A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Features wanted...
Post Reply
duarte.framos
Posts: 23
Joined: 14 Jan 2016 05:19
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by duarte.framos »

I've been using XYplorer happily for a few months now, and it is definitely the best file manager I've used so far, both on features, speed and buglessness
After using FreeCommander and Nomad.net and NexusFile Manger before those for quite a few years here's a list of mostly minor stuff I've missed from my previous experiments.

1 - A "Refresh View" entry on right click menu when clicking both empty space or an item - Windows explorer and FreeCommander had it and it was quite convenient

2 - An option to choose priority between folder thumbnails/desktop.ini and/or custom icons in settings - I would very much like to use "Show folder thumbnails" on by default but can't because they override some of my special "main folders" I had setup with custom icons through desktop.ini

3 - A way to run catalog items with a definable keyboard shortcut - Like launching a special application or something, I've looked around and I don't think it's currently possible (is it?) User commands work quite well here thanks Acecool

and lastly the only two "truly big" feature request that are unlikely to be "easy"

4 - An editable breadcrumb bar that can fully replace the address bar - Like Windows Explorer's Breadcrum. I believe I'it's been asked around several times before

5 - A nice graphical user interface based batch renaming function - Maybe like Advanced Renamer or FreeComander's

Maybe some of these are already possible or achievable through scripting and I am unaware of it. If so I'd be thankful if you point me in the right direction, I'd be delighted to know I could already do some of these.
Last edited by duarte.framos on 08 Jun 2016 15:15, edited 1 time in total.

Acecool
Posts: 43
Joined: 25 May 2016 11:13

Re: A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by Acecool »

You can run catalog items with keyboard shortcut, or at least some of them you can...

ie scripts, you'd use a ::#1400 as the "location" in the catalog after you create the reference number ( shown bottom right in the dialog window ) under User > Manage Commands > Category of your choosing ie Load Script File > New > Script file: Scripts\blah.xys with caption of your choice, then above ok and cancel there is a number and to the left of that is Assign Keyboard Shortcut...

This may not be the same as what you have in mind, but it does allow attaching keybinds to commands and also displaying those commands in the catalog so that on-click they execute... I suppose attaching the key-bind system directly to catalog would save a few steps if we could just bind a key to a catalog item...

duarte.framos
Posts: 23
Joined: 14 Jan 2016 05:19
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Re: A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by duarte.framos »

Hey yeah, yes you can!
User Commands does the trick quite well. I don't specifically need to run from catalog, just a way to execute scripts in general with a keyboard shortcut, and I can create a user command from the the script, so that works wonderfully.

Thanks for the suggestion Acecool, updating my wishlist now 8)

LittleBiG
Posts: 1846
Joined: 08 Apr 2011 12:57
Location: Win10x64

Re: A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by LittleBiG »

duarte.framos wrote:1 - A "Refresh View" entry on right click menu when clicking both empty space or an item - Windows explorer and FreeCommander had it and it was quite convenient
Actually, using the toolbar button for it is a faster solution. I don't really know why to put "refresh" into the menus.
duarte.framos wrote:4 - An editable breadcrumb bar that can fully replace the address bar - Like Windows Explorer's Breadcrum. I believe I'it's been asked around several times before
You can edit the path in the address bar instead. And no, it couldn't replace the address bar. In XY address bar is a very powerful thing. Mixing them wouldn't be fruitful.

duarte.framos
Posts: 23
Joined: 14 Jan 2016 05:19
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Re: A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by duarte.framos »

I guess those are somewhat a matter of personal preference, may not appeal to everybody.
I find that Right Click>Refresh will require less mouse travel, especially from the lower pane. I end up using F5 instead so I don't have to look for the button in the toolbar.

Editable breadcrumb would allow saving some UI space instead of having duplicate functionality visible at all times, have a cleaner solution, and also save some mouse travel especially from the lower pane.
But I guess XY creator already said he didn't like that solution much either.

Acecool
Posts: 43
Joined: 25 May 2016 11:13

Re: A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by Acecool »

Combining the two wouldn't be difficult, actually, and you technically wouldn't be combining them... You'd add 2, or so, conditions if the configuration has the option selected...

When the address bar is idle ( you're not editing it ) you'd display the current breadcrumb bar on top of it.
When you click an area ( maybe the folder on the left, define a hotkey, or click the spare blue area ) you'd display the normal location bar.
When you click breadcrumb links, it acts as normal breadcrumb system ( actually, the way you have it is quite intuitive and the fact that it doesn't remove links from folders you were in if you go up a folder is a very useful feature ).
The down-arrow of the location bar would still be displayed and would also enable edit-mode / hide the breadcrumb bar..

Altering the actual location bar wouldn't be a good idea because of how useful it is in terms of being able to run scripts, locations, real-time filters, and more... but, in terms of ui development and progressing towards intuitive combinations would be a successful addition in the eyes of many people because it provides as much information in a cleaner format while leaning out the ui making way to display more data...

If it was added in the way I specified above, I'd use it.




Another note which is in regards to the extended scripting system idea I had earlier:
Although, you wouldn't even need to add this feature if the callback system is integrated with scripts that run in the background because callbacks could be added for click events to hide the breadcrumb bar when clicking certain areas or the dropdown button, and unhide it for other conditions as well as repositioning it if enabled, etc... Although moving ui elements or redrawing elsewhere would require quite a few additional systems in-place to accommodate this feature ( but over time features can be built up in a new / expanded script system which would allow users to play around with ideas, get feedback from the community, etc.. prior to you implementing them into the back end, and as logic is universal when a script is already created it would be very simple to add it into the back-end )...

duarte.framos
Posts: 23
Joined: 14 Jan 2016 05:19
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Re: A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by duarte.framos »

Yes, that is basically how I would envision a functional breadcrumb bar too, I too love the "memory" feature that leaves the last visited sub directories visible, but that doesn't have to be gone.
Basically clicking an empty area would toggle between text editing or clickable breadcrumb. It could even be configurable, like either the empty area to the right (like Windows Explorer) or the top half of the breadcrumb (like in FreeCommander) or an additional icon or button to the left or right, or perhaps even some configurable clicking events (like Ctrl+Click or Double Click, or Shift+Click).

lian00
Posts: 354
Joined: 09 Jul 2014 17:12

Re: A few wishlist items I gathered throught my time with XY

Post by lian00 »

I support the idea of A nice graphical user interface based batch renaming function. I just took a look at SpeedCommander and the rename window is so cooool. Everything you need is clearly shown.
I discovered there was such a function in XYplorer (I used only Shift-F2 mode) but separate in multiple entries in Rename Special. Who wants to navigate through different entries for advanced renaming ?
Windows 10 64 bits

Post Reply