Release 13.90



XYplorer 13.90 has been released on 31-Mar-2014. Here's a quick introduction to the main new features:



Introduction. This release is all about columns. If you ever wanted to know more about your files and folders, now you got the tools for it. Custom Columns (the cover term for all the new columns described here below) can show you everything you can possibly show about a file right in the file list, viewable, sortable, searchable, copyable. (Pro Edition Only)

Audio Properties in Columns. XYplorer now features columns for Audio Sample Rate and Audio Bit Depth, and some other audio related properties, for example Audio Length with milliseconds precision.
As you might know this stuff had been removed from Explorer in Vista and still is missing in Win 8.1, so XYplorer brings it back to you with this release.

To show those audio columns simply open View | Columns | Show Columns... and tick the ones you want to see: They are prefixed with "Custom #:", e.g. Custom 2: Sample Rate. You will get something like this in a list with audio files (supported formats are WAV, OGG, FLAC, MP3):

Audio Properties in Columns. (Click to zoom)

Note that these "Custom #:" columns are predefined by factory default to show audio properties. You can freely customize them via Tools | Configuration | Custom Columns to show whatever else you want:

Configuring Custom Column 2. (Click to zoom)

Tip: Use the new scripting command setcolumns to quickly toggle basic audio columns (Length, Bit Depth, Bit Rate, Channels, Sample Rate) on and off. Paste this line into the Address Bar and press Enter. Press Enter again to turn the columns off:

setcolumns(":s-audio.length,:s-audio.bitdepth,:s-audio.bitrate,:s-audio.channels,:s-audio.samplerate", 24);

Extended Properties in Columns. Now you can finally show all extended file properties in columns. Like Owner, Subject, Comments, Camera Model, Aperture, File Version, Album, Artist, Title, etc. There are hundreds of them in today's Windows.

Here is one way to show such a column (there are others). Create a new column using View | Columns | New Column (in later versions: Click View | Columns | Add Column). Then right-click the column header and click Select Property. You will get a list of all available extended file properties. The list is localized, here is one from a German Windows 8.1 system:

Selecting an extended file property.

When you OK the dialog the right-clicked column is immediately filled with the appropriate data.

You can change the contents of such a Custom Column on the fly. Simply right-click the column header again and choose another property.
Special Properties in Columns. And, of course, now you can also show XYplorer's special properties in columns, that's stuff not included in the Windows extended file properties. E.g. Aspect Ratio, MD5 hash (and many other hash functions), Number of Hard Links, Junction Target, various MP3 tags, and more.

Analog to the extended properties described above, you right-click a custom column header and click Select Special Property. Then you select a special property from the list.

Right-click menu of a Custom Column header. (Click to zoom)

The list of available special properties in XYplorer 13.90.

This is what you get after selecting MD5:

Right-click menu of a Custom Column header. (Click to zoom)

Finally, here is a view of a list using the MP3-related special properties as columns:

MP3-related special properties. Preview playing at the bottom. (Click to zoom)

Tip 1: Use the new scripting command setcolumns to quickly create the above column layout. Paste this line into the Address Bar and press Enter:

setcolumns("Name,:s-mp3.artist,:s-mp3.album,:s-mp3.genre,:s-mp3.title,:s-mp3.track,:s-mp3.year,:s-audio.length,:s-audio.bitrate,:s-audio.samplerate,Ext,Size,Modified,Created");

Tip 2: Use the new scripting command setcolumns to quickly toggle MP3 columns on and off. Paste this line into the Address Bar and press Enter. Press Enter again to turn the columns off:

setcolumns(":s-mp3.album,:s-mp3.year,:s-mp3.artist,:s-mp3.genre,:s-mp3.track,:s-mp3.title", 24, 1);

Context-Smart Columns. Ever dreamt of columns that would show dimensions for images, play time for audio files, page count for documents, and the version number for executables -- all in ONE column?! Well, you can have that now in XYplorer, and it's you who decides which property is shown for which file type in such catch-all columns.

Here is what such a smart column can look like:

It's the "Mixed" column. (Click to zoom)

And this is the definition of the above shown Mixed column. You get to this Window via Tools | Configuration | Custom Columns | Edit.

Configuring the "Mixed" column. (Click to zoom)

Scriptable Columns. But it gets even better. With this version you can roll your own columns using XYplorer's scripting language. You decide what they show, for which files, and how they show it. A world premiere. No file manager has ever gone there before.
Scriptable Columns might prove to be a killer feature. Its possibilities are virtually unlimited. And, to our knowledge, there is no other software existing at this point that comes even close to this feature.

Check out these scripted columns:

Note the "Last Name" column. It shows how you can sort files by a particular part of the filename, i.e. you can sort by partial filename. (Click to zoom)

Note the "Phase" and the "Date" column. An example for sorting date-coded filenames, i.e. for sorting files by the date in the filename. (Click to zoom)

Note the "Pixels" column. It lets you sort image files by their area. (Click to zoom)

These are scripted columns. To understand how they work it helps if you are a geek. But even non-geeks can manage. Here, for example, is how to add a "Last Name" column to your file list. First you create a new Custom Column definition (this is where the scripting comes in), then you insert a new column into the file list, then you assign your previously defined Custom Column to this new column. Here is a step-by-step checklist:

Open Tools | Configuration | Custom Columns, and dbl-click the first "Undefined" item in the "Custom Columns Definitions" list. This will open the Configure Custom Column dialog.
Define the column like this: 
Caption:   Last Name
Type:      Script
Script:    $base = getpathcomponent(<cc_name>, "base");
           $lastname = gettoken($base, -1, " ");
           return $lastname;

What the script does: First a extracts the base name of the currently processed file (whose cell we are about to fill), that's the filename without the extension. Then it extracts the last part of the base name, where parts are defined as separated by spaces. Finally that last part is "returned", i.e. it will be written into the cell.

This is how it looks in the interface:

Defining the "Last Name" column. (Click to zoom)

OK the Configure Custom Column dialog and the Configuration dialog. This definition will now be available to new columns in each file list. It is stored in the INI file and hence retained across sessions. And, of course, it is portable. You can carry your Custom Columns with you on a USB stick.
Click View | Columns | New Column. A column called "New" will appear in the file list.

In later versions: Click View | Columns | Add Column. A column called "(Undefined)" will appear in the file list.

Right-click the "New" column header and select Select Custom Column....
From the list select the newly added Last Name column at the bottom.
Done. You now should have a column filled with last names.

If you are interested in the Pixels column script, here it is:

$dims = property("#image.dimensions", <cc_item>);
$width = gettoken($dims, 1, " x ");
$height = gettoken($dims, 2, " x ");
return $width * $height;

And here is a script that will display the first 12 characters of each file:

return readfile(<cc_item>, , 12);

Final Remark on Scriptable Columns: Note that these are only some very simple examples. You can do a lot more with Scriptable Columns. But be careful, a script can be a powerful little machine, and be aware that the script in a scripted column is called for each item in the file list.

The above features are part of the Pro Edition only, not of the Free Edition.



Copy Data. Now you can copy the contents of any single cell in the file list to the clipboard in a very comfortable way.

When you hold CTRL and right-click a non-empty cell you get a small popup menu with one command "Copy Data" by which you can copy the contents of the cell to the clipboard. Works with all cells in all columns. Note that any selections in the list are not affected.

Copy the dimensions of an image. (Click to zoom)

Instead of holding CTRL you can hold the left mouse button down and then do a right-click (while the left button is down).
Depth-Limited Search. Now you can limit the search depth of Find operations, for example you can search only the parent and its immediate child folders but not any deeper. Nifty and potentially time-saving.

Simply append the switch "/maxdepth=n" to the search term in the name field, or it's shorthand form "/md=n". For example, to find all items containing "kiss" in the current level and one level below you would use kiss /md=1 as search term.

Defining the search depth. (Click to zoom)

The result could look like this:

Search the current location and one level deeper. (Click to zoom)

Now when you change the switch to "/md=2" you could get something like this:

Search the current location and two levels deeper. (Click to zoom)