Powershell Save File In Original Folder When Recursing Through Folders - powershell

Question

I am attempting to use a Powershell Script I found on here to convert PDF files into TIFF files. I have the majority of the script working but I can't seem to figure out how to have the TIFF files saved in the original folder that the PDF was in.
#Path to your Ghostscript EXE
$tool = 'C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.25\bin\gswin64c.exe'
#Directory containing the PDF files that will be converted
$inputDir = 'C:\Temp\Test_ED_Data\1\'
#Output path where converted PDF files will be stored
$outputDirPDF = 'C:\Temp\PDF_Out\'
#Output path where the TIFF files will be saved
$outputDir = $inputDir
$pdfs = get-childitem $inputDir -recurse | where {$_.Extension -match "pdf"}
foreach($pdf in $pdfs)
{
$tif = $outputDir + $pdf.BaseName + ".tiff"
if(test-path $tif)
{
"tif file already exists " + $tif
}
else
{
'Processing ' + $pdf.Name
$param = "-sOutputFile=$tif"
& $tool -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=tiffg4 $param -r300 $pdf.FullName -c quit
}
Move-Item $pdf $outputDirPDF
}
After the script runs, all the PDFs show up in the original input directory and not in any sub directories.
So for example, if C:\Temp\Test_ED_Data\1\ has 1 PDF in it, it gets converted to TIFF and saved in C:\Temp\Test_ED_Data\1\, but any PDFs in a sub directory such as C:\Temp\Test_ED_Data\1\Progress\ also get saved in the original sub directory of C:\Temp\Test_ED_Data\1.
How do I get this script to make sure the converted files are saved in the directory they are retrieved from? It seems as if Powershell doesn't remember the recursed path when it refers to the section $outputDir = $inputDir. What do I need to do to correct that?
Thank you.

Answer 1

So a quick look at the scripts shows
$outputDir = $inputDir
But also
$pdfs = get-childitem $inputDir -recurse | where {$_.Extension -match "pdf"}
This basically means find all files with a PDF extension in $inputDir and search all other folders inside $inputDir. But where you save is a static location of the $inputDir
Give this a shot
function CovertPDF-TIFF($InputDirectory, $OutputPDFLocation){
$tool = 'C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.25\bin\gswin64c.exe'
get-childitem $InputDirectory -include "*.pdf" -recurse | %{
$tiff = "$($_.Directory)\$($_.BaseName).tiff"
if(test-path $tiff)
{
"tiff file already exists " + $tiff
}
else
{
'Processing ' + $_.Name
$param = "-sOutputFile=$tiff"
& $tool -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=tiffg4 $param -r300 $_.FullName -c quit
}
Move-Item $pdf $OutputPDFLocation
}
}
CovertPDF-TIFF -InputDirectory C:\Temp\Test_ED_Data\1\ -OutputPDFLocation C:\Temp\PDF_Out\
Whats happening here is piping. Piping is basically where you take the output and push it to another command the symbol for pipe is |.
In the Get-ChildItem we will -include all files that end in *.pdf
We Pipe | each item to a foreach-object otherwise known as %
There we create a variable $Tiff to store where and what name to call the tiff based on the PDF we found. In a pipe the $_ is the variable for the information that was piped (in this case its the Child Item Information aka the PDF file information). In powershell $() allows you to add separate commands to a string or another command called a expression its proper name is a Sub Expression. So $Tiff holds the string of the Child Item Directory then adds the Child Item File name then adds the .tiff to the end.
It then checks to see if the Item exists with the command Test-Path.
If it does then it returns a message. If it doesnt then it creates the parameters and runs the gswin64c.exe executable. In one of the Parameters you will see -sOutputFile=$tiff This is where we difine where the new Tiff file will be saved. Lastly the Move the PDF file to a new location with Move-Item

Answer 2

All you need to do is, exchange this line:
$tif = $outputDir + $pdf.BaseName + ".tiff"
with this:
$tif = $pdf.FullName -Replace $pdf.Extension,".tiff"