[PowerRename] Regex help in UI: Add ^, $, .*

[htcfreek]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Adding the following syntax to the regex help flyout in the PowerRename window will be helpful for users that have not so much knowledge about regex:

• ^ = Start of the string.
• $ = End of the string.
• .* = Any number of any characters. (In addition to . syntax explaination.)

Scenario when this would be used?

We sometimes get issues asking how to add text to the start or end of a file name without replacing explicit characters. (Example issue: #35797)

Supporting information

No response

[ms-10-us]

Can I work on this issue? Please let me know. Thanks!

[htcfreek]

@ms-10-us
Your contribution is welcome and thank you for your work on this. Feel free to open a PR. If you have any further questions don't worry to ask them.

[ms-10-us]

@htcfreek

I am a new developer. I have lots of questions about this project. I need to know which code to work on and where to insert my code. I am also facing some problems understanding the feature itself. I would really appreciate it if someone can please help with those questions. I am open to any suggestions from anyone. Thanks!

[htcfreek]

@ms-10-us
The feature in the ui is a simple flyout that show some syntax examples as help. (Or do you mean the regex function itself?)

The list seems to be auto generated based on a data object. You have to update the following two places:

https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src%2Fmodules%2Fpowerrename%2FPowerRenameUILib%2FPowerRenameXAML%2FMainWindow.xaml.cpp#L173-L179

https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/blob/main/src%2Fmodules%2Fpowerrename%2FPowerRenameUILib%2FStrings%2Fen-us%2FResources.resw

I hope this helps so far and answers your questions.

[musabaku]

@htcfreek , Can I provide the current assignee with an example of how I think one part of the solution may look like
@ms-10-us

m_searchRegExShortcuts.Append(winrt::make<PatternSnippet>(L"^", manager.MainResourceMap().GetValue(L"Resources/RegExCheatSheet_StartOfString").ValueAsString()));

In MainWindow.xaml.cpp file

<data name="RegExCheatSheet_StartOfString" xml:space="preserve">
    <value>Start of the string (use ^)</value>
</data>

In Resources.resw file