XYplorer 21.40 has been released on 23-Dec-2020. Here’s a quick introduction to the main new features:

• Custom Event Actions | Automatic Sorting Magic
• Sorting the Folder Contents Preview
• Shorten Filenames

• Custom Event Actions. A major new feature that provides you with an easy to use yet powerful usability booster. For example, you now can freely decide what should happen when a folder is middle-clicked, or when the status bar is double-clicked, and so on. It can be simple things like "Open in new background tab" or "Go up", but it can also be much more. If you know a bit about scripting, Custom Event Actions can be a real game changer. And if you don’t you now have a good reason to learn it.

  This your Custom Event Actions (CEA) cockpit within the Configuration dialog (F9), you are the pilot now:

  

  CEA control panel, ready for take off.

  The handling is as easy as can be: To select the action that you want to happen you click into the action cell right of the event and a popup up menu shows you what’s on offer:

  

  Select what you want to happen when double-clicking the empty part of the tab bar.

  To run a script on a particular event set the action to "Run script" and click into the script cell of the event to create or edit the script. For example, let’s obfuscate the filenames when middle-clicking the status bar. The script is a one-liner, obfuscate;:

  

  Editing the script.

  When done your event definition should look like this (the green dot tells you that "Run script" is selected AND a script is defined):

  

  Definition done.

  When you now close Configuration by OK and middle-click the status bar, you will see something like this (middle-click the status bar again to de-obfuscate):

  

  Obfuscated by middle-click.

  Tips for upgraders: Some configuration options that were previously set via checkboxes are now found among the Custom Event Actions, e.g. open a new tab by double-clicking the tab bar, or close a tab by middle-clicking its header. If you are upgrading to this version you might want to set them again. This screenshot tells you what to do:

  

  How to restore some old functionality.

  Finally, testing is tough. You need a break once in a while. As a reminder you might use a script that makes you a cup of coffee whenever you go to a folder called "Test":

  if (<newpath> Like "*\Test") {
    makecoffee;
  } 

  You want to use the "After painting the file list" event for this script:

  

  Setting up the coffee machine.

  Now after going to a folder called "Test":

  

  Time for a break!

  These were just a few simple examples for using Custom Event Actions. Of course, if you know a bit about scripting (or have a friend who does) incredible options are at your fingertips now. Here is one more for the road:

  Automatic Sorting Magic

  Wouldn’t it be nice if the files that interest you most would be listed at the top of the list? For example, in the "Program Files" folders that could be the "Readme.txt" and "License.txt" files, and the executables. All the other stuff is usually less interesting. Here’s where the "After painting the file list" event comes in handy once more. Your script could check which path you are going to and then apply some custom sorting of your choice using the sortbylist command to position particular items at the top of the list and all the rest thereafter:

  if (<newpath> Like "C:\Program Files*") {
    sortbylist "Readme*.txt|License*.txt|*.exe", "|";
  } 

  It’s "Readme*.txt" instead of "Readme.txt" to capture variants like "Readme-de.txt". Here is where the script should go:

  

  Configuring some sorting magic...

  Now when going to e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\php" the listing will look like this (the standard sort order here was "by Name, ascending"). As you see our files are neatly sitting at the top:

  

  Interesting stuff first.

  Obviously this kind of magic can become a handy daily companion.

• Sorting the Folder Contents Preview. Now you can control the sort order in the Folder Contents Preview, which also includes the Hover Box on folders. Quite likely you want to see the recent files on top. Now you can.

  Here is where you set the sort order:

  

  Setting it for Modified date (descending, of course).

  Here you see it in action while hovering the icon of any folder in the folder tree (or in the file list):

  

  Setting it for Modified date (descending, of course).

  FYI, to make the screenshot above happen at home enable the Hover Box here: Configuration | Information | File Info Tips & Hover Box | Show Hover Box, and ensure that "Folders" is ticked here: Configuration | Information | File Info Tips & Hover Box | Show Hover Box | Select Item Types...

• Shorten Filenames. Finally the app offers a way to shorten the names of a whole bunch of files. You can cut them down from both ends.

  Select a couple of files you want to rename, then press F2, it will automatically open the Batch Rename dialog when more than one file is selected. Now enter the new /cut switch and the length you want the names to have, e.g. /cut 8. Note that only the base names are affected, the extensions are never touched:

  

  Cutting the base down to 8 characters.

  Click the "Preview..." button to make sure there are no conflicts (collisions):

  

  Preview looking good.

  Now presss "Rename Now" and the work is done. By the way, if you change your mind you can always Undo (Ctrl+Z) it.

  The new switch also allows you to set a start position, e.g. start at position 4, make it 6 characters long: /cut 4,6.

  

  You wanted it like this.