Folder To File

This Python-based tool converts a folder structure into JSON, Markdown, XML, or plain text format. It's designed to be modular, easy to use, and extendable for future enhancements.

Features

• Convert folder structures to JSON, Markdown, XML, or text format
• Interactive CLI menu for easy configuration
• Option to remove unnecessary newlines from file contents
• Option to skip binary files' content
• Option to skip file contents entirely
• Option to include hidden files and folders
• Option to use rules from a .gitignore file

Local Installation

1. Ensure you have Python 3.6 or higher installed on your system.
2. Clone this repository:

   git clone https://github.com/talhaorak/folder2file.git
   cd folder2file
   

3. Install the package:

   pip install .
   

System-wide Installation

To install the Folder Structure Converter as a system-wide application:

1. Ensure you have Python 3.6 or higher and pip installed on your system.
2. Install directly from GitHub:

   pip install git+https://github.com/talhaorak/folder2file.git
   

Usage

After installation, you can run the tool in two ways:

Interactive Mode

Simply run the command without any arguments to start the interactive CLI menu:

folder2file

This will guide you through a series of prompts to:

• Select the input folder path
• Choose the output filename
• Select the output format using arrow keys
• Toggle various options with checkboxes
• Confirm your settings before processing

Command Line Mode

If you prefer, you can also specify all options directly on the command line:

folder2file <folder_path> <output_format> [options]

Arguments:

• <folder_path>: Path to the folder you want to convert (default: current directory)
• <output_format>: Choose between json, markdown, text, or xml (default: json)

Options:

• --no-newline: Remove unnecessary newlines from file contents
• --skip-binaries: Don't include binary files' content, only their names
• --skip-content: Don't include file contents in the output (default: False)
• --include-hidden: Include hidden files and folders (default: False)
• --no-gitignore: Don't use rules from a .gitignore file (default: False)
• --print: Print the generated content to the console (default: False)
• --out FILENAME: Specify the output filename (default: name of the processed folder)
• --version: Show the version number and exit

Examples:

Convert a folder to JSON, skipping binary files:

folder2file /path/to/your/folder json --skip-binaries

Convert a folder to Markdown, including hidden files and printing to console:

folder2file /path/to/your/folder markdown --include-hidden --print

Convert a folder to XML format:

folder2file /path/to/your/folder xml --out my_structure.xml

Convert a folder to JSON and save to a specific file:

folder2file /path/to/your/folder json --out my_structure.json

Output Formats

JSON

Produces a structured JSON representation of the folder hierarchy, with files and their contents.

Markdown

Creates a Markdown document with folders and files represented as a nested list structure. File contents are included in code blocks.

XML

Generates an XML document with a hierarchical representation of folders and files. File contents are enclosed in <content> tags.

Text

Creates a simple plain text representation of the folder structure, with indentation to indicate nesting.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

TODO

• Add support for more output formats (e.g., YAML)
• Implement file content filtering options
• Add option to limit recursion depth
• Add progress indicators for large directories
• Improve XML output with attribute options

Acknowledgments

• Thanks to Michael Herrmann for the gitignore_parser library which is used to handle .gitignore rules.

If you have any suggestions or encounter any issues, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.