- I can create a virtual folder, but it disappears if I rename it. It reappears when I restart Fire.
- How can I add files to a virtual folder?
- Can I copy and paste virtual folders between projects in different solutions?
known bug, thanx. bugs://70620: Fire: Fire: Virtual folder disappears when renaming it
just drag em in.
not currently, no. what would that do? copy all files? link them form their current location?
That would be very practical for quick and easy code sharing. For example, I have multiple Android apps that could share the same files in a virtual folder. Pasting a virtual folder from another project/soultion rather than adding file by file from multiple physical folders would speed things up. In VS I’m forced to use class libraries to do that.
Got it. At first I clicked on the virtual folder and tried dropping files on the right side pane. IMHO it would make sense to make it possible to do that too. It’s much easier to drop files on the large pane on the right side (which only displays folder icon and name) than on the virtual folder on the left side where, if you miss only by a pixel or two, you can easily drop potentially large number of files into the wrong folder.
Issue: After adding files to the virtual folder they appear there correctly, but the source folder structure also appears in the solution tree (see screenshot). You should probably hide it unless it’s there for some specific purpose, because it clutters the space.
A Shared Project would be the better option for this?
Good idea, i’ll consider allowing that.
i considered riding empty folders, but tat bring with it its own problems. what if you later want to add a file to that folder? i guess i could hide empty folders only if they are outside of the project’s base folder. But that seems inconsistent too. I’ll think about this more, but for now, this is “as designed”.
But I wasn’t talking about empty folders. Try to do the following:
- Create a new virtual folder.
- Drag a file to it.
- When the file is dropped (added to a virtual folder), the entire physical folder structure of that file is created in the Files section (see screenshot in my previous message). For example if the file is in /User/Projects/SomeMainFolder/SomeSubfolder1/SomeSubfolder2, this structure of physical folders is created in the Files section of the project. I didn’t create the structure manually, it appeared automatically when I dropped the file. From what I can see, this serves no particular purpose (or does it?). It’s simply there. Nothing happens if you click on one of these folders in the project tree. They appear as empty although, if you look them up in Finder, they actually contain files. If a file is added to a virtual folder, why also show its physical location in Files section as empty folder structure? I like virtual folders precisely because I want to avoid having too many physical folders in the project.
Well, yes, because that fold tis part of the project. imaging a different scenario. THREE file sin that folder. then you drag one over to virtual folder, then the next, the the last. at what point should the “real” folder disappear form the tree? what if you now want to add a forth file to that real folder?
i’m not disagreeing with that having the empty folder show there is weird; I’m just saying its not as easy as “just don’t show it”.
Well, yes, because that fold tis part of the project
1.) Even if you add only one file from the real folder to a virtual folder, the real folder itself is shown as empty in the project tree. What’s the point of showing it as empty? It only clutters the project. So the answer to your question “at what point should the “real” folder disappear form the tree?” is - it shouldn’t even appear when the first file from that folder is added to a virtual folder (unless it appeared before that for reasons mentioned under 2.b). Why show the real folder structure but not show any files in it?
2.) At what point do you start showing content of real folders (containing files added to virtual folders) in the project tree? I tried adding a new file into the real folder, here’s what happens:
a.) If I create a new .pas file in Finder (outside Fire) but in one of the folders that appear in the structure, it doesn’t actually appear in the project, which is fine.
b.) If I create a new file through Fire, it appears in the project structure but the other files from that folder don’t (see screenshot) which kind of makes sense, but not 100%. So my suggestion to “what if you now want to add a forth file to that real folder?” would be:
- Don’t show any real folders for files dragged to virtual folders from Finder.
- Show only folder structure for files added to real folders through Fire. If the files are dragged to a virtual folder after being created you could leave it up to the user to manually remove the folder structure. Or, if you want to make things really user friendly, you could hide/remove the real folder structure when all files added to it through Fire are removed or dragged to virtual folders.
its not as easy as “just don’t show it”
I know that and I really appreciate your effort, because making things simple and intuitive for users requires a lot of work.
So essentially, we’re back to not showing it when its empty. 
Well, not really empty, only empty as far as Fire IDE is concerned.
Right. i think what i’ll do is not show folders if they are (a) outside of the projects root folder and (b) all their files are moved to virtual folders.
Thanks, logged as bugs://70637: Fire: hide folders outside of the project scope, if all their files are in virtual folders
Will try, thanks.