--------------------[Attribute Manager V.0.71.62 beta]----------------------- -------------[(c) 1997 Alessandro Cantatore * Team OS/2 Italy]-------------- This program is freeware and it is beta code. Anyway it should be safe and not able to cause any loss of data. You can freely use it until December the 31th 1997 or as soon as a new version will be released. As a standard disclaimer: Under no circumstances the author is liable for any loss or damage. The use of the program implies acceptance of the conditions stated above. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- What is new with this release ============================= - Bug correction: the program entered an endless loop when no %TMP% or %TEMP% directory was specified in the config.sys file or if the path specified was invalid. - Modified pop-up menu code. Now it will work properly even if the mouse buttons have been swapped. - Modified bubble help. Help window will be shown as soon as mouse is moved over a button. Bubble help may be disabled through the preferences notebook - Modified file list box. Extended selection works like in folders: when multiple files are selected, clicking on an already selected file will deselect all other files. - The Undo function, in the Edit submenu, now works. - The buttons in the Save dialog which appears when the selection of a new file deselect previous selected files (whose attributes have been modified) now work as expected. The indexes of previously selected files are stored in memory and so the previous selection can be restored when cancelling a new selection or file drop. - The window title is updated every time a new selection or double click (according to the user preferences) is performed. - When in "nobrowse" mode the window maximize button is removed since the window height can't be resized. - Closing the application through the task list or by system shutdown now is properly managed and a "Save/Discard/Cancel" dialog is displayed if any attribute has been modified. - Preferences dialog now uses 8.Helv if it detects OS/2 version 2.xx or 3. Introduction ============ The program allows to easily add, edit or delete the .SUBJECT, .COMMENTS and .KEYPHRASES extended attributes, ordinary attributes and time/date stamps of one or more files. I have a lot of archived files I downloaded from the internet and often cannot remember their content or cannot find a particular file. Attribute manager allows to add a small description (it can be as long as about 32 KB in this release) and some "Key Phrases" you can use when searching files. Even if the "Find" button is not yet operative in this release, the OS/2 built-in Find utility allows file search based on the content of the "Key Phrases" extended attribute. Suppose you run a BBS and have archives of various kind of applications for different operating system, you could use various key phrases describing for example: -1) the author of the application -2) the operating system it is designed for -3) kind of application (file manager, game, etc.) -4) your evaluation (good application, useful, etc) -5) anything else This way, through the object find utility, you could automatically create folders containing all your "OS/2 text mode file managers", or all applications of your favourite software author and so on... Installation ============ Just put it where you like and run it. It doesn't need any runtime library (i.e. DLL files) other than the operating system DLLs and won't mess with your INI files! All the informations needed by the program will be stored in its own INI file (ATTMAN.INI). Nothing will be added to OS2.INI or OS2SYS.INI. If you want to use a different INI file, you can pass its name as argument using the "P" option. The option is case insensitive and can be introduced either by "/" or by "-". So if you want to store your program preferences in "D:\PROGRAMS\MYINIFILE.INI" and open the program with the attributes of "C:\OS2\BITMAPS\*.GIF" you must type: ATTMAN -pD:\PROGRAMS\MYINIFILE.INI C:\OS2\BITMAPS\*.GIF The arguments cah have any order: the profile name can be specified either before or after the file name. You can create different program objects using different INI files. Just type in the object settings "Parameters" entry field: -pD:\PROGRAMS\MYINIFILE.INI %* (change D:\PROGRAMS\MYINIFILE.INI to the path\name of the INI file you want to use). Starting the program ==================== You can start it from the command line, double click on its icon, or just drag a file/directory on its icon. In future I could add as option the chance to start it by the contetextual menu of any file object. You can select files or directories in the "Browse" window (click on the first button in the tool bar or select File->Select->Browse from the pop-up menu) or by opening folders on your desktop and dragging files or directories on the application title bar. Help ==== At the moment there is no on line help. To tell the truth there are still a lot of not yet implemented features so do not wonder if some menu option or button doesn't work. If you move your mouse over a toolbar button you'll get some explanation about that button. Report and Find still do not work. How it works ============ It is like a file dialog box: just select a file and edit the attributes. If you have changed some attribute and select a new file or directory a dialog box will ask you if you want to save or discard what you modified. Click on the Save button to avoid that. If you chosed to work with the Extended selection option (see "Preferences") you can select one or more files in the same way you do that with other WPS objects: - swiping the mouse pointer on the "File:" list box while pressing down MB1 (mouse button one) - clicking with MB1 while keeping the "Ctrl" key pressed down for selecting not-contiguous files - clicking with MB1 while keeping the "Shift" key pressed down for selecting all files betwen the previous selection and the current selection The file specifics and attributes showed concern the topmost selected file. If you want to set the same attribute for all selected files you must click on the "Save" button in the main window. A dialog box will then be displayed to allow you to choose which attributes to set for all the selcted files. For instance if the selected files have different "comments" and you want them to share the same "key phrases" without affecting "comments" or any other attribute, you must select only the "Key phrases" check box in the "Multiple File Save" dialog. The first button on the left allows to show/hide (browse/nobrowse mode) the drive/path/file selection window. For the same purpose you can use the menu by clicking with mouse button2 anywhere in the window and selecting: File->Select->Browse. Preferences =========== To open the preferences notebook select from the menu: Options->General Preferences. (New options or just enabled options are introduced by "*" rather than by "-") [Common buttons] - Undo: It reverts the various buttons, entry fields, etc., in the current page, to their previous state. * Default: It reverts the various buttons, entry fields, etc., in the current page, to the default state. - Help: Not working yet. [General Page] - Disable logo: allows to hide/display the startup logo. - Enable toolbar bubble help displays bubble help when the mouse is moved over a button - Subject length: unchecking the "Default" button you'll be able to specify a non default lenght (the default is 40 characters and the maximum is 255) - Read only mode: If this is checked you can read the attributes, but cannot modify them. * Save last path: It will save last selected path when you close the application and start it from there if you double click on the application icon. If you start the application by dragging a file on its icon, it will started in the file path rather than the previous one. * Font: The button displays the font dialog. To set a new font you can as well drag it on a free region of the main window or on the window border from the font palette. [Selection page] - Extended file selection: Allows to select multiple files. - Select all files in directory: If the program is opened by passing it a directory name as argument, if the "Extended selection" is enabled, all files contained in the directory will be selected. - Single mouse click: Allows to select drive/directory/file with one mouse click rather than with a double click. - Show file selection window: If checked the window is displayed in its full size. When it is unchecked only the attributes of the current file are diaplayed. - Only directory: If the previous checkbox is enabled the window will be displayed in its full size only when the argument of the program is a directory. [Import page 1 of 2] The following options haven't yet been fully tested. * Auto import If the currently selected file, or the first of the selected files, doesn't have any Subject or Comment description the program will look for a description.ion file, for file_id.diz if the current file is an archive of known format, or for a different kind of description which could be extracted by the user defined options importing it into the field specified in the "Import to" box. Note: This works only for one file even if more than one file are selected. The description is automatically saved in the EAs unless "View only" (see next option) or "Read only" are checked. * View only The imported descriptions are shown in the Subject or Comment fields, but aren't automatically saved in the EAs. If the application is not in "Read only" mode (see Preferences General Page) you can save the imported description in the EAs by clicking on the Save button in the toolbar or by selecting File->Save attributes from the pop-up menu. *Import to Sets the default field where imported descriptions are displayed (and saved). You can override this by selecting a different import target by its contextual menu: i.e. if you select Edit->Import from the Subject entry field pop-up menu descriptions will be imported there. Auto select lets the program look for the most suitable field: if the description is longer than the maximum Subject length (see Preferences - General Page) it will be imported in the Comment field. (In the next release it will check for line feed cahrs too). * Default import mode Sets the default source of file descriptions. When "Automatic" it will check for 4 DOS - 4 OS/2 description files, if it fails, will check if the file is a known archive type and if a suitable description is in the archive, last if you defined your own import program it will try to get a description through it. "Other" displays an "Open file" dialog in ordre to allow you to import any text file. * 4 DOS - OS/2 description file you must specify here the name used by the 4 DOS - 4 OS/2 for file descriptions. * User defined If you need to import descriptions from a particular file you could write a REXX script (I will include some sample in the future releases) or use a suitable program. The description will be imported from a file generated by the program you defined. "File to import:" is the name of the output file created by the user defined program. "Program:" is the executable name and must include the full path unless the program is in %PATH% as defined in CONFIG.SYS. "Parameters:" specify the parameters you need to pass to the program you defined. Some special characters are used: %d means a temporary directory created by the application. The output file, as defined in "File to import:" must be generated here unless you specify its full path. %f means the current file including the full path (as displayed in the application title bar) %i means "File to import:" %p means the full path of the current file %% means the percent ("%") char Chars following "%" are case insensitive so "%D" has the same meaning of "%d". [Import page 2 of 2] * Archive type In this box are listed all the archive extensions used by the program to tell if a file is a "known archive". You can add or remove extensions or edit the respective fields. The Update, Add and Remove buttons are enabled as suitable to avoid incorrect user operations. * Update button Will be enabled as soon as you select an item from the "Archive type" list box. It allows you to edit the settings relative to an already listed file extension. * Add button Allows to add data for a new type of archive file. It is disabled if some field is empty or the text in "New type:" is already listed. * Remove button Will be enabled as soon as you select an item from the "Archive type" list box. It allows you to remove an "archive type" from the list. * New type In this field you must specify the extension of an archive file (for instance "*.rar" or "*.arj", etc.). * File to import In this field you must specify the name of the file that will be extracted from the archive and imported as a file description. It should usually be "FILE_ID.DIZ". * Program You should specify here the unarchiver program to use with files whose extension is specified in "New type:". You must specify the executable full path unless it is in a directory mentioned in the CONFIG.SYS PATH statement. * Parameters These are the parameters needed by the program you specified to extract "File to import:" files from file of type "New type:". See Preferences - Import page 1 of 2 for conventions about parameters. [Report page 1 of 2] The following options haven't yet been implemented. - Auto report Allows to generate a report with all file data and attributes. The report will be showed in a separate window. It will be possible to print it and save it to file. If this checkbox is selected, usually, both the main program window and the report window will be displayed. If this checkbox is unchecked it will always be possible to generate a Report by selecting the button in the toolbar of the main window or by selecting from the menu File->Report. - Only directory The report will be generated only if the argument is a directory. - Show The report window will be shown besides the application main window. - Hide The report will be generated but won't be visible. - Show only report Only the report window will be visible. It will be possible to generate directory/file report by dragging file and directories on the report window title bar. - Selected files Only the selected files will be included in the report. - All files All files in the current directory will be included in the report. - Full Tree All files in the current directory and, recursively, in all its subdirectories will be included in the report [Report page 2 of 2] - Format The report will be formatted by the program you specify here (it could just be a REXX script). This way you could easily create DESCRIPT.ION or FILE.BBS files from subjects and comments EAs. - Auto save Generated (and formatted) reports will be saved automatically in a file you specify in the current directory or any other specified directory. [Find page] (it doesn't work yet) allows to specify an external program for the find function. Menu ==== There are two pop-up menus. Clicking with mouse button 2 on the edit controls (Subject entryfield and Keys/Comments fields) you will get the most complete menu. The menu you'll get by clicking elsewhere will not have the Edit submenu. Submenu File Select->Browse Show/hide drive/directory/file selection window Select->Select all Selects all files in the current directory Select->Deselect all Deselect all files Select->Mask Allows to specify a selection mask throuh the Mask selection dialog. See Mask selection section for more details. Refresh Refresh the contents of the drive/directory/file selection window. Save attributes Saves the current attributes. Report See Preferences: [Report page] Find Not yet implemented Exit Terminate the application. Submenu Options General Preferences See the Preferences section Font " " " " Read only mode " " " " Submenu Edit Undo (not yet implemented) Cut-Copy-Paste work as usual Clear delete selected text Import will import file description from the selected source to the target that originated the pop-up menu. If there are multiple file selected and the application is not in "Read only" or "View only" mode, file descriptions will automatically be saved in the EAs of all selected files. For instance, if you have a directory with archived files you downloaded from internet, you can automatically import all file_id.diz descriptions (if available) in the archives EAs by selecting all files (from the pop-up menu: File->Select->Select all) and then selecting Edit->Import->File_id.diz from the Subject or Comment pop-up menu. Submenu Help not yet implemented Mask selection dialog ===================== You can select multiple files by this dialog. You can either enter the file name in the entryfield part of the combo box or select from the list box the file specifics that suits your need. Items can be added or deleted to the list box through the Store and Delete buttons. Data are stored in the application INI file. Clicking on OK will confirm the file selection. Clicking on Cancel or closing the dialog won't perform any action in the file list box. Known limitations ================= -1) The inner controls will not be resized correctly if the maximized size of the windows is limited by the "Warp Center" of OS/2 4.x. -2) I've used standard "list box" controls so there could be problems if you have large amounts of files in your folders (32765 files with OS/2 Warp 3 or 4 - I'm not sure about OS/2 2.x). -3) The code has not yet been optimized, neither for size not for speed. The program works very well with my P100 machine, and I think the speed could be acceptable even with a 386 (let me know if you have any problem). It still does all work in a unique thread, so some operation like modifying attributes of a large number of file, will not allow you to interact with the system until the end of it. The program has not been packed, but if you have warp 3 or 4 you could shrink it up by LXLITE. (It is a free utility by Andrew Zabolotny. You can download it from: hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/archiver/lxlt118.zip). -4) Since control size depends on the system default font size rather than on the font used by the controls or by their owner window, the program window could be too large with the default system font. In a future release I'll add a routine to make all controls automatically resize themselves according to the size of the font used in the window. -6) Setting automatic import or importing descriptions for multiple files will often display some annoying error message box. In future I'll include a status bar for messages regarding the current file and a log window when operations are performed on multiple files. What will be in the future releases? ==================================== I will implement the still missing features as soon as possible. For any suggestion or bug report write to me: Alessandro Cantatore - Team OS/2 Italy email: alexcant@tin.it alex.cant@iol.it fidonet: 2:335:705/2