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file searcher with user-defined metadata columns (Windows)
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Posted by Orchid
Jan 18, 2021 at 08:56 PM
Maybe this will fit your needs:
http://www.modus58.net/modusdoc/
Posted by rafael costacurta
Jan 20, 2021 at 11:07 AM
There is an app on sale in bits Du jour that seens to do what you want:
https://www.bitsdujour.com/software/wincatalog-2020
Posted by SmallDog
Jan 21, 2021 at 07:06 PM
If you use directory opus, pretty sure this fits your description. The data is stored in the filenames. So for example you can have a file named “abc (category=cat1, duedate=20220101).docx” the file will be displayed as abc.docx and have two extra columns containing the values of those two attributes
https://resource.dopus.com/t/column-custom-text-and-regexp/18727
Posted by jimspoon
Jan 24, 2021 at 04:12 AM
Thanks very much! In fact I have tried out WinCatalog in the past and I am happy to report that I had a better experience with WC2020 than with WC2018. It was able to find 1,000,000 hits very quickly, I think because of a new database format and use of an index. Sorting the hits didn’t work out so well though, and the developer says he’ll try to optimize this.
I am interested in the Directory Opus script for sure. Tagspaces puts metadata in the file name, but it can only be used as tags, and this script allows data extracted from the filename to populate columns.
Posted by jimspoon
Jan 24, 2021 at 05:53 AM
I’ve been doing some digging and learned some things. Windows File Explorer columns display file “properties”. These “properties” are contained somewhere in the file’s data, usually the file’s primary data stream. The properties for each file type (distinguished by file extension) can be defined in a .propdesc XML file. Explorer and Windows Search can extract a file’s properties using a “property handler” DLL. Microsoft recommends that the properties be stored inside the file’s primary data stream, so the metadata can not be separated from the data. I haven’t had much luck finding a way for a user to use the Windows Properties System to add user-defined properties to those provided by the developer who defined the file format.
But I have found one interesting effort along these lines, a program called File Meta. File Meta allows a user to store properties inside an “alternate data stream” that is part of the file’s data. File Meta provides a “property handler” for these properties, which Windows Search can use to index the metadata. Even so, File Meta by itself mainly seems to provide a way to attach existing Windows properties to files that do not have properties inside their primary data streams. The focus was not on providing a way for users to define their own properties to attach to files. But when encouraged by a user, in 2020 the author of File Meta produced a program called “Custom Windows Properties” for this purpose. The developer seems to have moved on to other things for now, but I would like this idea be further developed.
Some links:
File Meta: https://github.com/Dijji/FileMeta
See screenshot here: https://github.com/Dijji/FileMeta/wiki/Using-the-File-Meta-Association-Manager
Download links: https://github.com/Dijji/FileMeta/releases/tag/v1.6
Custom Windows Properties:
Description and screenshot: https://github.com/Dijji/CustomWindowsProperties
Download link: https://github.com/Dijji/CustomWindowsProperties/releases