Named Folders Lite

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pepak
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Named Folders Lite

Post by pepak »

This is a re-imagination of the plugin Named Folders by Victor Derevianko. The plugin had been somewhat maintained until recently, but I had some serious database locking issues with the original plugin and it seemed easier to write a new plugin which I could maintain as long as I needed than to fix the original plugin, hence Named Folders Lite. I maintained the original's functionality of creating a list of "bookmarks" to folders which can be navigated either from the command line (cd::name to assign a name "name" to the current directory, or cd:name to jump to a previously stored bookmark "name") or from the disk menu. I am not sure if I reimplemented ALL of the original's functionality, as that wasn't my goal, but I did implement all that I use of it.

Download - latest version Usage

At the moment, only the following functionality is supported:

Command line control:
  • cd::name ... Saves the current directory under the name "name".
  • cd:name .... Jumps to the directory previously saved under the name "name".
  • cd:- ....... Jump to the location which was active before the last cd:name.
  • cd: ........ Opens the plugin's panel.
Disk menu control:

An item in the Disks menu lets you display defined named folders. From this panel, you can also use the following keyboard shortcuts:
  • ENTER ......... Switch to the focused item's directory.
  • SHIFT+ENTER ... Switch the passive panel to the focused item's directory.
  • F3 ............ View focused item as XML.
  • F4 ............ Edit focused item.
  • SHIFT+F4 ...... Create a new item.
  • F5, F6 ........ Copy/move selected items to a XML file or back.
  • F8 ............ Delete selected items.
Fuzzy search:

If you use "cd:x" from the command-line and no saved directory exists for "x", then the plugin will scan directories whose names start with "x". If more than one is present, you will be given a choice between them; if only one is present, it will be used instead of "x". Since version 1.03, this feature is only optional (but enabled by default in plugin's options).

Another fuzzy search option involves search across directories: If it is enabled, command "cd:x" will also find named folders such as "a/x" or "bbb/x". Note that if "x" contains directories, i.e. "cd:x/a", then this functionality is disabled: "cd:x/a" will never find named folder "z/x/a". This is intentional - once a path is given, it should be matched.

Note that an exact match will always take precedence over a fuzzy match.

Variables Support

If you edit saved directories manually (from the panel), you can optionally use variables within the paths. E.g., instead of writing the actual path to the start menu, you can use a variable which gets replaced with the actual start menu folder's location at runtime.

Note that this functionality is disabled by default and needs to be enabled in Plugin Options. Also, only regular directory-based paths are scanned for variables, plugin paths are left as-is.

The following types of variables are available (and can be individually turned on or off in Options if you so desire):
  • Known folders: "$(DIR:STARTMENU)", "$(CSIDL_STARTMENU)" - Known Windows folders, as per Microsoft CSIDL constants.
  • Environment: "$(ENV:USERPROFILE)", "$(ENV:TEMP)" - Environment variables of the current process.
  • CMD environment: "%USERPROFILE%", "%TEMP%" - Same as above, but with a different syntax (like in CMD.EXE).
  • Registry: "$(REG:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\SomeApp)" - The last element is the name of the value to be used. Shortcut forms for the root key (e.g. "HKLM") are also supported. Note: Only string values are supported.
Support for Plugin.Call functionality of FAR's macro language

The syntax is, generally:

Code: Select all

Plugin.Call("6073FF5D-703E-4C1E-8182-26400240073A", command, params)
A number of commands is supported. The list can be found in the plugin's readme file.

Subdirectory support

It is possible to directly enter a subdirectory of a named folder with "cd:a/b\c\d". Here "a/b" is the name of the named folder and "\c\d" is a subdirectory to go to, determined as everything starting from the first backslash ("\"). E.g., assume that "a/b" points to "C:\WINDOWS". Then "cd:a/b\system32" opens "C:\WINDOWS\System32". This feature is disabled by default. If you want to use it, go to the plugin's options and activate the "Allow path suffix" option.

Other plugin's PluginCall support

The plugin may be used to create shortcuts to non-panel functionalities of various plugins if you enable the "Allow plugin calls" option and then enter plugin command-line as a directory: "edit:<far /?". Be wary of creating loops as these are not being detected and will eventually crash FAR Manager.

Known Limitations

Named folders to quite a few plugins' panels do not work. That is not a limitation of Named Folders Lite but of each plugin itself - in order for the plugin to be supported, it must implement OPEN_SHORTCUT source when opening the plugin. That is not required by FAR API itself so many plugins do not implement it. I do not know how to overcome this issue.
pepak
Posts: 604
Joined: Sun 13 Jul, 2008 11:18
Has thanked: 17 times
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Named Folders Lite

Post by pepak »

Version 1.11
  • Added support for opening the plugin's panel from the plugins menu (F11).
  • Fixed incorrect drawing of the plugin's dialogs in FAR versions 5788 and newer.
  • Support building with Delphi 10.4 Sydney.
  • Cleaned up the source code.
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