Snippets plugin

The snippets plugin allows you to record reusable pieces of code. There are two categories of snippets:

• insert strings
• search and replace patterns

Snippets are organized in branches. The first time you open Bluefish 2 you have no snippets. You have to create them, or import a set of snippets.

Bluefish 1.3 users

you can copy your old snippets to Bluefish 2
$ cp ~/.bluefish-unstable/snippets ~/.bluefish/

Bluefish 1.0 users

to import your Bluefish 1 Custom menu in snippets you can use Olivier's python script convert_custom_menu_to_snippets.py.

• put convert_custom_menu_to_snippets.py in ~/.bluefish/ directory
• make the script executable: $ chmod a+x convert_custom_menu_to_snippets.py
• run the script: $ ./convert_custom_menu_to_snippets.py > mysnippets.xml
• import mysnippets.xml in your snippets plugin.

You also can find useful snippets in Snippets repository

Import snippets

The first time you open Bluefish 2 you have no snippets. You have to create them, or import a set of snippets. Right click in the snippets area open the snippets menu.

import item in snippets menu

import a xml snippets file

mediawiki(en) snippets are imported

click on the arrow of the branch title to expand it.

see Snippets usage to learn how to use snippets. You can find snippets to import in the Category:Snippets repository

Snippets usage

There are two kinds of snippets, insert snippets and replace snippets.

Insert snippets

Snippets are organized in branches (chapters) and possibly sub-branches. In mediawiki branch there is a sub-branche called man bf where are usefull snippets to edit Bluefish manual. The title of the snippet gives an idea of what it does. By moving the mouse over the title of the snippet appears a tooltip giving details.

snippet tooltip

By double-clicking a snippet the code is inserted at the cursor position in the edit area.

Snippet can use parameters, double-clicking opens a dialog box.

snippet insert dialog

Here is the result:

snippet insert result

Replace snippets

Some snippets make replace in a selected text. Select text before use them!

Export snippets

• you can export:
  • a branch
  • a single snippet
• to export your entire snippets file just copy ~/.bluefish/snippets to mysnippets.xml
• to export a selection of branches, you have to create a new branch, move wanted branches into it and export the new branch.

Create snippets

Branch

All snippets should be placed in a branch. If your snippets file is empty, the first thing to create is the first branch.

Insert strings

To insert a snippet, choose a branch, right click on its name to open the snippets menu.

New snippet

Insert string

Name of the snippet and description for the tooltip

Before text and variables

Before text and After text The before text is inserted before the cursor or the selection. The after text is inserted after the selection

The new snippet take place at the end of its branch. You can move it using drag and drop. You can also re-edit it or delete it.

Search and replace snippets

Search and replace snippets are very powerfull. See Basic Find and Replace and Find and Replace Using Regular Expressions for general infos about Bluefish find and replace. Here will be considered only on the specific substitutions in the snippets.

Search and replace snippets can use regex and variables

Scope: Match Pattern:

todo: example using both snippets variables and regex variables.

Edit snippets

Reorder snippets

lorem ipsum

lorem ipsum

Set snippet accelerator

Delete branch/snippet

Show as menu