Tagging without modifying files

[void]

Everything 1.5 will have additional support for the following property systems that do not modify files:

Custom values for properties
Desktop.ini
Summary Information
XYplorer
DOpus



Custom values for properties

To set custom values for any property (advanced):

• Create a CSV file ( eg: C:\Propertys\Tags.csv ) with the following header:

  Code: Select all

  Filename,Tags
  

  where Tags is the property for the custom values in this file. You can also declare more than one property.
  On each line, add the full path and filenames with the property value, for example:

  Code: Select all

  C:\Photos\picture1.jpg,beach;sunny
  C:\Photos\picture2.jpg,rain;flower
  

• Add the custom values csv to Everything:
• In Everything, from the Tools menu, under the Debug submenu, click Config.
• Change the following semicolon delimited (;) line:
  property_user_values=
• to:
  property_user_values=C:\Propertys\Tags.csv
• Save changes and exit notepad
• In Everything, accept the prompt to reload the config.
• These custom user values will override any properties on the existing file.

Everything must be restarted if you modify this CSV file.

property_user_values

A UI to manage custom property values is in development

Desktop.ini

To set properties for a folder (advanced):

• From the Start menu, type: notepad
• Select Notepad.
• In Notepad, copy, paste and modify the following:

  Code: Select all

  [{F29F85E0-4FF9-1068-AB91-08002B27B3D9}]
  Prop2 = 31,My Title
  Prop3 = 31,My Subject
  Prop4 = 31,My Author
  Prop5 = 31,my Keywords(Tags);Another Tag;More Tags
  ;Star Rating: 1-99
  [{64440492-4C8B-11D1-8B70-080036B11A03}]
  Prop9 = 31,75
  

  Syntax is:
  [{Property handler GUID}]
  Prop<property number> = 31,My property value
  Core System Properties
  More Properties
• From the File menu, click Save As....
• Browse to the folder where you would like to set properties.
• Change Save as type to: All Files.
• Set the Filename to: Desktop.ini
• Click Save.
  These properties are also shown in Windows Explorer.

Summary Information
The Summary Information Property Set (technical)
summary_information



XYplorer
XYplorer tags
xyplorer_tag_dat



DOpus
DOpus tags and ratings
opus_meta_information



How to index properties from custom user values only.

[therube]

So Custom values for properties acts like the old (PCMag) DIRNOTES — Add descriptions / comments to files utility.
.

DIRNOTES.png (27.01 KiB) Viewed 4947 times

[void]

Basically, yes.

[DBU]

Having trouble implementing CSV files for tagging. The CSV header and subsequent lines are all delimited by commas. The property_user_values argument is specified correctly.

Everything does reload the ini file, yet it's not loading the tags.

question:
it's not clear to me if i also need to add the desktop.ini, but after repeated failures, i did create it. I stored it on the root of the drive a large pics folder is loaded on.

reloaded Everything but still no luck. What am i doing wrong?

Semi Related question - is there a way within Everything to delete all tags (not csv related) stored within a group of files ? If all tags the same, it's trivial, but if they're varied, i'm not sure how to go about it.

thanks

[void]

Could you please share your property_user_values setting:

• In Everything 1.5, from the Tools menu, click Options.
• Click the Advanced tab on the left.
• To the right of Show settings containing, search for:
  user
• Select property_user_values.
• What is the current value?

Could you please share the user values CSV header and one line of data with a tag.

Please note:
Everything will only load the user values CSV on startup.
Please restart Everything if you make a change to your user values CSV.
Please select items and press Ctrl + F5 to refresh indexed properties.

it's not clear to me if i also need to add the desktop.ini

The Desktop.ini is not required if you are using property_user_values.

Semi Related question - is there a way within Everything to delete all tags

Everything does not support modifying tags, yet..
Settings properties from Everything is on my TODO list.
Thank you for the suggestion.

[DBU]

The current value is: D:\WIP_03_20230621\MK's Pictures\0000_tags.csv

I thot that perhaps the apostrophe or the space could be an issue, so i tried surrounding by double quotes (didnt help) and then by a test using a different directory with a simpler name (didn't help either).

the first 2 lines of the csv file are:

Filename,Tags
D:\WIP_03_20230621\MK's Pictures\201116_101812.jpg,xyzzy

UPDATE:
played with it more today...it may have been the case that on the reload of Everything i didnt wait long enough for the disk to be rescanned because i did see the updates ( i don't recall if i had forced a rebuild at the time).

But, after seeing the correct results, i again changed one of the tags in the csv file, shut everything down and reloaded and am not seeing the update (even 10 minutes after restarting). It's a 6tb drive. i didnt rebuild the indices. i would think that kind of idiosyncratic update would be display immediately.

I'm also not sure what the result should be if there's a file tagged traditionally (within the file) and also a csv tag applied to the file. in those cases, i'm not seeing both displayed within Everything (i'm only seeing the csv tag within Everything (and seeing the other tag within windows explorer).

note: i know you're not done fleshing this whole thing out...just pointing out things you may not have observed or focused on.

[void]

Your setup looks fine.

One thing to note, if you use double quotes (") to escape commas in property_user_values, you'll need to use \\ as a single literal \
\ inside quotes becomes an escape character.



Are you indexing any properties under Tools -> Options -> Properties?

added note:
Please select items and press Ctrl + F5 to refresh indexed properties.

[DBU]

the only things i'm indexing (for now) are "*.mp3;*.jpg;*.avi"

But, the tags don't display unless i re-index the entire file collection (which in this case is a 100TB folder with hundreds of sub folders) - and that takes some time.

Let me recap:

i have 10 files in the csv and each has a tag specified.
i open Everything and rebuild the index.
the tags show up correctly after the reindexing is completed
i then open the csv and change a few of the tags.
i exit everything (note, i'm only clicking out of everything; i am not shutting down any other instances listed in task manager).
i reopen Everything and search for the files (they all have a common prefix).
none of the new tags are shown.
i highlight all those files (about 25 in total of which the 10 are a subset) and hit Ctrl F5. i do not see the updates.
If i rebuild the index i do see them.

for some reason, the ctrl f5 isn't updating those files.

moreover, isn't the idea that once Everything is reopened, shouldnt it read the csv file and auto-update the tags? I ask because if there were 100's of tagged files (and each filename was very different), finding them all to highlight them and hit ctrl f5 is impractical (if i'm understanding you correctly)?

UPDATE 1:
it seems that if instead of just x-ing out of Everything, if i close all instances of Everything within the task Manager, the new tags will show up. is there a more complete way to shut down Everything?

UPDATE 2:
I wasn't aware of the fast rescan option - is that the ctrl f5? I now see options for it under tools/options/folders. will go thru the doc on that

[void]

it seems that if instead of just x-ing out of Everything, if i close all instances of Everything within the task Manager, the new tags will show up. is there a more complete way to shut down Everything?

File -> Exit

-or-

Type in the following search and press ENTER:
/restart

I wasn't aware of the fast rescan option - is that the ctrl f5? I now see options for it under tools/options/folders. will go thru the doc on that

Fast rescan will not help here.

Please make sure you select the files before pressing Ctrl + F5.
Only selected files are refreshed.

[DBU]

thanks for getting back to me.

I'm still not clear on this: isn't the idea that once Everything is reopened, shouldnt it read the csv file and auto-update the tags? I ask because if there were 100's of tagged files (and each filename was very different), finding them all to highlight them and hit ctrl f5 is impractical (if i'm understanding you correctly)?

IOW, i might edit the csv and do a large find/replace for several filename strings (with the files being scattered across the disk), is there any reason that when Everything (re-)opens it doesn't update the tags by checking the CSV as the default (or if not by default, then via a command) rather than force a complete reindex (which would take so much more time)?

It could simply be the case that that's something u may be considering in a future update. If it's not, i'm curious why it wouldn't be a default or an option - just for efficiency sake.

[void]

Indexing these properties will make a copy of your custom user values.

I will consider an option to track changes to your custom user values.

For now, the custom values are consider static (non-changing)
Technically, Everything doesn't know the indexed property values came from your custom user values.

Consider removing any properties for your custom user values from Tools -> Options -> Properties.

[DBU]

ah..if i'm understanding you correctly, tags may come from the properties (the tag field) of file itself and/or the csv file, and since Everything isn't tracking changes (aka flagging which tag came from the csv), then updates to the csv file would require a full reindex (or a selective ctrl F5 per file) for rebuild the tagging structure correctly?

is that basically correct?

thanks

[void]

Everything will try to gather tag values from the file if there's no tag values in your CSV.
Your CSV will have priority.



To update values from your CSV file for indexed properties you will need to either:

• Force a rebuild from Tools -> Options -> Indexes.
• Select the affected files and hit Ctrl + F5.
• Modify the affected files.

[Wolfenk]

Is it possible to use a custom header name instead of "Filename" in .csv file? In my csv, full file path specified with "Location":

Code: Select all

File Name,FFMPEG Test,Check Date,Video Length,Location
video1.mp4,Passed,2024-05-26,01:11:30,C:\Photos\video1.mp4

[void]

Everything requires the filename column.

Is Location the full path and name?
Please try renaming the header Location to Filename.
Please try Excel to combine the File Name and Location header:
=TEXTJOIN("\",FALSE,A2,E2)

[Wolfenk]

Thank you and yes, Location is the full path and filename. When I edit "Location" to "Filename" in csv it works flawless, not needing to merge columns. But my .csv file is created by another software and being updated regularly, thats why I need to use Location as Filename. I use "FFMPEG Test" as a custom property column to see values of it in Everything. I wonder if there is another solution?