Re: A question about filters

["Joe Shaw" <joe joeshaw org>]

Hi,

On 4/28/07, Johann Petrak <johann petrak chello at> wrote:
> Is it possible to have multiple filters for a a group of files
> where each provides their own part of (meta)information about
> the files?

Yeah, although this requires some coding.  Each item that's to be
indexed by Beagle is called an "indexable".  There is a concept of
"child indexables", which are generated by filters when processing an
indexable.  Two examples of these are archives and email messages.
The archive filter creates child indexables for each file contained in
the archive.  The email filter creates child indexables for different
parts of an email message (usually attachments).

You would need to create a filter which can parse whatever container
format your data is in, and generate indexables for each chunk inside.

> How would a use then be able to query for files using those
> additional properties?

Beagle is all URI-based, so you would need to generate a unique URI
for this.  The convention is usually the parent URI with an anchor on
the end (file:///home/joe/foo.zip#bar.txt).  Searches which match this
indexable will return this file, with its own metadata and its
parent's metadata.  How that gets presented/opened to the user depends
a lot on the UI.

Hope this helps,
Joe