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Idea: Magnetic (Files and) Folders


Darkelve
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:idea:

 

So I was working at my desktop today (in Windows XP for a change), checking out an online music store and downloading a series of songs... they got downloaded to my desktop. So now I have 20 mp3 icons sitting on my desktops, cluttering up things.

 

So what I would normally do is

either

1. select them (draw a rectangle around them and/or Ctrl+click)

2. use Ctrl+C keyboard shortcut to cut the files

3. open a file explorer (windoze explorer)

4. use Ctrl+V keyboard shortcut to paste the files

or

1. open iTunes

2. import the files in iTunes

3. select the files

4. delete the files

 

 

However, I think there is a way that is perhaps more convenient, something what I like to call 'magnetic folders'.

 

Basically this means you give a folder some meta-data as to what it should attract (in this case, attract all mp3 files). After you set up the folder, you could then right-click the folder (in this case, let's call it 'Music'), select 'attract' in the contextual menu, and the files from the desktop would be copied into the proper folder ('Music').

 

The other way around, you could select a file icon, right-click on it, select 'get attracted' and then the file would get copied to whichever folder holds the proper 'settings'. For example, if you did this with a Powerpoint document, it might end up in the 'Documents>Presentations' folder. Some kind of 'magnet history' would be convenient if you forgot where it got attracted, however with Beagle it's easier. The 'magnet action' history could even be integrated into Beagle.

 

This way you could very easily organise files by putting them into the correct folder.

 

- Dowloaded a video? Right-click the video icon, choose 'get attracted' and it automatically gets copied to /home/tux/multimedia/movies/

 

- Downloaded a bunch of songs? Either right-click the 'Music' folder (shortcut to /home/tux/multimedia/music/) on the desktop and click 'attract' OR select all the music icons, right-click and select 'get attracted'

 

So the basic is to attract/get attracted by filetype (the file/type command may be used if there's not extension to make it clear)

 

Advanced features might include things like 'file bigger/smaller then a certain size', 'file created before/after a certain date', ...

 

 

So what do you think of the idea?

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Not a bad idea...and it would actually be very easy to do. Just have a simple script that runs 'cd ..' 'mv *.[extension] /[folder]'

...or you could just go into the CLI and type that in yourself... ;)

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:thumbs: I would LOVE to have something like that for my Linux boxes. Hav you thought about contacting KDE and Gnome developers? They might be interested in your idea.

 

Yes, as per a SuSe member's (Pusherman) suggestion, I sent a mail to the Plasma project, to Aaron Seigo from KDE fame...

 

It's nice to see people enthusiastic for this idea :)

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A quick idea, (5 mins to get people started) should work for a few files (KDE) can be changed for gnome by helper app or using

 

Exec=/bin/sh -c "<YOUR COMMANDS HERE>"

 

The directories could be set as ENVVAR's ..presently it just takes an image file and moves it to ~/images

If this doesn't exist it will be created after a prompt.

 

Suggested location of file is

~/.kde/share/apps/konqueror/servicemenus/Attract_sm.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
ServiceTypes=image/*
Actions=attract_to_images_silent
#Actions=attract_to_images_interactive
[Desktop Action attract_to_images_silent]
Name=Attract to Image folder silent
Icon=kfilereplace
Exec=krename  %F --move "~/images" --start --nopreview

 

You can extend this with interactive (X-KDE-Submenu=attract_interactive) etc. for having submenu's off attract.

and/or play with

http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-e...st/ar01s06.html

 

Icon is a little arbitrary.... but its just a 5 min example.

Right click on file in konqueror and actions and you should get the menu....

 

For pre KDE 3.2 you need to use

ServiceTypes=image/png,image/jpeg (instead of image/*) or you might prefer this if you want only certain registered image types.

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Hmmm... I don't get an entry in my context menu... did I forget something?

 

Edit: sorry! It does work! Only I tried it with an mp3 file instead of image file xD ...

 

 

 

Hmmm... it says it can't find 'krename'? Maybe Mandriva is different from SuSe in this respect?

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Hmmm... I don't get an entry in my context menu... did I forget something?

 

Edit: sorry! It does work! Only I tried it with an mp3 file instead of image file xD ...

 

No prob, I simply made this for the image metatype.... for mp3 et al it should be audio

 

Hmmm... it says it can't find 'krename'? Maybe Mandriva is different from SuSe in this respect?

Just urpmi krename .....or install it depending on distro....

 

I could have probably used the kio_uiserver but I had krename installed and I think i ended up spending more time finding an icon than writing the code!

 

Its just a proof of concept... you can use the submenu's for different types and you can also define your own mime types ..(for instance from konqueror). (settings/konqueror/file associations then add)

You could also make a simple GUI setup that sets the ENVVAR's so you could have images, docs and audio defined as $IMAGE_DOC etc. using kdialog or xdialog

 

edits.. freakin quotes :D

 

Using submenu's you could even pass it straight to a media player, or a plugged in USB device etc.

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Nice ideas... then you could perhaps set up an USB stick or an mp3 player to 'attract' all mp3/ogg files :)

 

Imagine your mp3 files are scattered all over the /home/user/ directory... right-click on the mp3 player icon, click 'attract', and they all get copied to the thing automatically ...

 

Or that you need to burn all the powerpoint presentations you ever made onto a CD-R ... right-click on a presentation (opendocument, powerpoint) file, select 'get attracted->all files of this type->to device:CD burner'

Edited by Darkelve
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Yes you just reverse the logic and use the device metatype....

 

So the USB player icon has the menu attract mp3's

You would have an ENVVAR of where these might be.... (or it would take a long time on a big system and also attract things like the KDE system sounds!)

 

With krename you would just reverse the --move and use --copy instead.

 

 

I'm posting this just to start people off, your idea is great and ... well has hundreds of cool variants.

 

did you install krename yet? is it working?

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