Sync browse folders in DP

[Stefan]

Sorry, i know too much to do right now, but i just have to write it down before i forget it again.

-

One command i could need every week is to browse an folder hierarchy in both panes the same time.

I could now imaging using an script, but maybe this is from common interest to build this in as an default command.


Issue:

i have two nearly identical folder structures like

N:\IssueA Old
Folder1
Folder2

and

X:\IssueA New
Folder1
Folder2


and often i have the need to look into each folder on both panes to see whats in.
So i search on the left for an folder and go in,
then i search on the right for the same folder and go in,
and so on...




I would like to suggest an command to sync the browsing in one pane as i do at the other pane.

Best with options like
[ ] Sync browsing by name (no matter what position, enter just the next folder with the same name as in the other pane)
[ ] Sync browsing by position (no matter what's the name, just enter e.g. the same folder from top as in the other pane)


Interested?
.

[TheQwerty]

Interesting idea, that I would seldomly have need for. It really couldn't be nicely implemented through scripting (without Custom Events), so built into XYplorer would be the only usable option, but I'm not sure enough people would use it to warrant that.

As I said, I might use it but it would be very rare, so much so that I would probably forget that this feature exists when I needed it next.

[admin]

Same here. CEA will be the answer...

[Jerry]

I'd like to emphatically second the proposal to add some kind of synchronized browsing. It's great to have the new sync scroll/select features introduced in 9.60, but you need the extra step of synchronized browsing to adequately deal with mirrored drives. I work with many terabytes of files in mirrored drives and am always renaming, reorganizing the contents. I use a separate utility, AJCSync, for keeping these drives in sync, but only run it after adding or removing many files and for checking to see what differences might exist that I missed, especially after doing renames and moves in one drive. I don't use it to sync the actual renames/moves because that causes unnecessary copying and fragmentation.

For simple 1:1 syncing of renamed folders and directories, I use Everything.exe, But it's when I carry out more hierarchical changes that having synchronized browsing in XY would be very helpful. In fact, ideally, I'd like to have XY go further and actually carry out file/folder renames/moves/deletions in both panes at the same time, though I realize that may be too much to ask.

I'm also surprised, quite frankly, at the response to this request as being something one would rarely need to do. It's part of parcel of what you need when you are working with mirrored drives. The sync scroll/select is pointless, for example, when the contents of the panes are completely different.

Respectfully, this is similar to the limitations with the Mini-Tree that constantly plague me -- a lack of simple key functionality appropriate to important use cases, but I have gone over that in another thread.

[admin]

Too specific. You need something custom-tailored I assume. Possible but expensive.

[Jerry]

I am still perplexed at your response. What are the use case(s) that motivated your adding the synchronized scroll/select in the first place? Something other than working with identical or nearly identical folders in 2 different locations?

[admin]

OK, please explain your concept of synchronized browsing again, maybe I did not get it.

[Jerry]

OK, please explain your concept of synchronized browsing again, maybe I did not get it.

Gladly. Thanks for taking another look at this suggestion, Don. I wasn't the one who initiated this particular thread, but let me state what I have in mind. Here's one use case that I am dealing with all the time:

When I first started collecting and ripping music I created one folder per album but didn't place all album folders for the same artist under a common artist folder. Now I am constantly changing this as I come across them. So for example, in a parent genre folder for say, Genre I, I might have these 3 subfolders:

• Artist A - Album 1
  Artist A - Album 2
  Artist A - Album 3

and now, I want to create a new subfolder called Artist A and move those 3 album folders into it to end up with

• Genre I/Artist A/Artist A - Album 1
  Genre I/Artist A/Artist A - Album 2
  Genre I/Artist A/Artist A - Album 3

I want the same thing to be done on the corresponding location on the mirrored backup drive. And then typically, I will go on to do the same thing with other albums of other artists that I spot in the same original folder. So naturally, as part of this process, I'll typically browse down into each newly created artist subfolder and do other stuff on or in the album subfolders there (typically, bulk special renames on files) before popping up to work on other artist folders.
And that's where a synchronized browse capability in dual pane comes in to play.

Functionally, these are the steps that compose the use case:

• I have a nearly identical hierarchy of folders present on 2 separate drives.

• I start somewhere in a particular folder viewing the folder for one drive in pane 1 and the corresponding folder for the other drive in pane 2.

• I go down into a sub-folder in pane 1 or go up to its parent folder and want the same action be done automatically on the corresponding sub-folder, if it exists, in pane 2, and vice versa. This should happen regardless of how I do the navigation. So for example, double-clicking on the sub-folder in the file list of pane 1 or pane 2, pressing the up toolbar button or clicking somewhere else in the current hierarchy from the tree should all equally change the view in both panes at the same time.

• While in sync mode, I typically want to see the same view configuration (columns, sort order, etc.) in both panes. And I would want that to override any folder-specific view settings that may happen to be in place for either folder. In other words, I would want to establish a sync mode only view configuration say, by simply instructing XY to base the configuration on whatever view currently appears in pane 1 (or 2). Alternatively, one could also specify the view in one pane to always be dynamically synced to that of the other pane, taking into account folder-specific view settings that may change as you browse the hierarchy.

• Ideally, I would also like other basic actions to be duplicated in both panes simultaneously: For example, creating a new subfolder, renaming a single existing subfolder (via F2), deleting a subfolder. I realize this can be a slippery slope to unreasonable complexity but perhaps it can be limited to just simple actions like this on single folders.

Now, here are some related issues:

• At any time, if correspondence between the contents of the 2 panes goes away, then no synchronization happens. But it should resume automatically whenever the correspondence is re-established, as long as the sync mode is enabled. Optionally, a confirmation dialog should popup alerting you when correspondence is lost and allowing you to turn off sync mode.

• The sync mode should be initially established based on the longest portion of the full folder path common to the starting folders in both panes and the correspondence maintained as long as some part of that original sub-path is still shared. At any time though, one should be able to re-initialize the sync mode based on a new common path of the folders currently viewed in both panes.

• The complete paths for each folder, exclusive of the drive letter, may not be the same, and it shouldn't be necessary to require that even the initial nodes of the paths of both folders be the same. All that's required is a common sub-path starting from the bottom up.

Hope all this is clear.

[admin]

Thanks. I still find it too specific. Never mind.

[j_c_hallgren]

Thanks. I still find it too specific. Never mind.

I actually did find this usage to not be such, but rather somewhat common...though I maybe more typically do the operation on one 'side' and then use another product (syncback free) to get results updated on the other 'side'.

I could see this being most useful when one may have file names that are not identical but portsion of the folder structure do match in naming...

Maybe Don doesn't do this type of operation often but thinking about it for a while (since Jerry's last post), I realized that I have done this type of sync browsing manually more times than I first thought.