Foundry VTT Module Manifest Fixer

This bash script attempts to automatically fix common compatibility issues found in module.json files for Foundry VTT modules. It's particularly useful for updating older modules to meet the structural requirements of newer Foundry VTT versions (e.g., V11, V12, V13+).

Purpose

Foundry VTT's manifest format (module.json) for modules and systems has evolved. Older modules may use deprecated fields or lack newly required fields, which can lead to errors or prevent them from loading correctly in the latest versions of Foundry VTT. This script aims to address several of the most common structural manifest issues to improve compatibility.

Fixes Applied by fix.sh

The script iterates through module.json files found in a specified directory (and its subdirectories) and applies the following changes in place:

1. Author Field (author vs authors):
   • Converts the legacy single author string field to the current authors array format (e.g., {"authors": [{"name": "Original Author Name", "email": "", "url": ""}]}).
   • If the original author field is empty or null, it defaults the name to "Unknown Author".
   • If both author and authors fields happen to exist, it removes the legacy author field to prevent conflicts.
2. Module ID (id field):
   • Ensures an id field is present at the root of the manifest.
   • If the id field is missing, it uses the name of the module's parent directory as the id (e.g., a module in the directory my-cool-module would get "id": "my-cool-module").
3. Compendium Packs (packs field - for V11+):
   • For each compendium pack defined in the packs array:
     • If a pack definition has an entity field (older format) but is missing the type field (newer format), the script creates the type field using the value from entity and then deletes the old entity field. This is crucial for compatibility with Foundry VTT version 11 and newer.
4. Legacy Top-Level name Field:
   • Removes the deprecated top-level name field if it exists. In modern manifests, id is used as the unique machine-readable identifier, and title is used for the human-readable display name.

Prerequisites

To run this script successfully, you will need the following command-line tools installed on your system (typically Linux or macOS):

• bash: The script is written for the bash shell.
• jq: A powerful command-line JSON processor. Version 1.4 or newer is generally recommended for some of the fallback logic, though the script aims for broad compatibility.
  • Typical Installation (Linux): sudo apt update && sudo apt install jq or sudo dnf install jq
  • Typical Installation (macOS with Homebrew): brew install jq
• find: Standard Unix utility for finding files (usually pre-installed).
• basename: Standard Unix utility for stripping directory information (usually pre-installed).
• dirname: Standard Unix utility for extracting the directory portion of a path (usually pre-installed).

Installation / Setup

1. Get the Script:

   • Download the fix.sh script file to your computer.
   • If you are setting up a Git repository for it, clone the repository.

2. Make it Executable: Navigate to the directory where you saved fix.sh using your terminal and run the following command to make it executable:

   chmod +x fix.sh

Usage

Run the script from your terminal. You can optionally provide a target directory where the script should search for module.json files. If no directory is specified, it defaults to scanning the current directory (.) and all its subdirectories.

Syntax:

./fix.sh

./fix.sh [target_directory]