What can Virtual Folders do?

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eil
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Joined: 13 Jan 2011 19:44

What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by eil »

I hoped i'll understand with the full release, but still not fully understanding the feature, so would be grateful if somebody states description of possibilities. So far i presume it's kinda like a "scripted-filter-tab" that operates info either about tab where user switched from or from script stated path.
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admin
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by admin »

Come on, I worked hours on this, read it: https://www.xyplorer.com/release_24.00.php#VFO

eil
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by eil »

I did read that before asking here, and only impression i've got: "scripted-filter-tab". That's why trying to figure out better.
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GreetingsFromPoland
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by GreetingsFromPoland »

initially i liked the idea of them; however, i have not needed or created more than my initial 2 (modified today and selected). and even then i'm about to delete the modified today one because of the lack of auto-refresh when the vfo is the active tab and something changes in the tab it points to (help says press F5 to refresh). i can just go back to my toggled visual filter which does automatically refresh/update.

i keep reading other posts for examples that may apply to me, but so far none have (even the examples in the help file i don't apply to my workflow).

am probably a rarity in this because i still don't have a need for the catalog feature beyond adding a few programs there to "quick launch" (and i see others heavily using and loving the catalog).

admin
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by admin »

I think the potential of VFOs is currently unpredictable and will only be recognized later. It's a seed, and we'll see it growing and developing.

GreetingsFromPoland
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by GreetingsFromPoland »

you're right ! i know a lot of thought and work went into vfo's and i don't want to dismiss or diminish their possibilities and potential. no other file manager to my knowledge has anything close to this. what i have been doing lately is creating them from your examples and seeing if it something that i could work into my workflow. i am also waiting for some of the green-labeled forum names to post what they are doing with them. i would expect some crazy concoctions from them.

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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by admin »

In the next version VFOs will support auto-refresh. :)

Garonne
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by Garonne »

I think the easiest thing, where Virtual Folders come in handy are the part where you take the clipboard to build a virtual folder... That's probably the easiest thing where Virtual Folders will be used (at least in the next few months... as you already said: the full potential of virtual folders will probably unwrap in the times to come...)

Copy (CTRL-C) or cut (CTRL-X) Files or File-Paths (Text) and they will be displayed as Folder... Guess that's the easiest thing to understand and use.

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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by admin »

To me VFOs already make a noticeable and welcome difference in simplification and snappiness. My Help dev directory has accumulated 1000s of files of which I always only need the latest few, plus a special one which is old but never changes. This VFO is a brilliant solution here:

Code: Select all

vi:<pick 8.m E:\XY\XYplorer.dev\help.dev\code-help-HM>|CopyHelp.bat  //"Help V"

zakhar
Posts: 148
Joined: 08 Sep 2010 21:13

Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by zakhar »

Hello, dear XYplorer Community!

Virtual Folders are the new super feature of XYplorer, no doubt.

What I am missing is a bit more information / examples in the Help file about how vi: can work with folders.
I did not found any information about the following very important possibility,
that works already as I could find out after several experiments:

Code: Select all

vi:<get pickdirs fol "C:\">|<get pickdirs der "D:\">
where "fol" and "der" are folder name parts of folders to be filtered and displayed.
All infos in the Help files concern displaying files wherease
XYplorer can already display some dynamically filtered (in counterpart to Paper Folders
where the folders are preselected in written file) folders located in different locations.
I can not recapitulate now how I found the path from the info under
"XYplorer.chm::/idh_virtualfolders.htm" to the info under
"XYplorer.chm::/idh_scripting_comref_get.htm / pick" - it was not easy.

Under "XYplorer.chm::/idh_virtualfolders.htm" is said Virtual Folders support Quick Search.
For me supporting Quick Search is something that would work with typical Quick Search syntaxis (without vi: of course)

Code: Select all

vi:C:\?fol* /dn|D:\?der* /dn
but it does not work now.

Thank you.

nerdweed
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by nerdweed »

Building on Garonne's previous post, I sense a new feature that can be added easily - Clip Store. I always wanted it, but it becomes much easier with VFO. I used paper folder-based script for it, but it didn't fit well with the usual workflow.

Any valid files/folder copied to the clipboard will keep accumulating in a special variable <xy_clipstore>. Anything copied newly to the clipboard if has valid paths, will be appended to this variable after deduplicating. This will aid in collecting files from various locations and then a special paste from <xy_clipstore> to bring them all together.

The variable can be cleared on app refresh or ad hoc.

GUIguy
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by GUIguy »

Like many others, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to create a virtual folder for the Clipboard.
However, mine is only showing one entry. I'd like it to show all the entries that one can see by holding the Windows Key+V. Is there a special syntax for that?

I think Nerdweed addressed it below, but I don't know how to implement it. Any help?

Also, even though I "locked the location" it disappeared when I changed sessions. Is there something that Don can do to override Session Manager so that the locked virtual folder sticks around? Or is that something that Flux has to implement in a patch for Session Manager.

Hey, Don...It's becoming an almost full-time job just to get familiar--much less master--all the insanely great features you keep putting into XY. :appl: :appl: :appl: I'm exhausted! :biggrin:
GUIguy
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klownboy
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by klownboy »

Concerning your issue with SessionManager, are you using "Update Ssessions" from the menu? My sessions include 4 vi:<pick... and are being saved by SM. I can see them in the tab's pane.ini file.
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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by admin »

zakhar wrote: 29 Jan 2023 02:40 Under "XYplorer.chm::/idh_virtualfolders.htm" is said Virtual Folders support Quick Search.
For me supporting Quick Search is something that would work with typical Quick Search syntaxis (without vi: of course)

Code: Select all

vi:C:\?fol* /dn|D:\?der* /dn
but it does not work now.

Thank you.
No, that does not work. You cannot combine VFO and QS syntax, that just kills the parser. But *after* a VFO is listed you can run a Quick Search on that VFO via UI.

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Re: What can Virtual Folders do?

Post by admin »

GUIguy wrote: 29 Jan 2023 08:51 Like many others, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to create a virtual folder for the Clipboard.
However, mine is only showing one entry. I'd like it to show all the entries that one can see by holding the Windows Key+V. Is there a special syntax for that?
vi:<clp> does not work? It does here.

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