Turn copy & paste Facebook video captions into a .SRT file

make-srt.php

<?php
/**
 * Facebook Video Caption Editor Copy & Paste to SRT
 *
 * Original script by Anne Dorko
 *
 * Why? I tried adding custom Facebook captions to my live video,
 * and it wouldn't save. 45 minutes of my life wasted! But wait...
 * I copied and pasted the timestamps and subtitles into a plain
 * text file and then processed it to create an .SRT
 *
 * General usage:
 *  Copy and paste your failed Facebook captions straight from the GUI
 *  Save it as a plain text file next to this one called subtitles.txt
 *  Open this script in a browser.
*/

/*
  The expected textfile for subtitles should have content like this:

  00:02.730

  00:03.590

  Good morning

  00:04.060

  00:06.920

  It's about 10am on Thursday for me and I have been

  00:06.930

  00:09.740

  wanting to talk about dictionaries and why I
 */

$file_name = 'subtitles.txt';
$file = file( $file_name );

/*
  $count lets us track in, out, and subtitle text as sets of three
 */
$count = 0;
/*
  $set gives us keys starting at 1 to use in the output per line
 */
$set = 1;
$data = array();
foreach( $file as $line ) {
  // Get rid of extra spaces
  $line = trim( $line );
  // Ignore empty lines!
  if ( empty( $line ) ) { continue; }
  // Track sets of three
  $count++;
  if ( $count > 3 ) {
    $count = 1;
    $set++;
  }
  // The first and second in every set are the time in/out timestamps
  if ( $count == 1 ) {
    $data[$set]['time_in'] = replace_last_period_with_comma( $line );
  }
  if ( $count == 2 ) {
    $data[$set]['time_out'] = replace_last_period_with_comma( $line );
  }
  // The final in every set is the subtitle text
  if ( $count == 3 ) {
    $data[$set]['text'] = $line;
  }
}

/*
  Name your subtitles whatever you like. Set en_US to the correct language format for your subtitles.
 */
$create_file = fopen( 'subtitles.en_US.srt', 'w' );
$key = 1;
foreach ( $data as $title ) {
  // This is the correct SRT formatting
  extract( $title );
  $subtitle = "$key\n$time_in --> $time_out\n$text\n\n";
  fwrite( $create_file, $subtitle );
  $key++;
}
// Save file
fclose( $create_file );

echo '<a href="subtitles.en_US.srt">Right-click and save this file to upload to Facebook.</a>';

/**
 * replace_last_period_with_comma Facebook displays time values wrong for SRT files if you simply copy and paste from the GUI, this function corrects that.
 * @param  string  $string The time value given from Facebook
 * @return string         Returns an SRT standard time format
 */
function replace_last_period_with_comma( $string ) {
  $pos = strrpos( $string, '.' );
  if ( false !== $pos ) {
    $string = substr_replace( $string, ',', $pos, 1 );
  }
  return '00:' . $string;
}