Newbie Catalog User Qs

[TestMeister]

After using XY for almost 10 years I finally decided to try the Catalog feature. As great as the tabs and favorites have been for allowing me to organize my work, the Catalog really hits the mark. Really should have adopted it years ago.
For those more experienced, can I ask a few questions in case I have missed something in the help or maybe there is an undocumented solution

-Is there any way to sub-classify a Category by adding a child category or folder?
-If sub-classifying a Category is not possible, I would use multiple Catalogues so is there a way to visually persist a pick-list of the Catalogs? This would give you a heads-up view of the scope of your work rather than navigating the context menu each time
-Is it possible to rename a catalog from the default name created by XY? I tried but after the chage it no longer appeared in the catalog list
-Can a separate background color for the Category pane be set?

Many thanks!

[highend]

- No
- How should that look like exactly?
- Right click on white space in the current catalog, e.g. "Save As..."
And to clean up Tools - List Management - Recent Catalogs...
- Right click the category, "Properties"
Colors: [x] Apply colors
First Background... Button

[TestMeister]

Thanks for the tips they made a big difference.
Other than accessing the folder \XYplorer\Catalogs\, is there a way to delete Catalogs?
*
Below are a couple of ideas on enhancing the UI to more easily view and access different catalogs
The outline format would be ideal but if that is not possible, then maybe a drop-down list

Catalog UI mock-up

XY Catalog UI.png (22.5 KiB) Viewed 3375 times

[highend]

Apart from merging a catalog into the current one you can only have one active at the same time

Scripting could be used to show a list of loadable catalogs (e.g. on a custom button)
or you could add an entry for every catalog (first place) that shows the name of the
catalog and triggers the same script to load a different one...

[TestMeister]

I guess for now I will try to use just one catalog.
I work best with a dashboard type view into everything I deal with otherwise I tend to miss things.

Thanks for the help!

[totmad1]

This is just something I created for myself about a year ago. I have adjusted it to use your example.
It was made to speed up changing Catalogs by using 'Includes'.
Just extract to Catalogs folder. Load '0BASE.dat' and your set to go.

TIP. to create new (don't forget to save - I tend to use 'Save As...'). right click Category - new.
right click Category - Include - (choose a Catalog from test folder - not '0BASE.dat').
right click item - 'include.xys' - Duplicate Item (or press Ctrl-Ins) and drag to Category title.
do the same for '0BASE.dat'. left click 'include.xys' choose 'UNLOAD includes'.
right click Category - Catalog - 'Save As...'.

OR just goto test folder and copy & paste 'empty.dat' then rename.

test.zip

(3.39 KiB) Downloaded 199 times

Capture-2.jpg (7.54 KiB) Viewed 3328 times

[TestMeister]

This looks great many thanks for sharing!
I will check it out tonight.

[TestMeister]

totmadi, thanks again!

I have been traveling and just now able to spend some time on your cool enhancement.
Can I ask a few questions?

• I can get it to work for the existing catalogs but I can't get it to add a new catalog. No matter what I try, everything comes in as a category in BASE. What am I missing?
• If I edit the path in the categories include.xys and "add new tab&Goto Catalogs folder" can I place everything in the Categories folder instead of Categories\test?
• What is the purpose of empty.dat?

[totmad1]

Let me answer your first and last questions first.
Select 'empty.dat' -- copy--paste. This will create a dat named 'empty-01.dat'. This can then be renamed
to whatever suits you. This is then opened via right click on category name --catalog--open.
It is now editable. 1st thing add a category. Continue to add to catalog.
When finished click on '0BASE.dat' you can then drag your newly created dat file to 'BASE' category.
Right click on dat choose "properties" (last item).Change 'Action on click:' to 'Go to Location'.
second input is named "Location".
Type in i.e. ::catalogload"test\TRAVEL.dat" .

The answer to your other question is :-
Yes you can change to the Catalog folder moving and by changing paths,
but you will have to change the paths in all your dat categories i.e. ::catalogload"test\TRAVEL.dat"
will become ::catalogload"TRAVEL.dat" .

I hope that has cleared things up.

[TestMeister]

TM1

Got it working and made some changes-
After moving everything form test to the Catalogs folder and changing the paths, I also
Using Notepad, changed the path in include.sys
Replaced empty.dat with an edited version that modified the path so all new catalogs would work

Questions-
Looks like no way to reuse a non-BASE Catalog?
I also tried importing the non-BASE catalog and successfully moved the category items to a BASE catalog category but they would not save
Is include.sys required, or do the existing context menus all work normally?

Thanks again

[totmad1]

I am glad that you have further questions as it shows that there is even more you want to learn
about a really useful feature.
- A non-Base Catalog can be reused in 3 different ways.
1. load non-Base Catalog of choice and drag '0Base.dat' to category. Change properties as described previously.
2. use 'include.xys' choose include-- non-Base Catalog of choice.
3. use 'include.xys' choose include-- non-Base Catalog of choice.
choose item you want in your base catalog category by Right click -- 'Duplicate item'.
(this will not only duplicate item but also category . So if you already have a category with that name it will place the item in there .)
Unload Includes and you will see all your duplicated items. Drag where you want . Save as usual.
-The existing context menus all work normally.
-'include.xys' was as mentioned to speed 'Includes' that means you can choose more than one catalog.
Given your example, you could include all three catalogs in one (else only one could be included then another etc.)