XYplorer Beta Club

hi everybody!
does using tags bind one to exclusive use of XYplorer for file managing?
I just copied a file externally from one place to another and its tag was lost...

Well, only if you expect the tags to move along
Since tags are stored in tags.dat in your XY app data folder, only XY "knows" about these tags.
Also note, that tags are not portable either, unless your files and the XY installation are on the same drive, mounted with the same drive letter on all systems you gonna use it.
Maybe I'm a bit too pessimistic here, but let others chime in with more comments on this.

I could make all tags portable that are stored on the app's drive. Anybody interested?

I didn't get that, what do you mean they are not portable? that they cannot me extracted out of one computer?

sfranky wrote:I didn't get that, what do you mean they are not portable? that they cannot me extracted out of one computer?

When you work with XY on a USB stick that has drive letter "M" at home, and then you go with your stick to another machine where it is assigned drive letter "V", all tagged items on that stick will still be tagged on the new host system.

admin wrote:When you work with XY on a USB stick that has drive letter "M" at home, and then you go with your stick to another machine where it is assigned drive letter "V", all tagged items on that stick will still be tagged on the new host system.

Which isn't the case yet, right? You're talking of the future, after you made them portable.

Hi Don

admin wrote:I could make all tags portable that are stored on the app's drive. Anybody interested?

Yesss, very interested.
Also, what I would like is copying tags/label/comment when copying files. Currently works only on moving.

RalphM wrote:

admin wrote:When you work with XY on a USB stick that has drive letter "M" at home, and then you go with your stick to another machine where it is assigned drive letter "V", all tagged items on that stick will still be tagged on the new host system.

Which isn't the case yet, right? You're talking of the future, after you made them portable.

Exactly. The question is whether there is any interest in this.

admin wrote:The question is whether there is any interest in this.

Sure. Here is what I often do :
I download some files from the web to my disk. Then I burn them on CD to keep a backup. Then I delete them from my HD.
What I'd like is to tag/label/comment them (of course on HD), and keep those informations on the CD after have deleted files from HD.
The enormous plus would be a ultra quick search on CD.

My need is same for my own documents that I want backup on CD (that are more reliable than USB sticks) or other HD.
Anyway, any backup operation would need to backup also the tags/label/comments.

Ideally tags.dat could be copied on target root if target is an other media. But how to copy it if root is protected, as under Windows 7 ?

Has anybody else the same problematic ?

I haven't been in the above situation (yet), but it would be nice to have this functionality.
What is more important for me is having one's tags not get messed up when moved by an external file manager (eg explorer). I understand this might be impossible to implement in a simple manner, but what perhaps could be done is to monitor changes in the tag.dat file. When something is missing from the list (as in, a link is "dead"), there could be some notification, leaving it to the user to track it down and reapply the tags.
Is this feasible?

admin wrote:

RalphM wrote:

admin wrote:When you work with XY on a USB stick that has drive letter "M" at home, and then you go with your stick to another machine where it is assigned drive letter "V", all tagged items on that stick will still be tagged on the new host system.

Which isn't the case yet, right? You're talking of the future, after you made them portable.

Exactly. The question is whether there is any interest in this.

Yes, there is.

jjk wrote:

admin wrote:The question is whether there is any interest in this.

Sure. Here is what I often do :
I download some files from the web to my disk. Then I burn them on CD to keep a backup. Then I delete them from my HD.
What I'd like is to tag/label/comment them (of course on HD), and keep those informations on the CD after have deleted files from HD.
The enormous plus would be a ultra quick search on CD.

My need is same for my own documents that I want backup on CD (that are more reliable than USB sticks) or other HD.
Anyway, any backup operation would need to backup also the tags/label/comments.

Ideally tags.dat could be copied on target root if target is an other media. But how to copy it if root is protected, as under Windows 7 ?

Has anybody else the same problematic ?

For this situation too.

And, sfranky, since your workflow seems to match mine, you probably may find interesting my last two comments on this thread:

"Color Filters" could be used in parallel with Spot'n'Jump, auto-highlighting predefined words as long as they are displayed in list.
It wouldn't be bad if matching files and folders could be stored anywhere, acting like a Tags 2.0 enhancement, thus being search-able, too.

Each new "Spot 'n' Jump" entry could rescan the list starting from top (optional parameter?); also, distinguish among files/folders only, or all items (current, default).

jjk wrote:

admin wrote:The question is whether there is any interest in this.

Sure. Here is what I often do :
I download some files from the web to my disk. Then I burn them on CD to keep a backup. Then I delete them from my HD.
What I'd like is to tag/label/comment them (of course on HD), and keep those informations on the CD after have deleted files from HD.
The enormous plus would be a ultra quick search on CD.

My need is same for my own documents that I want backup on CD (that are more reliable than USB sticks) or other HD.
Anyway, any backup operation would need to backup also the tags/label/comments.

Ideally tags.dat could be copied on target root if target is an other media. But how to copy it if root is protected, as under Windows 7 ?

Has anybody else the same problematic ?

This would need a different approach. It will not be covered by "portable tags". It is by no means impossible but later...

admin wrote:I could make all tags portable that are stored on the app's drive. Anybody interested?

Yes! interested. I have similar folder structures 3 PCs but the drive letters match in them. In this case I would like to port my tags to these PCs and keep them in sync.
BTW, great job on Tags. Loving it so far.

serendipity wrote:

admin wrote:I could make all tags portable that are stored on the app's drive. Anybody interested?

Yes! interested. I have similar folder structures 3 PCs but the drive letters match in them. In this case I would like to port my tags to these PCs and keep them in sync.
BTW, great job on Tags. Loving it so far.

I think I will reserve this for Tags 3.0. This opens a complete new dimension (and box full of trouble...). For Tags 3.0 I plan on the fly switch of tag DBs (tag*.dat) (similar to Catalog switching), and also loading of multiple parallel tag DBs, maybe local tag DBs (local to drives, or even to folders, ... all still rough thinking...).