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Alejandro59's avatar
Alejandro59
Occasional Contributor
4 months ago
Solved

String.replaceAll not working in Groovy script

I am using a file as a template in order to create new files. The template file contains "placeholders" in the form of [plc]placeholderName[plc]. I want to replace the placeholder at runtime with val...
Scripting
  • nmrao's avatar
    nmrao
    3 months ago

    Alejandro59 ,

    This is best case to use Template Engine feature of groovy.

    Instead of [plc]pattern[plc] => use $pattern or $variable

    In your case, variables are originalSender, finalRecipient, AP_Initiator etc

    Now the script will just look like below (only replacement part)

    import groovy.text.SimpleTemplateEngine
import java.time.*
//Here define what value needs to be replaced for each variable
def binding = [originalSender: '9928:12341234A', finalRecipient: '9928:12341234B', AP_Initiator: 'POP000106', TimeStampNormalized: System.currentTimeMillis(), TimeStampUTC: Instant.now().atZone(ZoneId.of("UTC"))]

def template = new SimpleTemplateEngine().createTemplate(new File('C:/Templates/Template.xml').getText('UTF-8')).make(binding)
log.info "Updated xml : ${template.toString()}"

    By the way, you can quickly run the script here to see output.

    Also wanted to point out why your script is not working.

    [plc] - here it will find only p / l / c, but not plc

    [, ] has to be escaped i.e., \[plc\]

    Then \ has to be escaped again - so finally it will be '\\[plc\\]pattern\\[plc\\]'

    Check here how it is done.

nmrao's avatar
nmrao
Champion Level 3
3 months ago

Alejandro59 ,

This is best case to use Template Engine feature of groovy.

Instead of [plc]pattern[plc] => use $pattern or $variable

In your case, variables are originalSender, finalRecipient, AP_Initiator etc

Now the script will just look like below (only replacement part)

import groovy.text.SimpleTemplateEngine
import java.time.*
//Here define what value needs to be replaced for each variable
def binding = [originalSender: '9928:12341234A', finalRecipient: '9928:12341234B', AP_Initiator: 'POP000106', TimeStampNormalized: System.currentTimeMillis(), TimeStampUTC: Instant.now().atZone(ZoneId.of("UTC"))]

def template = new SimpleTemplateEngine().createTemplate(new File('C:/Templates/Template.xml').getText('UTF-8')).make(binding)
log.info "Updated xml : ${template.toString()}"

By the way, you can quickly run the script here to see output.

Also wanted to point out why your script is not working.

[plc] - here it will find only p / l / c, but not plc

[, ] has to be escaped i.e., \[plc\]

Then \ has to be escaped again - so finally it will be '\\[plc\\]pattern\\[plc\\]'

Check here how it is done.

  • Alejandro59's avatar
    Alejandro59
    Occasional Contributor
    3 months ago

    The escaping \\[plc\\] did the trick.

    Many thanks

    • nmrao's avatar
      nmrao
      Champion Level 3
      3 months ago

      Glad, it helped.

      Template engine is more simple and elegant in this context. I understand if you can't change the template to suit template engine.

  • ChrisAdams's avatar
    ChrisAdams
    Champion Level 3
    3 months ago

    nmrao , didn't know about templating engines in Groovy.  Thanks.

    • nmrao's avatar
      nmrao
      Champion Level 3
      3 months ago

      We all learn over time.

      replace or replaceAll is better when single string is to be replaced and direct string. When it has special characters like in this case, it is tricky and don't understand what is happening though we seem to be correct.

      Template Engine is designed for multiple replaces seamlessly and fits into language , simple to use. If you notice the binding, some uses string mapping and some uses programming constructs while replacing such as dates in this case. And the transformation is done in single statement. All we need to do is to create template and binding.