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.

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.

By double-clicking a snippet item the code is inserted at the cursor position in the edit area.
We place the cursor in edit area under the line === Snippets usage === to insert a framed image
This snippet use 2 parameters, double-clicking opens a dialog box.

Here is the result:

The before text is inserted before the cursor in edit area, the cursor is now after the text inserted by the snippet.

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. In this example we add a snippet in mediawiki(en) branch:

Name of the snippet and description for the tooltip

Here we use to variables, one for the name of the image, the other for the text under the image.
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.

In this other example we use a snippet that use both before and after text.
first we select text in edit area, then we double click on the includeonly snippet.

The before text is inserted before the cursor or the selection. The after text is inserted after the cursor or the selection.

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.

todo: example using both snippets variables and regex variables.

Edit snippets

Right click on an item open the snippets menu. If the item is a branch, we can change its name. If the item is a snippet we can re-edit it, firt name and description, and in second step before and after text and parameter(s) name(s).

Reorder snippets

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