[ANN] FileBrowser
FileBrowser allows browsing directories and files inside and outside of the current project and thus makes it easier to open files with IDEA that are not part of the current project.
I use IDEA not only for Java projects but also as a general editor for HTML, CSS and XML files. There's no convenient way to open files outside of an IDEA project in IDEA.
This is where FileBrowser comes in. There's also a small favorite management system included. So there's no need to browse the whole way to often used folders. You can also drag and drop files on FileBrowser or drag and drop them from FileBrowser on another application like Firefox, Internet Explorer etc.
I've only tested this with Windows XP, but it should work with other OSs since it only uses standard APIs.
Please visit http://filebrowser.beeger.net/ for a whole walkthrough.
This plugin requires at least IDEA 7.0 M1a.
Cheers,
Robert
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So it works. Which is nice. And is very handy. Which is even handier.
:)
And I really like the fact that the docking tab name for it is "FileBrowserImpl." I look forward to having multiple implementations of my FileBrowser. (and not being able to tell)
:)
That was eager refactoring :)
Thanks for reporting. I uploaded an updated version.
Cool feature in IDEA's settings handling: Though I changed the name under which the settings are saved from FileBrowserImpl to FileBrowser, IDEA loaded the FileBrowserImpl-settings and saved them under FileBrowser. Nice! I feared they would be lost.
As for different implementations: You never know ;)
Aside from the funky name, the font used in there is too big comnpared to the rest of IDEA, are you doing any manual setting of font size?
The font is exactly the same as the one used in the Project and Structure tool windows. There is a bit more distance between the items than in those other tool windows. I'll make it a bit smaller for the next update.
As for the name: It's a small plugin. So I didn't bother to come up with something fancy. Name follows function or something like that in this case :)
OK, the ListCellRenderer I used was a bit wasteful with space.
There's another minor update available that fixes this behavior.
Maybe I am missing something but I could not figure out how to copy and/or move files using this thing.
But editting files outside my project worked just fine.
To be more specific, I could copy a file as a different name... but really what I want to be able to do is copy the file with the same name to different directory.
Hi Charles,
It's simple: copy/paste and moving of files is not (yet) implemented.
There is only the simple "Duplicate". It's not really hard to implement, but I didn't think those more "advanced" file handling features would be needed. Other applications are more suited for those tasks.
Well I'll look into that this weekend and maybe add some basic copy/paste & move functionality.
These things always creature feep.
Anyway, this plugin is a feature that I have always wanted but not a concious level apparently. I have never really used the commander because most of the time I needed it to get outside my project. Well now I have something kinda like the commander that does get outside the project. except it doesn't provide the full right click menu that I get in commander....
Sorry for being so importunate.
:)
No problem. Different people use applications differently. Only because I don't care about using IDEA to copy and move files around, doesn't mean that there isn't anybody who exactly wants to do just that.
Since there aren't that much feature requests - actually none - open for FileBrowser and adding those features won't break anything, I'll add them. I probably won't get to doing it before weekend, so you'll have to be a bit patient.
Hi Robert,
Thanks for the nice plugin. Just to assure you that copy and move is worth adding ... I worked with file browser only a minuteonce it was released and wondered where the copy and paste capabilities are and why there is only a duplicate feature.
Kind regards
Thomas Gülden
Munich, Germany
Hello Robert,
RB> Since there aren't that much feature requests - actually none -
How about an option to show the files in a tree structure (like the project
pane does)? With a button to toggle between the modes, of course, so one
could switch from one to the other without having to open the settings dialog.
Quite a handy plugin, btw, thanks for putting it together.
Best,
Andrei
Am I the only one that thinks that his is the way the Commander tab should have been done?