Snapshot

[admin]

The HTML Image Preview Script (http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13690) inspired a little idea for a script (or maybe even a native function): What about the possibility to create a complete snapshot of the current list as HTML file? Incuding all data shown in the columns, AND the icons, AND the thumbnails?

To accomplish this I think we would need only two new commands:

Code: Select all

SaveIcon(sourcefile, iconfile)
SaveThumbnail(sourcefile, thumbnailfile, format (JPG|PNG), width, height)

Wouldn't it be thrilling to load a 3-year-old snapshot of some folder into your browser and see the complete metadata from that time preserved in HTML? Old data, but much more alive and workable than the pixels of a long long screenshot.

[highend]

Wouldn't it be much better to have those snapshots directly in XY and not in a browser? We could call it "Offline folders" or "Folder snapshots" as a new feature...

[Gabrielle]

Totally awesome!

[bdeshi]

either way, optionally with subfolders.

[Marco]

Wouldn't it be much better to have those snapshots directly in XY and not in a browser? We could call it "Offline folders" or "Folder snapshots" as a new feature...

I think the idea of HTML stems from the inability of XY of showing "live" moving gifs in the List. That's what lead to the script in the first post. Even if embedded-in-XY, "stone folders" would be cool!

Anyway, basically another mode of folder dump? If you allow full CSS customization, why not? At first, I was afraid that the produced html code could "rust" with time, given the fast pace at which html5 is developed and constantly updated. But I'm no html expert at all and, upon second thought, it would be just a matter of tables, right?

[admin]

1) animation would not work even in HTML because I export the static thumbnails, not the original animations (okay, that could be done, of course, optionally).

2) yes, a luxury dump, and yes, basically tables. The format could be template based, so the user could update the templates to the latest HTML fashion as he likes and can.

[admin]

Wouldn't it be much better to have those snapshots directly in XY and not in a browser? We could call it "Offline folders" or "Folder snapshots" as a new feature...

I find it fascinating that even people without XY can read (but not write) those stone folders (nice one, Marco ).

[Stef123]

Before the mouth-watering turns into drooling:
1) Would I be able to generate these snapshots in one swish go - capturing a whole branch at once?
2) Would the result be "browsable", in the sense of clicking hyperlinks to see subfolders?

[bdeshi]

What have you got against supporting subfolders? not in paperfolders, not in these...

It's easy (or easier!) in html. I'd even made a script to produce attached results.

2) Would the result be "browsable", in the sense of clicking hyperlinks to see subfolders?

like this? (click row to expand, click filenames to open, sort-of)

[admin]

Before the mouth-watering turns into drooling:
1) Would I be able to generate these snapshots in one swish go - capturing a whole branch at once?
2) Would the result be "browsable", in the sense of clicking hyperlinks to see subfolders?

If 1) then also 2).

[Stef123]

If 1) then also 2).

To fathom the depths of this profound, oracular answer requires a Delphic understanding I do not possess. On my mundane level I pray for condition 1) to become TRUE without any ELSE-If getaways. Would it help my cause to eat a live toad behind the graveyard, on a full moon midnight?

@Sammay,
very intriguing html - it links \XYData\icon etc just like I hoped it would. If this thing is to contain thumbnails, I am afraid it will replace the script you cooked up for me just recently.

[Stef123]

Just to rule out misunderstandings ...
when I said "browsable" hyperlinks, I did NOT mean to land at that folder location. But rather to call up the corresponding snapshot of that subfolder.

After looking at your sandbox.html again, Sammay, I noticed the links do not point to another html - as I had assumed - but rather to the location itself. This wouldn't help me. To replace my habit of taking screenshots, I'd need offline folders all the way through, chiseled in stone.

[bdeshi]

No, it indeed expands a folder in-html. The Name text itself points to targets, but clicking anywhere else on the row toggles folder contentlist.

[Stef123]

The Name text itself points to targets, but clicking anywhere else on the row toggles folder contentlist.

Thanks. I had it worked out yesterday, but then confused myself today, comparing too many tools at once. Nothing beats ShadowCats so far, and that includes 3rd party tools as well.

Once this snapshot feature takes off, however .... well, it all depends on whether I can get the thumb size from my list view at the time, whether it will be browsable similar to your Sandbox thingie - hey, how did you generate it, anyway? Some script of yours I am not aware of?

[bdeshi]

yep, (not published) . But it takes a different kind of input.
But let's wait and see how amazing Don's snapshots turn out. (Maybe even better than this)