New "File Tags" feature

[graham]

my take on this....
The use of tags for colour and name(s) I think is great. I assume colour is not an attribute for a name tag but a self contained tag and that a file can have multiple tags. If this is the case then given that one can optionally display the tag colour then you can immediately see like colour tags as a collection whereas named tags are more difficult to see. Likewise sorting or manipulating by colour tags simple versus sorting by name tags. If there are multiple tags per file then could you select/sort by combinations - eg. sort colour "2" & "build" tags.
So this is in effect a virtual folders (collections) facility

prefer hard coded colours to be less vivid.

For the normal list display I would like that a fixed (single char.) new column be added which indicates if a file is tagged or not and then maybe by right click show the tags. This option would mean that normal list display is not bombarded by colours and additional tag name columns.

Yes, this seems to open up a lot of opportunities I could see useful to me.

[admin]

Thanks for all the ideas. Quick answer before turning over to the machine called "weekend":
I currently prefer to have it pretty much as jacky suggested.
- one column "Tag" (one per file, may color the item): you can edit the tags: colors, and the caption like "production", and whatever else, ideas are coming by the minute...
- one column "Comment" (one (potentially long) line of text): you can abuse the comment column for multi-keyword tagging if you want

prefer hard coded colours to be less vivid.

Well, it was on purpose: I want to prevent you from doing too many tags! Because that's for sure: when you just throw out tags like no tomorrow you will slow down browsing, and I don't want to see a slow XY anywhere!

[admin]

I'd like it if when using options Highlight selected rows and Underline we would still get that underline for tagged items.
(I'm also wishing that the Highlight Focused Row could still be shown somehow, though I don't see how it could be done...)

Using Line Numbers column currently works to see both. (But I might have to paint over that column as well, not sure yet...).

I might also give you the option (in the tag definition) to paint only the file Name, not the whole row.

[serendipity]

Wow, nice screenshots indeed. But I dont know how this works, I created a tag.dat file and did exactly what Don said but after restart all that remains is the header. Can somebody walk me through this?

[admin]

Wow, nice screenshots indeed. But I dont know how this works, I created a tag.dat file and did exactly what Don said but after restart all that remains is the header. Can somebody walk me through this?

Maybe you forget to add the tag indices at the end of each line?

[serendipity]

Wow, nice screenshots indeed. But I dont know how this works, I created a tag.dat file and did exactly what Don said but after restart all that remains is the header. Can somebody walk me through this?

Maybe you forget to add the tag indices at the end of each line?

In fact I copy pasted you posted example and modified it, example:

Code: Select all

XYplorer File Tags v1

C:\Users\A H\Programs\XYplorer\fvs.dat

Update: I am on Vista ultimate 32-bit.

PS: does having space in the path make a difference?

[Pagat]

Wow, nice screenshots indeed. But I dont know how this works, I created a tag.dat file and did exactly what Don said but after restart all that remains is the header. Can somebody walk me through this?

Make sure you create the tag.dat when XY is NOT running. I made the same mistake.
I guess when XY is running, your file is overwritten with an empty file from XYs memory when XY is closed.

[jacky]

Using Line Numbers column currently works to see both. (But I might have to paint over that column as well, not sure yet...).

Yeah but I don't use that column. By the way, to be fair it's not that column, but any column on the left of column Name that isn't affected by this tag-color. But still, my column Name is the left-most one so that doesn't change things for me.
The focused row highlight I can see on the icon, but I wish there was a better/more visible way. I still don't know what it could be though...

The underline for selected rows however I'd really like to have it on other columns on the right as well.

@serendipity: yeah you forget the color index, try this:

Code: Select all

XYplorer File Tags v1

C:\Users\Serendipity\Programs\XYplorer\fvs.dat|2

[serendipity]

Wow, nice screenshots indeed. But I dont know how this works, I created a tag.dat file and did exactly what Don said but after restart all that remains is the header. Can somebody walk me through this?

Make sure you create the tag.dat when XY is NOT running. I made the same mistake.
I guess when XY is running, your file is overwritten with an empty file from XYs memory when XY is closed.

Thanks Pagat,that did the trick. Boy, I would have never figured that out.
Actually, how did i forget the "Restart without saving" rule? Staying away from XY for a month has had its consequences.

[serendipity]

I have a mixed feeling about the color tag here. Especially when it comes to sorting or searching it would be more powerful to be able to sort column or search based on color filters rather than color tags. Also, since you have a nice gui for color filters already, you can build more rules into it to include path|color index here.
Just thinking out loud.

[j_c_hallgren]

I might also give you the option (in the tag definition) to paint only the file Name, not the whole row.

I'd think the ability to define what to color would be nice...so that you could define one of these three-five choices: 1) File Name only 2) Entire line 3) Tag col only 4) Name & tag col only 5) no color

I have a mixed feeling about the color tag here. Especially when it comes to sorting or searching it would be more powerful to be able to sort column or search based on color filters rather than color tags. Also, since you have a nice gui for color filters already, you can build more rules into it to include path|color index here.
Just thinking out loud.

Humm..I could also agree with this, so that's why I was thinking of morphing the "tag index" into a pointer to a short text value as alternative, but still retain the color as a aid.

Well, it was on purpose: I want to prevent you from doing too many tags! Because that's for sure: when you just throw out tags like no tomorrow you will slow down browsing, and I don't want to see a slow XY anywhere!

Self-inflicted slowdowns that help a user perform their desired tasks should be an exception to this concept of preventing it!

Addendum: Now what would be neat would be the ability to, via context menu on Tag col, un/mark that file with desired tag! You may be planning this but just wanted to throw it out as idea if not...there might need to be other ways to do this also, but that's one place.

[serendipity]

Small script for editing tag:

Code: Select all

//Save all settings
 #182;
//Open tag.dat for editing and wait until notepad is closed.
 run "notepad <xydata>\tag.dat", , 1;
//Restart without saving
 #190;

[jacky]

Small script for editing tag:

Code: Select all

//Save all settings
 #182;
//Open tag.dat for editing and wait until notepad is closed.
 run "notepad <xydata>\tag.dat", , 1;
//Restart without saving
 #190;

Nice, but why use notepad? You can do it directly from XY:

Code: Select all

  #182; // Save All Settings
  $file = "<xydata>\tag.dat";
  writefile($file, input("Quick File Edit: $file",,readfile($file), w));
  #190; // Restart without Saving

hmm... trying this, when XY restarts I get an error : runtime error 91, object variable or With block variable not set

[jacky]

I have a mixed feeling about the color tag here. Especially when it comes to sorting or searching it would be more powerful to be able to sort column or search based on color filters rather than color tags. Also, since you have a nice gui for color filters already, you can build more rules into it to include path|color index here.

Well, seems to me you're thinking of another feature, one that allows to use patterns to define "groups." I'm not saying it's not a good idea, but this tag feature is something else, where you tag individual items. It's just a different thing, I think. (And not for grouping/sorting, to searching by color filters can done already, since a color filter is nothing but a pattern )

Humm..I could also agree with this, so that's why I was thinking of morphing the "tag index" into a pointer to a short text value as alternative, but still retain the color as a aid.

Hence the idea of using tags, one tag being a (short) text defined by the user, and which can have a color assigned. The index is just an internal setting, which we know about right now because this is a work in progress, chances are once done, we'll just deal with tags, as in text, the whole index thing will be taken care for us internally by XY...

Addendum: Now what would be neat would be the ability to, via context menu on Tag col, un/mark that file with desired tag! You may be planning this but just wanted to throw it out as idea if not...there might need to be other ways to do this also, but that's one place.

Context menu of column Tag I'm not sure, because it would go against the usual ctxt menu of a column. But it's likely we'll have menu (and therefore KS) as well as maybe a TB button; plus the obligatory script command to do it as well.

[admin]

Nice, but why use notepad? You can do it directly from XY:

Code: Select all

  #182; // Save All Settings
  $file = "<xydata>\tag.dat";
  writefile($file, input("Quick File Edit: $file",,readfile($file), w));
  #190; // Restart without Saving

hmm... trying this, when XY restarts I get an error : runtime error 91, object variable or With block variable not set

Ah, yes, fixed.