Feature Request: Support Configurable Folder‑Name Parsing via Naming Strategy + Regex

[Alienor134]

Feature
Many datasets encode acquisition parameters directly in the folder name. For example:

2025-04-09_Dronpa2_zoom3_filter_405_exp3

It would be nice to add a configurable naming strategy so users can define how parameter values should be parsed from folder names.

Proposed Solution
Allow users to specify a naming template that maps semantic configuration keys to their location in the folder name. For example:

$DATE$_$PROTEIN$_zoom$ZOOM$_filter_$FILTER$_exp$EXP_NUMBER$

Using regex it would be possible to extract a dictionary for the config file.

Example generated with ChatGPT:

import re
import json

template = "$DATE$_$PROTEIN$_zoom$ZOOM$_filter_$FILTER$_exp$EXP_NUMBER$"
folder_name = "2025-04-09_Dronpa2_zoom3_filter_405_exp3"


def template_to_regex(template: str) -> str:
    # Split into literal text and $VAR$ tokens
    parts = re.split(r"(\$[A-Z_]+\$)", template)
    regex_parts = []

    for part in parts:
        if part.startswith("$") and part.endswith("$"):
            name = part[1:-1]  # strip $...$
            # Capture anything (lazy) – no type assumptions
            regex_parts.append(rf"(?P<{name}>.+?)")
        else:
            # Escape literal text
            regex_parts.append(re.escape(part))

    return "^" + "".join(regex_parts) + "$"


# ---------------------------------------------------------
# Parse folder name
# ---------------------------------------------------------
regex_pattern = template_to_regex(template)
print("Generated regex:", regex_pattern)

match = re.match(regex_pattern, folder_name)
if not match:
    raise ValueError("Folder name does not match template")

config = match.groupdict()

print("Extracted config:", config)

# ---------------------------------------------------------
# Write JSON config file
# ---------------------------------------------------------
with open("config.json", "w") as f:
    json.dump(config, f, indent=2)

print("Config written to config.json")

Output:

Generated regex: 
^(?P<DATE>.+?)_(?P<PROTEIN>.+?)_zoom(?P<ZOOM>.+?)_filter_(?P<FILTER>.+?)_exp(?P<EXP_NUMBER>.+?)$

Extracted config: 
{'DATE': '2025-04-09', 
'PROTEIN': 'Dronpa2', 
'ZOOM': '3', 
'FILTER': '405', 
'EXP_NUMBER': '3'}
Config written to config.json

Of course it would require rigor from the user.