A description of the file browsing page

1

File Browser Page

Introduction

The file browser of V-NET is designed for touch devices with small screen sizes. The traditional folder tree structure navigator on the left of the screen is absent and the file browsing can start at any folder inside the file system, which act as the local root (or top) of the sub folder tree to be browsed. The file browser and folder browser is separated in the current system.

A Sample View

The following is a snapshot of the file browser.

Figure: File browser page.

The Main Menu

The main menu is under the page navigation bar.

  • It shows a few kinds of help information or usage guide related to the current page.
  • Expand/Collapse the file system navigator under the main menu.

The File System Navigator

The floating panel under the main menu is the file system navigator. The path of the local root folder is shown inside of the dark area at its top.

File System Navigation

File system navigation is accomplished inside the area under the "Expand Folders", which is called current navigation path, starting at the local root / node. The button for each node is used to open the list of all child nodes of the node on its left. One can select one of the child nodes listed to modify or add the node to the current navigation path. For example, if one tap the "100ANDRO" folder inside option popup in the sample snapshot shown here, the "Camera" node in the current navigation path will be replaced by the "100ANDRO" node. Tap on any node inside the current navigation path will select it as the current node with the files under folder selected in the list view below. The relative path (to the local root) of the current selected folder is shown under the "Current" area, which, for the sample view, is "/DCIM/Camera".

Operation Buttons
  • Refresh the list of files under the current selected folder. Sometimes a newly created or removed file may not be reflected in file list view automatically. This button can be used to synchronize the data between the view and the data in the underlying file system.
  • Remove all files inside the currently selected folder.
  • Enter the edit mode to create a new or modify the existing (green in color) named tag for the currently selected folder. A named tag for the folder allows a user to access the folder from tag list pages quickly. A user defined tag can be deleted after entering the edit mode by either empty its name or click the corresponding button.
  •  Create subfolder at the bottom of the above mentioned child node list, opened by tapping the button of certain node. An text box and an commit button will appear after tapping it so that the user can set the name of the folder to be created.
  • Create the folder with a name given by the content left to it under the corresponding node.
Search for Files

The search box next to the "Expand Folders" is not always displayed. It appears only when there are sufficiently large number of files under the current selected folder.

There is no file been filtered out when one types something into the search box. Here, due to the use of a fuzzy match strategy, only the order of files are changed with the one that matches most closely in name to what is typed into the search box being place at the top.

File List View

The list of files under the current selected folder are shown under the file system navigator. For each file listed, there are a set of buttons for a user to interact with the file system.

Commands
  • Send the file to a target endpoint.
  • No operation. Indicates files that do not currently have a previewer.
  • Process the file using handlers available to the underlying operating system.
  • Go to the preview page for this image file.
  • Go to the preview page for this video file.
  • Go to the preview page for this video file.
  • Go to the display page for this text file. Currently supported file formats are xml, html, markdown and other text files.
  • Go to the viewer page for this PDF file.
  • Start name changing for the file.
  • Commit the changed name of the file.
  • Delete the file.
  • Start copying of the file by selecting an entry point of the file system for the target folder. One is then lead to the folder picker page to pick a target folder for the copying. After copying, the view ends up at the file browser page rooted at the target folder.
  • Start moving of the file by selecting an entry point of the file system for the target folder. One is then lead to the folder picker page to pick a target folder for the moving. After moving, the view ends up at the file browser page rooted at the target folder.

Anwsers:

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