Tabs not portable?

[Pierlavallee]

Hello, I recently purchased XYplorer and I love it.

It is on my USB stick along with all my apps and documents. I use the catalog as my launchpad/menu.

But I have one problem and I don't know if it's a bug or if there is something that I have not understood. When using my USB stick on another computer, the drive letter is different so all my tabs linked to folders on my stick do not appear. I have tried to type '?' for the drive, and it replaces immediately the question mark by the appropriate letter, and the list appears; however, it looks like the tabs are saved with the hardcoded letter and not the '?' so they are not portable (?). I have also tried with relative path (../..), but the result is the same.

As a note, all UDCs, scripts, and everything in the Catalog work perfectly well as it saves the relative path and does not translate it right away.

Please help!

Pierre

[admin]

Hi Pierre,

interesting idea!

But how do you expect to enter the "?-path" into a tab. The only way I see is the address bar. But when changing the location using the Tree... should the "?" remain in place?

Another and IMO better way to do it: A setting "Portable Tab" (or so) per tab. Which would replace the actual drive letter by "?" when saving the tab data -- IF the drive is XYplorer's home drive. And vice versa, when reading saved tab data replace the "?" by XYplorer's home drive letter.

Don

[Pierlavallee]

Thank you for your reply, Don.

Your suggested solution sounds good. I sure hope that it can be done in the foreseeable future. The way I use XYplorer, I always have 4-5 tabs locked in each panel (most frequently used folders on 'C' on the left, and those for 'H' (USB) in the right panel. And I use my USB stick on several computers. So for my usage, having portable tabs is essential, and I find, would integrate well with the other features of the application.

My only surprise is that this 'flaw' did not bother anybody else before!

Pierre

[admin]

Thank you for your reply, Don.

Your suggested solution sounds good. I sure hope that it can be done in the foreseeable future. The way I use XYplorer, I always have 4-5 tabs locked in each panel (most frequently used folders on 'C' on the left, and those for 'H' (USB) in the right panel. And I use my USB stick on several computers. So for my usage, having portable tabs is essential, and I find, would integrate well with the other features of the application.

My only surprise is that this 'flaw' did not bother anybody else before!

Pierre

I now think a global setting for all tabs should be ok, so:

Code: Select all

IF XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive
AND IF global setting "Portable tabs" = TRUE
THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs

ok?

[Pierlavallee]

I now think a global setting for all tabs should be ok, so:

Code: Select all

IF XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive
AND IF global setting "Portable tabs" = TRUE
THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs

ok?

OK, but we have to be careful to replace only the tabs linked to folders on the USB drive. Perhaps an additional condition is needed:

Code: Select all

IF XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive
AND If current app-drive-letter = removable drive
AND IF global setting "Portable tabs" = TRUE
THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs

Does it make sense?

Pierre

[admin]

I now think a global setting for all tabs should be ok, so:

Code: Select all

IF XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive
AND IF global setting "Portable tabs" = TRUE
THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs

ok?

OK, but we have to be careful to replace only the tabs linked to folders on the USB drive. Perhaps an additional condition is needed:

Code: Select all

IF XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive
AND If current app-drive-letter = removable drive
AND IF global setting "Portable tabs" = TRUE
THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs

Does it make sense?

Pierre

Yes. But I think that was inplied in my statement "THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs" because if XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive then the app-drive-letter = this removable drive.

[serendipity]

I like the idea of portable tab too. Count me in!

[Stefan]

Something like this i could also use even with non-removal drives:

Problem:
- on some pc my data-partition is on H:
- on other pc this is on drive E:
- the folder structure is the same on both
- If i now switch to an other pc i get only the message that drive H: is not found.

Maybe an dialog could appear asking me to chose an other drive letter ....
... and XY could try to resolve the path on this new drive letter now.
If this fails too but an drive exists, XY should show me the root of this drive.
If there is no such drive letter assigned... show me this dialog again, till i chose an valid one.

Explanation:
- close XY on PC1 with TAB H:\Tools\xy\
- open XY on PC2 with TAB H:\Tools\xy\
- i get an message "H: not available"
- and an dialog "Chose drive [ A ]v]"
- if i chose E: , then XY try to open E:\Tools\xy\
- if this fails XY opens root E:\

[admin]

Something like this i could also use even with non-removal drives:

Problem:
- on some pc my data-partition is on H:
- on other pc this is on drive E:
- the folder structure is the same on both
- If i now switch to an other pc i get only the message that drive H: is not found.

Maybe an dialog could appear asking me to chose an other drive letter ....
... and XY could try to resolve the path on this new drive letter now.
If this fails too but an drive exists, XY should show me the root of this drive.
If there is no such drive letter assigned... show me this dialog again, till i chose an valid one.

Explanation:
- close XY on PC1 with TAB H:\Tools\xy\
- open XY on PC2 with TAB H:\Tools\xy\
- i get an message "H: not available"
- and an dialog "Chose drive [ A ]v]"
- if i chose E: , then XY try to open E:\Tools\xy\
- if this fails XY opens root E:\

I think it's not a likely situation that 2 computers have identical folder structures on 2 fixed drives with different letters. I don't want to get too smart...

[Stefan]

I think it's not a likely situation that 2 computers have identical folder structures on 2 fixed drives with different letters.

Sure, because if one user work on several pc with different amount of HDDs and/or partitions, the drive letter is not always the same, but the structure may be.

Admin> I don't want to get too smart...
O.K.

Thanks

[avsfan]

Something like this i could also use even with non-removal drives:

Problem:
- on some pc my data-partition is on H:
- on other pc this is on drive E:
- the folder structure is the same on both
- If i now switch to an other pc i get only the message that drive H: is not found.

Maybe an dialog could appear asking me to chose an other drive letter ....
... and XY could try to resolve the path on this new drive letter now.
If this fails too but an drive exists, XY should show me the root of this drive.
If there is no such drive letter assigned... show me this dialog again, till i chose an valid one.

I think it's not a likely situation that 2 computers have identical folder structures on 2 fixed drives with different letters. I don't want to get too smart...

While there may be situations where different drives have identical folder structures, I think it'd be more common for a networked drive that may be mapped as a different drive letter on different computers.

For instance, if I have a drive on one computer (c:) and I share it and have it mapped as Drive X: on another computer, having those tabs be portable while referring to the same physical data could be very nice... Same thing happens with a NAS drive, etc...

[Pierlavallee]

OK, but we have to be careful to replace only the tabs linked to folders on the USB drive. Perhaps an additional condition is needed:

Code: Select all

IF XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive
AND If current app-drive-letter = removable drive
AND IF global setting "Portable tabs" = TRUE
THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs

Does it make sense?

Pierre

Yes. But I think that was inplied in my statement "THEN use "?" for the app-drive-letter when saving tabs" because if XYplorer is currently running on a removable drive then the app-drive-letter = this removable drive.

Sorry, what I meant is only do this if the tab is linked to the usb drive. For example, my 4 tabs locked on 'C' should remain saved as 'C' and NOT saved as '?'. That`s the danger with a global variable, but hey as long as it works...

Thanks again.

Pierre

[admin]

OK, I put it on the list for 8.80. A couple if things have to be considerated so I cannot just squeeze it in.