I have such a combined script already, or at least close to your desires. Since it is off-topic to this current thread, I’ll create a new thread and post the script and discussion there (later today).

EDIT: I had a look at my script to which I referred, and to post it, it needs a bit of rework. I will get to it, and will post the results, but it may not be the promised “later today”. Surely in the next week, though.

[S. Merk]

I adjusted the script from @Alan-Kilborn to fullfill exactly my needs - one script to save all bookmarks to a file, and a second one to reload them from a file. This is helpful for me as I do edit files on a remote machine; when I reload these files many times the bookmarks get lost.
Maybe someone else will find this helpful also, so I provide it here.
One thing I did not get a solution for: I wanted to add a file selection, but I was not able to do it. So right now a fixed file location/file name has to be adjusted in both scripts.

bookmark_save.py:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*
from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION, SCINTILLANOTIFICATION
import datetime

NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER = 20  # from N++ source code: MARK_BOOKMARK = 20;
NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK = 1 << NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER
filenameInclPath='D:\Test\Marker.txt'
f = open(filenameInclPath,"w")
line_nbr = editor.markerNext(0, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
bookmark_line_list = []
outstring=''
while line_nbr != -1:
	bookmark_line_list.append(line_nbr)
	line_nbr = editor.markerNext(line_nbr + 1, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
for line in bookmark_line_list:	
	outstring=outstring+str(line+1)+'\n'
outstring=outstring[:-1]
f.write(outstring)
f.close()	

bookmark_load.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*
from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION, SCINTILLANOTIFICATION
import datetime

NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER = 20  # from N++ source code: MARK_BOOKMARK = 20;
NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK = 1 << NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER

filenameInclPath='D:\Test\Marker.txt'
f = open(filenameInclPath,"r")
numbBookmarks=0
for bookmark in f:
	numbBookmarks+=1
	lineNo=int(bookmark.strip())
#	print(numbBookmarks, lineNo)
	editor.markerAdd(lineNo-1, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER)
f.close()

[Alan Kilborn]

@S-Merk said in How do I move bookmarks to a copy of the same file?:

One thing I did not get a solution for: I wanted to add a file selection

What do you mean by this? You wanted like a Windows File Open/Save box to open where you could select a file??

[S. Merk]

@Alan-Kilborn yes, exactly. I do not like things like hardcoded file- and pathnames. But anyway, this is more a cosmetic thing - the scripts as they are now make my programming life much easier already :-)

[Alan Kilborn]

@S-Merk

It is an “open issue” for the PythonScript plugin to provide such standard dialog support, see HERE.

Quite a while ago, I took some advice in the comments of that issue, and integrated “EasyDialogs” code into the things that I do.

[S. Merk]

@Alan-Kilborn Thanks again! ok, I will have a look to the “EasyDialogs”. But as already said, I am quite happy with what I have right now!

[S. Merk]

Hi all,
a little hint to my previously posted litte bookmark_save script (I am not allowed to edit the previous post any more): I already destroyed my saved bookmark-file with my new tool. I used the save-script while I had selected the wrong tab without any bookmark, so i got an empty file.
If anyone else who is as chaotic as I am uses this little tool, it is maybe a good idea to use the following instead. This adds a little security to the script. If there are less than 5 bookmarks (or whatever you declare in MIN_BOOKMARKS), the file will not be written. :-)

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*
from Npp import editor, notepad, NOTIFICATION, SCINTILLANOTIFICATION

MIN_BOOKMARKS = 5

NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER = 20  # from N++ source code: MARK_BOOKMARK = 20;
NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK = 1 << NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_ID_NUMBER

filenameInclPath='D:\Temp\Marker.txt'
print('Bookmark_Save: filenameInclPath: ', filenameInclPath)
line_nbr = editor.markerNext(0, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)
bookmark_line_list = []
outstring=''
while line_nbr != -1:
	bookmark_line_list.append(line_nbr)
	line_nbr = editor.markerNext(line_nbr + 1, NPP_BOOKMARK_MARKER_MASK)

if len(bookmark_line_list) < MIN_BOOKMARKS:
	msg = "Bookmark_Save: not enough bookmarks (" + str(len(bookmark_line_list)) + "): Cancelled!"
	print(msg)
else:		
	for line in bookmark_line_list:	
		outstring=outstring+str(line+1)+'\n'
	outstring=outstring[:-1]
	f = open(filenameInclPath,"w")
	f.write(outstring)
	f.close()	

[Alan Kilborn]

Further discussion regarding:

I need your help in writing a plugin that I would call “all”. You may know that Kedit and Xedit have the command “all /string/” (both editors have a command line). This has the effect that only the lines with “string” in it are displayed and may be edited. I used that command a lot in my Xedit/Kedit days.

I think I have such a combined script already, or at least close to your desires. Since it is off-topic to this current thread, I’ll create a new thread and post the script and discussion there (later today).
EDIT: I had a look at my script to which I referred, and to post it, it needs a bit of rework. I will get to it, and will post the results, but it may not be the promised “later today”. Surely in the next week, though.

…is continued HERE.

[Alan Kilborn]

@Paul-Wormer said in How do I move bookmarks to a copy of the same file?:

You may know that Kedit and Xedit have the command “all /string/” (both editors have a command line). This has the effect that only the lines with “string” in it are displayed and may be edited. I used that command a lot in my Xedit/Kedit days.

BTW, Paul, your idea is not “new” to Notepad++ users – not that you said it was. HERE’s someone from over 7(!) years ago, wanting the same thing.

[Paul Wormer]

@Paul-Wormer
I prepared a pedestrian script that mimicks the all command of Xedit and Kedit. Just like those two editors (that both date from before color screens came into existence) my script doesn’t do any coloring. I hope that the bug in the Scintilla routine hideLines is circumvented by invoking it twice. [During my writing of the script, it indeed happened several times that not all lines were hidden after issuing editor.hideLines(0, int(editor.getLineCount())-1 )].

Here comes the script:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
from __future__ import print_function # Python 2.7
from Npp import *
    
def disp_only_lines(string_to_show): 
    '''
        Display only the lines that contain `string_to_show`.  
    '''        
    Lines_to_show = set()
    
    def handle(m):
        Lines_to_show.add(editor.lineFromPosition(m.start()))
     
    # Loop over whole file, calling `handle` for each find: 
    editor.search(string_to_show, handle)
    
    # Sort numbers of lines containing `string_to_show`:
    Lines_to_show_sorted = sorted(list(Lines_to_show))

    # Hide all lines (twice because of bug in Scintilla):
    editor.hideLines(0, int(editor.getLineCount())-1 )
    editor.hideLines(0, int(editor.getLineCount())-1 )
    
    
    # Actual showing of lines to be shown:
    for line_shown in Lines_to_show_sorted:
        editor.showLines(line_shown, line_shown)
        
def tab_callback(args):
    ''' 
        Called after return from other tab.
    '''
    global save_bufferID, display_all, string_to_show 
    
    if save_bufferID == args['bufferID'] and not display_all:
        disp_only_lines(string_to_show)  

#### Main ####  

save_bufferID = notepad.getCurrentBufferID()
notepad.clearCallbacks(tab_callback)
notepad.callback(tab_callback, [NOTIFICATION.BUFFERACTIVATED])

# Role of boolean `display_all`:
#     if true all lines are displayed,  else some lines are hidden.

try:
    if display_all:     
        string_to_show = editor.getSelText() 
        editor.setEmptySelection(editor.getCurrentPos()) # Undo selection
except NameError:       # First time in, `display_all` does not exist
    display_all = True          
    string_to_show = editor.getSelText() 
    editor.setEmptySelection(editor.getCurrentPos())     # Undo selection
    
if len(string_to_show) == 0 and display_all:
    notepad.messageBox('No string selected', 'all.py')   
else:   
    if display_all:
        disp_only_lines(string_to_show)  
        display_all    = False      # Not all lines are displayed
    else:
        editor.showLines(0, int(editor.getLineCount())-1 )
        display_all    = True       # All lines are displayed
        string_to_show = ''