Anyone else feel this way about file search?

[Broni]

I assume, it'll search for hidden, and system files?

[BC_Programmer]

Right now it does, but that will become a set of checkboxes later on.

Right now my Extended Search class, "CFileSearchEx" which uses my main "FileSearch" and filters the results before giving them to the caller (in this case the search program) allows the selection of Attributes that files must have, and attributes files must not have.

right now the search program is telling it to exclude all Directories and include everything else- a few sets of checkboxes for that and it'll support the changing of those parameters is passes to the Search class.



And a quick little check when I add the item and the hidden files can appear ghosted as well.

Only problem is getting some of the info for some system files like pagefile.sys- I just ignore those errors for now.

I'm sure there is some way I can get the size and other info from the file without actually needing access rights to open it, Explorer is able to do this as well as most third party file managers,

[patio]

Although i love the idea of shareware i can chip in 8 Bucks towards the Project Development Fund.

[BC_Programmer]

Hmmm, I thought of a very interesting addition to use for the "Advanced" tab- move the stuff that is there on the win98 version to the first tab (some size stuff and type checks and so forth), and allow for the use of custom VBScript/Javascript functions to determine wether a file meets the criteria... quite a dandy idea, and quite easy to implement...

Although i love the idea of shareware i can chip in 8 Bucks towards the Project Development Fund.

Your just after the stock options 


I can see it now, BASeCamp corporation running Toe to toe with Microsoft, Our slogan?

"we're the ones who DIDN'T create BOB"


remember- you saw it here first. Just two employees, me and my cat, who isn't really mine anyway, and really is one of those disposable employees. But he's so darn fluffy I just can tell him he's not needed... Why he even offered my a dead bird yesterday. I was touched so much I puked, and the loving beast lunged at my vomit, all because he loves me so much... OH KITTY CAT OR KITTY CAT, I THINK I HAD ONE TOO MANY CONES TODAY.

response:

"hey, put me down, or I might have to do something, like- ahh, whats the word dam it, I put my claws against your skin and I kind of roughly rub them, ARGGH this is gonna drive me nuts!"

"Scratching"

"yeah, that's it, that's it.

[patio]

BaSC is already taken on the Stock Exchange...ideas ? ?

[Dias de verano]

I have not touched Windows search for a long time. It simply sucks.
I use SuperFinder: http://freewarewiki.com/SuperFinder, which installs under Explorer right click.

I had high hopes of Super Finder, because although I am reasonably content with Windows Search, I like playing with alternatives, but I don't use it much because you can't make multiple selections of found files.

[BC_Programmer]

I had high hopes of Super Finder, because although I am reasonably content with Windows Search, I like playing with alternatives, but I don't use it much because you can't make multiple selections of found files.

Hmm, so I've one-upped SuperFinder in that area since the beginning

Right now it only acts on the first selected item(IE, with the right-click menu)... I should get that fixed...

[BC_Programmer]

Arrgh....

OK I lied. Turns out that I only THOUGHT my right-click menu worked with multiple files.

I had only outlined what to do with multiple files in my comments...

Needless to say I had to jump back into the messy business of IShellFolder, PIDLs, and the great class coverup.

Good news is it appears to work now.

But I need to address a single issue- the context menu provided via the Shell functions only works with multiple files in the same directory... Of course, a search will turn up files in multiple directories, so I'm wracking my brain trying to think of an acceptable design that would make sense.

I could implement a check to see if the files selected are all in the same directory, and if not I could simply show my own custom menu (which will contain the most commonly used context menus, such as Cut, Copy, and Paste, and maybe if I'm feeling bold I'll enumerate the Send To Menu.

Most of the shell routines that accept multiple files only accept multiple files in the same directory. On the other hand, the most common reason to select multiple files in a search results window would be to cut or copy them from their current location.

Any suggestions as to what would be the most intuitive way to provide right-click menus for multiple files?

[Dias de verano]

I use Windows Search a lot to find files that are both in a folder and in folders under it, to show them in one "details view" list. Then I may sort on a column heading. Having done that, I often need to make non- or partly contiguous selections using Ctrl and/or Shift + left click and finally I'll right click. Any "improved" file search tool fails for me if I can't do all of these things.

[BC_Programmer]

Multiple selection via Shift, Control, and Shift+Control came free with the ListView itself 

But I won't be able to show the same menu Windows Explorer shows if files from more then one folder/directory are specified- I can of course easily create my own menu that will be shown with the most common options, and implement them myself as necessary. I'm already able to store Filenames to the clipboard that Explorer and other apps with understand as file specifications for pasting, so that won't be a biggie.

I'm thinking this idea for a custom VBScript to determine wether a file is a "match" allows for some zany searches, like searching for files whose size is a perfect square and also have at least one pair of characters in their name whose ASCII value summed together equals the ASCII value of at least one other character in the filename.

haven't looked very hard but no pre-built search tool that I'm aware of allows such power (I think the Index Query syntax might allow for control similar to this, though.

[BatchRocks]

You amaze me.

[Geek-9pm]

Hey BC,
If I use your program, will it show me everything on your computer?

I was thinking about Google Desktop. It will fine everything on your computer. And you can share it with Google.

[BC_Programmer]

You amaze me.

 

Oh yeah did I mention this isn't batch LOL

you should just see the code for the freakin context menu! Most of the documentation I could find about it were how to add an item to the menu programmatically, implementing some Obscure IContextMenu3 interfaces.

Still can't remember how I figured it out. Lost of page faults though...




I just remembered another piece of functionality my File library will need for this- my CFileChangeNotify Class and accompanying IChangeNotify Interface... Thankfully I've already got CAsyncProcess and IAsyncProcess working and implemented so simply implementing the IAsyncProcess within CFileChangeNotify should keep the client thread from getting blocked on the API call to FindFirstChangeNotification(). Simple, really.

Hey BC,
If I use your program, will it show me everything on your computer?

I was thinking about Google Desktop. It will fine everything on your computer. And you can share it with Google.

well no... you can see files on yours though!

Google Desktop and a few other search programs "index" the hard drive- my idea is to duplicate the raw simplicity of the windows 98 File Search Tool and add moar power to it's ability to filter... Oh yeah, and let it show more files... I was constantly hitting the limit for found files with the old tool when searching for the mask "*GOAT*.JPG", and it really reduced my enjoyment of said files. 

the "sharing with google" part of google desktop is probably not a plus LOL.

[BatchRocks]

You amaze me.

 

Oh yeah did I mention this isn't batch LOL

Sort of .

[BC_Programmer]

OK... I've decided to complete revamp how I was filtering the results from my FileSearch Class.

Right now, I implement a "IFileSearchCallback" and filter the results based on the inputs in the textboxes.


However- I have since decided that it would be much more powerful if it was possible to "Chain" different requirements.

For example- each Filter Specification would contain all the date, file masks, etc that appear right now- but the results that the filter comes up with (a match or no match) will also be able to be applied to the other results in a boolean arithmetic fashion.

This would make it fairly easy to, for example, Find files larger the 10 KB and smaller then 40 KB but not between 20 or 30 KB. one filter saying between 10 and 40, and another saying 20 and 30, that is Xored with the larger size specification filter.

This new addition will require some thought regarding my current interface design- likely a listview showing the basics of each item as well as it's combination mode with the previous item, selecting each item in the listview populates all the controls in each tab with the values of that specific filter.

Things could get messy, but as I said I want this to be a useful program, including both this cascaded filters feature as well as advanced WSH script based filtering is the sure way to do so.