No Drive Bar

[nas8e9]

It seems the new drive group buttons have got the shell context menu for individual drives, but not the separate drive buttons (e.g. D:). I've got a few spurious removable drives I never use which are included in the group button, but would like to use the individual drive button because I only use one out of a group of three removable drives.

Based on the above, could individual drive buttons get the shell context menu as well?

Really? This works here (all available drives buttons, no matter group or not, get the shell context menu).

I've retested 10.00.0006 with an individual drive button labelled "Drive G:" with this as the result of right-clicking the drive button:

Makes sense to me. As one sees from the dropdown, drive G: is not available. There is a shell menu only for available drives.

My bad: after adding a single drive button for a (available) HD partition, it does have the shell context menu. I'd missed the subtlety that in case of unavailable drives, XYplorer substitutes the drive select menu for the shell context menu.

[admin]

I'd missed the subtlety that in case of unavailable drives, XYplorer substitutes the drive select menu for the shell context menu.

Yes. What else shall do? I just think it's better than showing nothing. And it proves to the eye that the drive isn't there ATM.

[nas8e9]

I'd missed the subtlety that in case of unavailable drives, XYplorer substitutes the drive select menu for the shell context menu.

Yes. What else shall do? I just think it's better than showing nothing. And it proves to the eye that the drive isn't there ATM.

I think it's good. I just wonder whether some (stronger) visual feedback that the drive is unavailable, would be useful (e.g. regular/bold typeface)? As is, I can't really discern a different state with two buttons with different states next to each other.

[j_c_hallgren]

I think it's good. I just wonder whether some (stronger) visual feedback that the drive is unavailable, would be useful (e.g. regular/bold typeface)? As is, I can't really discern a different state with two buttons with different states next to each other.

Not sure if possible but what about a different color text for unavail drives, like red? Or icon like universal "NO" sign (red circle w/slash) superimposed?

[admin]

I think it's good. I just wonder whether some (stronger) visual feedback that the drive is unavailable, would be useful (e.g. regular/bold typeface)? As is, I can't really discern a different state with two buttons with different states next to each other.

Not sure if possible but what about a different color text for unavail drives, like red? Or icon like universal "NO" sign (red circle w/slash) superimposed?

Agreed, but technically difficult (= m-m-maybe later). Theoretically Windows should provide the "unavailable" icon and it does so for unavailable removable drives on my system (white-on-red question mark overlayed). It does not for empty CD-ROM drives, though, don't know why.

[nas8e9]

I think it's good. I just wonder whether some (stronger) visual feedback that the drive is unavailable, would be useful (e.g. regular/bold typeface)? As is, I can't really discern a different state with two buttons with different states next to each other.

Not sure if possible but what about a different color text for unavail drives, like red? Or icon like universal "NO" sign (red circle w/slash) superimposed?

Agreed, but technically difficult (= m-m-maybe later). Theoretically Windows should provide the "unavailable" icon and it does so for unavailable removable drives on my system (white-on-red question mark overlayed). It does not for empty CD-ROM drives, though, don't know why.

If I understand you correctly, the technical difficulty is with obtaining the correct icon from Windows. If obtaining the state isn't however, would that allow you to implement something like just bolding the letter of drives in the button, as they become available?

[admin]

I think it's good. I just wonder whether some (stronger) visual feedback that the drive is unavailable, would be useful (e.g. regular/bold typeface)? As is, I can't really discern a different state with two buttons with different states next to each other.

Not sure if possible but what about a different color text for unavail drives, like red? Or icon like universal "NO" sign (red circle w/slash) superimposed?

Agreed, but technically difficult (= m-m-maybe later). Theoretically Windows should provide the "unavailable" icon and it does so for unavailable removable drives on my system (white-on-red question mark overlayed). It does not for empty CD-ROM drives, though, don't know why.

If I understand you correctly, the technical difficulty is with obtaining the correct icon from Windows. If obtaining the state isn't however, would that allow you to implement something like just bolding the letter of drives in the button, as they become available?

Ah, now I see that you are using small icons in the toolbar so you don't see the Windows icon!

"technically difficult (= m-m-maybe later)" = I could do something (like bold, or red), but low priority ATM.

[Stefan]

v10.00.0005 - 2011-07-09 12:20
+ Toolbar: Added buttons for drives A: to Z:, so now you can build
your own Drives Bar section within the main toolbar.
If the toolbar has large icons the buttons show the specific drive
icon plus the drive letter, else just the letter. The icons react
on adding or removing of removable drives if Auto-Refresh is
enabled.
The buttons' tooltips show the drive display captions. The
buttons' right-click menu offers all available drives.
Note that there are plans for a more flexible approach in a later
version: Only and all available drives will be shown as buttons.
To achieve this the toolbar definition will allow for a "soft"
pseudo button like "Available Drives" which is then on-the-fly
resolved to a row of buttons.

v10.00.0006 - 2011-07-12 11:00
+ Toolbar: Now the toolbar got smarter about drives. You get a
couple of "button groups" which softly and automatically (when you
plug in/out a removable drive) react to the current drives setup.
The groups have different scopes and partly contain each other, so
for your toolbar you would typically choose one of them:
- All Drives (Group) = all drives as listed in MyComputer
- Available Drives (Group) = all drives apart from empty CD drives
and unconnected mapped network drives
- Hard Drives (Group) = only hard drives
- Removable Drives (Group) = only available removable drives
(e.g. a floppy drive, thumb drive, or flash card reader)
These soft groups make the drives section of the toolbar perfectly
portable.
Notes:
- The soft groups are sensitive to the following settings in
Configuration | General: Show floppy drives, Show hidden drives.
- If Show floppy drives is ticked then floppies are displayed even
if empty to spare the annoying hardware check.
- You can use the normal drive buttons parallely to the soft
groups without problems.
> Toolbar: Using scripting, permanent variables and SC toolbar() you
can easily build a user button that lets you quickly switch between
different toolbar layouts.
* Drive Buttons: Now right-clicking the buttons pops the drive's
shell context menu if the drive is available, else it pops all
available drives.

WOW, thank you Don, looks great!

v10.00.0006, Available Drives (Group)

XYplorer_DriveBar_001.PNG (11.73 KiB) Viewed 2287 times

EDIT:
and it works great, shows an plugged-in USB Stick as new icon.

To bad the drive icons are only shown with large icons set.

Drive icons only if TB is set to big icons

XYplorer_DriveBar_003.PNG (8.66 KiB) Viewed 2286 times

Issue:
If i unplug the usb stick,
- the toolbar gets refreshed, showing now the far left icon instead of the right hand side of the toolbar,
- Toolbar is not scrollable anymore, have to disable and enable this scroll feature by hand.
Seams only an issue with TB icons set to big. Or if there are more icons then space and the icons are out of view.



Question:
Could there be other icons for removable drives?
I mean: better visible like:

other icons for removable drives

XYplorer_DriveBar_002.PNG (1.91 KiB) Viewed 2287 times

[admin]

No space for icons AND letters in small icons toolbar.

If i unplug the usb stick,
- the toolbar gets refreshed, showing now the far left icon instead of the right hand side of the toolbar,
- Toolbar is not scrollable anymore, have to disable and enable this scroll feature by hand.
Seams only an issue with TB icons set to big. Or if there are more icons then space and the icons are out of view.

Question:
Could there be other icons for removable drives?
I mean: better visible like:

XYplorer_DriveBar_002.PNG

1. don't understand
2. so here's another user with this problem. I just cannot reproduce it.
3. i take the icons from windows

[Stefan]

No space for icons AND letters in small icons toolbar.

If i unplug the usb stick,
- the toolbar gets refreshed, showing now the far left icon instead of the right hand side of the toolbar,
- Toolbar is not scrollable anymore, have to disable and enable this scroll feature by hand.
Seams only an issue with TB icons set to big. Or if there are more icons then space and the icons are out of view.

Question:
Could there be other icons for removable drives?
I mean: better visible like:

XYplorer_DriveBar_002.PNG

1. don't understand
2. so here's another user with this problem. I just cannot reproduce it.
3. i take the icons from windows

To 0)
S>To bad the drive icons are only shown with large icons set.
A>No space for icons AND letters in small icons toolbar.
How about other (background)color,
or additional sign like underline for removable drive J:,
or an circle around CD-Drives (D:),
maybe an backslash for UNC paths \M: \N: \X:
or something else, just to indicate different drives (fix/remove/net/cd)?


To 1)
S>showing now the far left icon
A>don't understand
This is still an (little) issue even with 0007:
I have more icons then the TB can hold (if icons are set to be big, so they are wrapped at the end of the TB.
I am now at the right side of the TB and didn't see the "Back/Forward/Up" icons anymore.
On add- or removing drives the TB refreshes and scrolls to the far left, so i see this icons again.
But i expected the toolbar to stay and still show me the more right side of it.


To 2)
S>Toolbar is not scrollable anymore
A>another user with this problem. I just cannot reproduce it
As stated in that other >thread< the build 007 works better for adding or removing drives.
I just tested again 006 by disconnecting an share and had the issue that the toolbar was not scrollable anymore.
With 007 this is now no problem anymore, the scrollable option is still working.


To 3)
S>Could there be other icons for removable drives
A>i take the icons from windows
Maybe you get the time some time to add an own icon to better identify USB-Drives (like mine above)
(The system- icon for USB-Drive is already different from fixed drive icon, but only minor different to me)

But all in all: well done. Many thanks.

[admin]

To 0): hmmm, no.

To 1): ah, I see. Yes, that's a little glitch. I was aware of it right away, but fixing it was a bit too costy. Maybe later when I'm bored.

To 3): you mean for the small icons toolbar? aah, too much work. In my impression only very few users use the small icons bar anyway.

I will move on to other interesting things now: Live Filter Box for the file list!

[lukescammell]

I will move on to other interesting things now: Live Filter Box for the file list!

Oh please god YES! I forget how long I've been waiting for this.

[CodeLobster]

i just find it weird that theres not a single anything when the removable drives group simply isnt there because theres no drive attached.

an icon as placeholder would be cool to show that theres an active button there instead of plain nada.

great work with the buttons by the way. keep it up!

[admin]

i just find it weird that theres not a single anything when the removable drives group simply isnt there because theres no drive attached.

an icon as placeholder would be cool to show that theres an active button there instead of plain nada.

great work with the buttons by the way. keep it up!

Wasn't that the very idea of smart drive button groups: to save the space when the drives are not there?

[j_c_hallgren]

i just find it weird that theres not a single anything when the removable drives group simply isnt there because theres no drive attached.

Wasn't that the very idea of smart drive button groups: to save the space when the drives are not there?

Maybe it's one placeholder icon vs multiple drive icons that could be possible/typical with removables?