displaying expanded user variables in aliases

[jinxx]

So I have many aliases with user variables sandwiched in
and sometimes I want to take those aliases for use elsewhere with the user variables expanded,
the string "%uservar.folder.stuff%" isn't any use to me outside of FARR, so I'm wondering if there's some way to take an alias and expand all its FARR user variables

naturally I could go into my uservariables and copy paste etc... but this becomes cumbersome when i have aliases with 3+ user variables in them
of course I could convert my use-case to utilizing windows environment variables, which in the long term I may do

if it's not a feature then I guess consider this a feature request for the "edit group alias" window

[Nod5]

I don't think FARR has that feature built in, but it would be a useful feature. I have AutoHotkey code that resolves the FARR user variables. I'l clean that up and post here as a helper tool for FARR when I have more time.

[Nod5]

Save to FARR_resolve_alias_variables.ahk (with UTF-8 BOM encoding). Requires AutoHotkey

Will work in most cases, but might fail on complex alias text with e.g. escaped % characters.

Code: Autohotkey [Select]

1. #NoEnv
2. SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
3. #SingleInstance force
4. ListLines, Off
5. SetBatchLines, -1
6.  
7. ; FARR_resolve_alias_variables.ahk
8.  
9. ; by Nod5 on 2021-03-16
10.  
11. ; A helper tool for FARR (Find And Run Robot) written in AutoHotkey
12.  
13. ; Reads alias result from active FARR "Edit Group Alias" window
14. ; and resolves (converts) FARR's UserVar variables to text values
15.  
16. ; For example the variable "%uservar.Browser.Chrome%" is replaced
17. ; with e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"
18.  
19. ; How to use:
20. ; Run script and press F8 when FARR Options "Edit Group Alias" window is active
21. ; A MsgBox shows the results lines with resolved UserVars
22.  
23. ; Optional: uncomment lines near end of script to also
24. ; - Copy text to clipboard
25. ; - Write text to .txt file
26.  
27. ; Discussion
28. ;   https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=51199.0
29.  
30.  
31. ; default path to FARR .ini file (edit this filepath if the .ini is in another location)
32. vFarrIni := "C:\Users\" A_UserName "\Documents\DonationCoder\FindAndRunRobot\FindAndRunRobot.ini"
33. return
34.  
35. #IfWinActive, Edit Group Alias ahk_exe FindAndRunRobot.exe ahk_class TAliasForm
36. F8::
37.   if !FileExist(vFarrIni)
38.   {
39.     MsgBox % "Error: FindAndRunRobot.ini not found.`n`nEdit script and add correct path to it."
40.     ExitApp
41.   }
42.   ; get text from results editbox
43.   ControlGetText, vText, TMemo2, A
44.  
45.   ; read UserVar data from FARR .ini
46.   IniRead, vUserVars, % vFarrIni, ExtraSettings, UserVars, %A_Space%
47.  
48.   ; split lines to array
49.   aUserVars := StrSplit(vUserVars, ">n>")
50.  
51.   ; object to store full variable/value pairs
52.   aMap := Object()
53.  
54.   For Key, vLine in aUserVars
55.   {
56.     vLine := TRim(vLine)
57.    
58.     ; skip blank or comment line
59.     if !vLine or (SubStr(vLine, 1, 2) = "//")
60.       continue
61.  
62.     ; [Section]
63.     if RegExMatch(vLine, "^\[(.+)\]$", vMatch)
64.       vSection := vMatch1
65.  
66.     ; if variable line then get variable/value pair and add to map array
67.     ; prefix variable name "uservar." and last found section name (if any)
68.     if RegExMatch(vLine, "U)^(.+)=(.+)$", vMatch)
69.     {
70.       vVarName := "uservar." ( vSection ? vSection "." : "") vMatch1
71.       vValue    := vMatch2
72.       aMap["" vVarName] := vValue
73.     }
74.   }
75.  
76.   ; resolve
77.   For vVarName, vValue in aMap
78.     vText := StrReplace(vText, "%" vVarName "%", vValue) ; replace all
79.  
80.   ; show resolved text
81.   MsgBox % vText
82.  
83.   ; put on clipboard
84.   ;Clipboard := vText
85.  
86.   ; write to .txt file in this script's folder
87.   ;FileAppend, % vText, % A_ScriptDir "\alias_resolved_" A_Now ".txt", UTF-8-RAW
88. return
89. #IfWinActive
90.  
91.  
92. ; ----------------------------
93. ; notes of FARR User Variables (UserVar)
94. ; ----------------------------
95. ;   Used as variables in aliases
96. ;   Set in FARR > Options > Lists > User Variables
97. ;   Stored in FindAndRunRobot.ini
98. ;     Default path C:\Users\<username>\Documents\DonationCoder\FindAndRunRobot\FindAndRunRobot.ini
99.  
100. ; Format in Options "User Variables" pane:
101. ; -----
102. ; TopTest=C:\folder\test.exe
103. ; [SectionName]
104. ; VarName=Value
105. ; VarName2=Value2
106. ; // comment line
107. ;
108. ; [Browser]
109. ; Chrome=C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe
110. ; Firefox=C:\b\firefox.exe
111. ; -----
112. ; Note: it is allowed to create variables above the first [Section]
113. ; Note: comments must be on separate lines. Not allowed: VarName=Value //comment
114.  
115. ; -----
116. ; Format in FARR aliases:
117. ; -----
118. ;   %uservar.TopTest%
119. ;   %uservar.SectionName.VarName%
120. ;   %uservar.Browser.Chrome%
121. ; -----
122.  
123. ; -----
124. ; Format in FindAndRunRobot.ini
125. ; -----
126. ; Stored as a single line, ">n>" is linebreak separator
127. ; Example:
128. ; UserVars=TopTest=C:\folder\test.exe>n>[SectionName]>n>VarName=Value>n>VarName2=Value2>n>// comment line>n>>n>[Browser]>n>Chrome=C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe>n>Firefox=C:\b\firefox.exe
129. ; ----------------------------