XYplorer Beta Club

Don, it is exciting to see all the improvements to XYplorer recently!

I'd like to make a request for a new feature, unless I missed existing functionality that would cover it. (I reviewed documentation but didn't exactly see this.) I believe this could be one of the more important, workflow enhancing feature additions to XYplorer if implemented.

If you're not familiar, please take a look at this nifty tool. At first, the idea may seem rather trivial: The tool indexes folders of the user's choosing. Using a key combo, you can launch a window which allows you to quickly search for a folder; once a folder is selected, it is opened in File Explorer (or you can copy the path, etc.). Like XYplorer, once you start using this tool daily, you realize how much time it saves - this tool particularly because it keeps track of frequently visited paths and prioritizes those in future searches.

I would like to see a similar functionality built into XYplorer, such that:
1. The user can either use a key combo or click a button to launch the modal;
2. The user can search for folders, with frequently visited folders prioritized;
3. Upon selecting a folder in this interface, the modal closes and the currently focused tab navigates to the folder.
3b. The user could alternatively copy the folder path instead of navigating there.

The folder indexing would be an optionally enabled feature; otherwise, XYplorer would just search for the folders as normal so as to be as "minimally invasive" as possible on install.

Likely objections:
1. Q: The linked software already exists, so why not just use it in conjunction with XYplorer? A: I definitely can, but it requires a few workarounds, and when OS updates occur, often the workarounds revert to opening File Explorer windows instead of XYplorer tabs. Rather than hassle with this, I'd like to simply have a native XYplorer solution. (Also, many XYplorer users probably don't have special folder-jump software installed, and would be very excited by this new functionality.)

2. Q: Why not just use the built-in XYplorer search features and catalog the frequent locations you want? A: True, but there are a few issues. (1) It's not as "quick" as the method I'm talking about: You have to configure the search and ensure all the parameters are what you want; and as far as I know, XYplorer doesn't currently index folders, which makes searches relatively slow. (2) The tool I'm talking about dynamically prioritizes frequently-used folders, while maintaining the catalog would be a manual process.

I hope this might be considered for a future release.

1. Q: The linked software already exists, so why not just use it in conjunction with XYplorer? A: I definitely can, but it requires a few workarounds, and when OS updates occur, often the workarounds revert to opening File Explorer windows instead of XYplorer tabs. Rather than hassle with this, I'd like to simply have a native XYplorer solution. (Also, many XYplorer users probably don't have special folder-jump software installed, and would be very excited by this new functionality.)

Which workarounds exactly? Entering "<path to XYplorer>\XYplorer.exe" "%QJ_FLD_PATH%" again?

It would be an external application anyway (XY has no multithreading), because updating the cache would otherwise still block the UI...

highend wrote: ↑31 Jan 2020 19:36 Which workarounds exactly? Entering "<path to XYplorer>\XYplorer.exe" "%QJ_FLD_PATH%" again?

It would be an external application anyway (XY has no multithreading), because updating the cache would otherwise still block the UI...

highend, thanks for the useful insight.

In my environment, I'm using some hotkey controls via a couple other software applications, and these call tools like the one being discussed. So it's a bit more laborious when I have to set everything up again vs. just the "<path to XYplorer>\XYplorer.exe" "%QJ_FLD_PATH%" option.

Another issue is that because the jump tool is external, you have to pre-configure XYplorer for how you want it to handle the navigation calls (open a new tab; use existing tab; etc.), and then you have to simply go with that config until you change it. If the feature were built into XYplorer, the folder-jump window could be called at any time, and would be contextual to the pane and tab the user is currently on. (When searching folders, the default action could be to navigate the current tab; but there could be right-click options for "open in new tab" and even a pane selector if wanted.)

I believe that this sort of feature would be a substantial gain for XYplorer usability and not having to use the external tool(s) would be good. Understood on the multithreading limitation, but I wonder if Don might have a way around that up his sleeve? (He was able to get 64-bit integrations working after all, so maybe this too?)

Understood on the multithreading limitation, but I wonder if Don might have a way around that up his sleeve? (He was able to get 64-bit integrations working after all, so maybe this too?)

As I already said, only via an external application.

Sounds like it. Even if so, the fact that it would be tightly integrated with XYplorer and called directly by it might make it more flexible.

Yes, might be interesting for users with LOTs of well-named folders.

But couldn't it be scripted?
- One script to create/update a TXT file containing a list of folders (using SC quicksearch).
- Another script to load this file into a list with Live Filter and Fat Gun enabled. (not sure how easy that would be ATM, I'm not a scripter , but I'm sure I could make it easy enough if necessary...)

load this file into a list with Live Filter and Fat Gun enabled

If you can make this possible (but it must be some kind of branch view paperfolder or a normal branch view for file / folders from a file)...
I'd do the rest...

By "list" I meant a modal dialog with a list, like SC inputselect().

I wanted to check back in on this. Any further thoughts at this time?

Not really.

Thank you, Don. May I elicit a bit more thinking?

Just curious as to your preferred method of finding folders quickly.

Scenario:
1. You have hundreds (or thousands) of folders in a situation where you use XYplorer.
2. You have so many discrete locations to find on a regular basis that you don't want to Catalog or Favorite them, because (a) there would be too many items to manage, and (b) you don't visit any one of them frequently enough to warrant it.
3. You want to very quickly jump to a folder you know the name of, or at least a part of its name.

What method do you use/recommend in this case to jump to a folder quickly without having to manually scroll through the tree or drill down the folders in panes?

(P.S. Aside from the Quick Jump suggestion, another nice option might be a search bar for the Tree. Entering a search would suspend the Tree hierarchy view, and create a list in the tree area which would be a reduced set of folders - not listed hierarchically - which match the search. If the user double-clicks an item in the list, the folder is selected, the Tree hierarchy returns, and the folder is shown in the normal hierarchy.)

Can't say, I don't have this situation.

to search for "anything" I use Everything (www.voidtools.com). This does not update a list of preferred folders, but I did not miss that. I just type (part) of the names I am looking for.
When searching for a folder (and not files and folders) add the relevant macro to the search, e.g.

part_of_folder_name folder:

But I use v2 of TechHit's SimplyTag and I know that the algorithm to make "best guesses" as a suggestion works very well in their software. Too bad SimplyTag is now a subscription software. So I'll stay with my "old" v2.

rpnfan -

I also sometimes use TechHit's tools, as well as a couple other utilities that perform system searches.

The challenge for me is that, in my line of work, speed is critical. I find these to be issues:
1. When using a tool external to XYplorer, you have to stop, open/focus the secondary tool, and potentially change its state to search for what you currently want.
2. The secondary tool probably doesn't have any of the configurations (tags, highlights, etc.) you've set in XYplorer, and if it does, you're having to maintain two sets of metadata.
2. Then, you have to either (a) have configured the secondary tool to pass locations back into XYplorer, or (b) manually copy the locations into XYplorer.

If the entire search functionality were build-in, you'd avoid all these issues. Plus, in my view, what I'm describing a couple posts up would make the Tree view even more usable, as it would have its own search bar.

Hello everyone,

This is my first post to the XYPlorer forum but have been using XYPlorer for a few years now. I absolutely love this program.

I also use "Everything" to search through all of my files. Although I've created a toolbar button to launch it, it still feels like the external tool that it is (i.e. not part of XYPlorer).

I would love to see the type of fast folder jump that has been described within this thread.

For example, I use the email client Postbox. If you hit "g" (arbitrary hotkey for this function), a small search bar pops up—you begin typing the name of the folder you want and can then jump to one of the possible options that appears in a dropdown. Please see the attached images.

I'm posting this to see if anyone has found a way to do something similar in XYPlorer. Thanks in advance.