Re: nautilus smart folders xml mockup

["Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen" <mikkel kamstrup gmail com>]

2008/7/25 rakudave <rakudave gmx net>:
> hi there
>
> yes, *thou shalt not copy everything from apple*, but the "smart folders"
> are quite hany.
> why not intergrating this feature into nautilus as well? (without tracker!)
>
> my idea is to use the metafiles, where additional infos such as notes and
> emblems are stored.
>
> today:
> <directory>
> <file name="Radiant_Chess_1600x1200.jpg" timestamp="1214979912"/>
> </directory>
>
>
> idea:
> <directory>
> <file name="Radiant_Chess_1600x1200.jpg" timestamp="1214979912"
> tags="wallpaper, dark, chess"/>
> <smartfolder tags="dark" date="-1209600"/>
> </directory>
>
> the smart folder would display all files within the current directory that
> are no older than 2 weeks and are tagged with "dark"
> (2 weeks are represented as seconds in this mockup)
>
>
> what do you think?
> regards
> rakudave


In some sense this is already in the works, although at a much wider
scope. Namely the Xesam effort[1].

What you need to do "smart folders" (also known as "stored searches") is:

 * A Query language to express the query in
 * Some index of all metadata (tags and mtime or your example)

Xesam provides the query language and API for the index, and Tracker,
Strigi, Beagle, or Pinot implements the index/search engine.

Specifically in a Xesam based approach one would probably want to
store the Xesam query XML in a file, and allowing some form of
variable replacement to happen before submitting the query (to insert
$NOW for example).

Both Strigi and Beagle has working Xesam interfaces currently (Pinot
and Tracker underway), so if you want to have a stab go ahead. If you
need any help yell.

Cheers,
Mikkel

[1]: See http://xesam.org