Scrap Collection toolbar

This toolbar has some very simple buttons which may streamline the process of using a temporary "scrap" collection to collect a bunch of files.

The Send to Scrap button adds the selected files & folders to a collection called Scrap.

Clear Scrap removes the current contents of the Scrap collection.

Go to Scrap opens the Scrap collection in a new tab.

Go to Scrap (in Dual) opens the Scrap collection in a new tab in the dual display (so you can view your current folder and the collection at the same time).

All of the buttons will create the Scrap collection if it doesn't already exist.

This is for Directory Opus 9.1.1.4 or above. On earlier versions you may see some problems.


Updates:

  • 10/Dec/2011: The two 'Go' buttons now work in folders like My Computer.

Scrap-Collection_Dec2011.zip (719 Bytes)


Button definitions

These are so you can see how the buttons work without downloading and opening the toolbar. If you just want to use the buttons, the toolbar above is easier.

Go to Scrap:

cd /home
CreateFolder READAUTO=NO NAME="coll://Scrap"
Go NEWTAB=findexisting PATH="coll://Scrap"

Go to Scrap (in Dual):

cd /home
CreateFolder READAUTO=NO NAME="coll://Scrap"
Go OPENINDUAL NEWTAB=findexisting PATH="coll://Scrap"

Clear Scrap:

Delete QUIET FILE="coll://Scrap"
CreateFolder READAUTO=no NAME="coll://Scrap"

Send to Scrap:

@nodeselect
Copy TO="coll://" CREATEFOLDER="Scrap" COPYTOCOLL=member

The root post has an updated version of the toolbar with a very minor change. The Send to Scrap button now uses a single line/command since the Copy command can create the collection by itself.

Probably won't make any difference to anyone but it's a bit neater. :slight_smile:

Hi Leo, this is a potentially very useful function of Opus, and worth pursuing further I think...

Can you post the code for a button that would move the entire contents of the scrap collection to the current directory? I'm thinking that if you needed to move a load of scattered files to a folder such as "test", you could trawl your directory structure, adding files to Scrap before finally navigating to "test" and clicking the "move all here" button...

Also, I don't know if this is possible from what I've seen of DOpus buttons, but it would be nice to somehow give an indication of how many files are in Scrap at the moment, either in the label for the button itself (perfect) or in the status bar (close second).

I'm trying this whole system out at the moment - but I've called mine "Limbo" rather than "Scrap" :slight_smile:

I've answered this bit myself:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<button backcol="none" display="both" label_pos="right" textcol="none">
	<label>Get from Limbo</label>
	<tip>Move all files in Limbo to here</tip>
	<icon1>#addtocollection</icon1>
	<function type="normal">
		<instruction>@nodeselect</instruction>
		<instruction>Copy MOVE &quot;coll://Limbo/*&quot; HERE RENAMEWHENSAME </instruction>
		<instruction>Delete QUIET FILE=&quot;coll://Limbo&quot;</instruction>
		<instruction>CreateFolder READAUTO=no NAME=&quot;coll://Limbo&quot;</instruction>
	</function>
</button>

If you're using Leo's buttons, just substitute "Limbo" for "Scrap". I still haven't found out how to show the number of files in the collection though, so I feel a bit blind when it comes to using it. Gonna keep at it though

Another way to do that is to make a button/hotkey which runs Clipboard COPY ADD (or CUT instead of COPY) which lets you "stack" multiple items into the clipboard and then paste them all at once. (The first item you add should be cut or copied normally, so you don't pick up whatever used to be in the clipboard by mistake. Also, don't mix cut and copy as you can only do one or the other due to the way the clipboard works.)

As for seeing how many items are in the scrap collection, the only way to do that is to navigate to the collection and look at the status bar.

maybe interesting, talking about the quite useful CLIPBOARD COPYADD, to clear the clipboard again, there is Setclip:

This one post did more for me than the dozens of posts I looked at in response to "What is a collection?". It was exactly what I spent a couple of hours trying to get a grasp on. Once I ran this script, the sun came out full blast.

The only question remaining is, where does this scrap collection actually reside. Is it merely shortcuts disguised as real files?

One problem that I did have is after collecting a dozen files from several different paths, I found I could do a properties to obtain the sizes of any individual file or two or three at a time. But as soon as I tried to find the size of the entire collection the Properties became grayed out. Is that a bug or was I doing something wrong?

Dave

You will find the Scrap collection (and all other collections) in %AppData%\Roaming\GPSoftware\Directory Opus\Collections. Each collection is an XML file - a collection of pointers to the real underlying files.

Regards, AB

Is it just me, or Scrap can't be opened from within My Computer and FTP? I haven't tried other folders, but I've noticed button ignored me when clicked while I'm in one of these two.

Thanks, btw, this is very usfeul, I've often missed something like this back in the Windows Explorer days. :smiley:

Try the updated version I just put up. That now works in My Computer at least.

Any way to make the Send to Scrap/Move from Scrap buttons grayed-out when inapplicable? For example, see the copy/move/delete/archive buttons when no file is selected... is there something that can be added to Scrap button codes to get the same effect?

(Broken image link.)

It's nothing important and it doesn't really affect the productivity, but I guess the ever-evolving DOpus is a powerful catalyst for us OCD perfectionists, smaller imperfections get magnified as the software and your local setup evolve. :smiley:

Hmm... Don't think there is a way at the moment, at least not that I can think of. Sorry.