Script to rename Link Info Names

Question

I'm working on converting a clients old catalog from Quark to Indesign.  I'm using Indesign CS4 on Windows Vista. I've used Markzware Q2ID to convert the catalog to indesign with out too many problems.  But I have run into a big problems with the images.  They will not automatically relink.  After digging around I've found the problem.  For some reason all of the Image names also include the path structure.
For Example
Link Info
Name: BDA-12:Users:graeme:Desktop:FSIP back up:_Collected:02405 FSIP AftMkt EAST:Pictures:M587524.EPS
Path: BDA-12:Users:graeme:Desktop:FSIP back up:_Collected:02405 FSIP AftMkt EAST:Pictures:M587524.EPS
Luckly all the names have the same problem.  So I'm hoping to find or write a script that can simply go through the indesign document and Find/Replace all of the link names to remove "BDA-12:Users:graeme:Desktop:FSIP back up:_Collected:02405 FSIP AftMkt EAST:Pictures:".
I know this is a really simple problem but this is my first real attempt at scripting something in Adobe.  Does anyone have any good ideas or tips on how I would do this?
Thanks
Vic Bushfield

Answer 1

Victor,
The conversion program totally corrupted links in your document: myLink.filePath is just empty string, myLink.name is what should have been myLink.filePath (This is info from ESTK).
Here is a new version of the script -- it relinks to files located in NewLinks folder on the Desktop. Change this line
var myNewPath =  "~/Desktop/NewLinks/" + myName;
to location of your links.
Warning -- I tested this on Mac, since don't have a copy of CS4 for Windows.
Kasyan
#target indesign
if (app.documents.length == 0) {
    err("No open document. Please open a document and try again.", true);
var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
var myLinks = myDoc.links;
var myCounter = 0;
if (myLinks.length == 0) {
    err("This document doesn't contain any links.", true);
for (i = myLinks.length-1; i >= 0 ; i--) {
    var myLink = myLinks[i];
    var myArr = myLink.name.split(":")
    var myName = myArr[myArr.length-1];
    var myNewPath =  "~/Desktop/NewLinks/" + myName;
    var myNewFile = new File(myNewPath);
    if (myNewFile.exists) {
        myLink.relink(myNewFile);
        myCounter++;
if (myCounter == 1) {
    alert("One file has been relinked.", "Finished");
else if  (myCounter > 1) {
    alert(myCounter + " files have been relinked.", "Finished");
else {
    alert("Nothing has been relinked.", "Finished");
function err(e, icon){
    alert(e, "Update path names script", icon);
    exit();