Stop messing up filames
You repeating a very old mistake. Filenames are untouchables. Use a hidden shadow file or a DB instead. This is bound to get users into trouble with configuration files. Stemming from the CPM era I have witnessed many programs make this mistake and either adapt or they went down in huge flamewars. Anyway as a programmer I dont want your tags in my filenames. So Tagspaces is totally useless to me in that sense. I dont think there is a single programmer out there who does not think exactly the same. Altering the name of a class or include file will earn you nothing but a big WTF
implemented in the PRO version
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ccchan commented
Hey~ I suggest the shadow file not being wihtin a .ts folder but should be a shadow file immediately next to the orginal file, in the same folder. In this way when I move 2 files to a different folder, I can simply remove 4 files (2 original, 2 shadow file with same name but different extension name). You now put everything in a .ts folder, and when I move 2 files, the shadow files are not moved! keep them in same folder is more easy to manipulate.
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Anonymous commented
That's so cool taking a look right now. Thank you.
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David Gutiérrez commented
Assuming the comment from Alex Koukarine was directed to me (since I said in a previous comment I was a developer), I will reply that a software is not composed only by code, but also by other types of assets.
As a developer, I would never add tags to my code files, but I am a game developer and I have to work with a lot of art assets in my daily work. So it would be really useful for me tagging those art assets (so I can locate them easily with a quick search) without changing their filenames:
Art assets are usually referenced in code using their relative path to the "root folder" of the project, so if the tagging software changes the filename of one of those art assets, the code won't be able to find that asset because it won't have any longer the expected filename.
So, as I said in my previous comment, there is no silver bullet which fixes every problem, each storage system (filename, sideload file, database) has its pros and cons and, depending on how do you plan to use the tagging software, there will be a storage system which will fulfill your needs better than the other systems.
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Alex Koukarine commented
LOL. Just don't use it for the code. Make sense of your class names in the first place and use self-documenting comments inside. That's all you need. The beauty of this approach is its ultimate portability. It's more suitable for notes taking and creating a knowledge base out of them, which includes some media files or web excerpts. That's all.
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Mark commented
While I agree we don't live in utopia. If anything tags should be in the file system.
The whole point of tagspaces is we don't have extra files to move/carry around. There are other solutions out there. While not ideal this product solves one problem in a nice and simple way. Of course you don't want to tag resources.
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Travis commented
If you can solve this problem it would be a big win.
I came to TagSpaces looking for an Evernote replacement, and in that sense it's perfect. Evernote notes don't have filenames at all, so I don't lose anything by giving up control of my filenames in TagSpaces.
But I couldn't commit. I realized I really wanted to merge my Evernote system with my filesystem, and I wasn't going to be able to give up the filenames. That pushes me towards Tabbles instead, but they suffer from being Windows-only. So I'm looking forward to the sidecar json files in TagSpaces.
For what it's worth, I plan to use TagSpaces with Dropbox files, and I'm just going to share the sidecar files in Dropbox as well. The interesting problem is what Dropbox calls "Selective Sync" -- not every Dropbox file is on every computer. Computer X syncs files A and B; computer Y syncs files A and C. The sidecar files are shared and must tag all three files. TagSpaces on computer A must either show a reference to file C even though the file's not on disk, or it must gracefully omit file C from file lists.
I know this is an annoying case, and I'm not sure whether it's an edge case. I also feel bad that I can't offer to code for it myself anytime soon. Thanks for considering it.
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nick commented
there is a silver bullet which fixes everybody problem : let people choose the backend they want to store tags ! be it filenames, separate file, existing metadata solutions. but among the worse possible choice EVER is messing up with file names, because that's THE common artefact shared by many tools, so this is maximally invasive.
I would love to use tags, to say index code, or other people's documents, but I just can't it just. won't. work. at. all.
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gringo commented
I loved it.. but I won't use it because it changes the files names! No Go!
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Teck Meck commented
The one thing I do not understand: Why doesn't tagspaces use file-metadata for storing tags? That way it would be cross-platform and cross-file-manager and everything fine, too.
Perhaps this wouldn't allow tagging files in no-metadata-included-formats.
Since most document and media formats store tags in their metadata, tagspaces is meeting the drawback of non-compatibility with existing tags in these files!
Tagspaces most promising feature is to me its live-preview in a side-pane. I am not aware of any other file-manager on linux-platforms providing this feature.
So a file manager with support for metadata-tagging and live-preview-pane is needed, and an additional option for tagging no-metadata-included-formatted-files ANY way, would be of great use for a minority of files.
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Anonymous commented
Store tags in file name or database both have their drawbacks, how about store it in the file's metadata?
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Chad Homan commented
@ilian
Thanks for working on an alternative tagging solution. I'd love to start using this asap. What's the expected release that we should see this new feature.
I'd also be willing to test out if that helps
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Nicolas R commented
If I program in haskell, my filenames have already to conform to a certain convention.
So that's a show stopper.
A sidecar JSON file would be ok, or a special MacOS mode using the metadata service.
You should definitely parameterize over the particular scheme used to record tags, to choose which ever backend is appropriate. -
David Gutiérrez commented
I think the people who wrote some of the previous comments don't take into account that there isn't a silver bullet which fixes everybody problems: I acknowledge storing tag information into the filename is the ideal solution for a lot of people because it's very simple and cross-platform, but renaming a file every time we add/remove a tag makes TagSpaces completely useless for developers like me.
I already wrote the pros and cons of each approach in this link so I won't repeat myself:
https://tagspaces.uservoice.com/forums/213931-general/suggestions/5789542-save-tag-data-and-metadata-in-a-separate-fileSo instead of fighting each other asking TagSpace developers to support only our preferred storage solution (even if that makes the application completely useless for people with different needs), we should request TagSpaces developers to provide different storage methods for people with different needs. Illian has already said they're working on a tagging system which stores the tags information into a separate file, they only need to make it optional to keep everybody happy.
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michele commented
I love the idea that it changes the name. For the same resaon for excample I don´t use anymore iphoto (in Mac) to arrange my pictures. That programs is great, it take you pictures and archive it is a big file with all tags, positio and time where you took the pictures. And then? What if you lost your system or if you want to go from i.os to ubuntu or linux mint? I writen a symple script that when I downloaded pictures from my camere , it arrange them in folder devided for year and subfolder divided for month... then no more problems to be update with iphoto and no problem to change os!
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Anonymous commented
Tags in sidecar json files would be great .. but perhaps you could add a configuration setting (perhaps per folder even) on whether to use sidecar tags or file-name embedded tags ..
TagSpaces is looking extremely promising .. Please, keep up the great work
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Anonymous commented
I completely disagree. Using tagspaces as a document management system, i like how the storing of tags in filenames makes me completely indepedent from software. I can search for tags via file explorer, sync them to other folders and don't have to worry about database crash or tagspace stopping to work.
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Anonymous commented
There are many solutions out there, which have database storage. The only thing that syncs really across devices, programs, platforms - not matter how transferred or treated is ... the file name. I really like the approach, even though or because I am a developer.
Good work - keep it like it is.
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Anonymous commented
Really? Maybe you're a programmer, but you aren't an archivar! I've seen so many programs with databases "lost in space"...no more db's, filename tagging is a nice idea +plus open meta tags! Forget sidecars...you will be lost! Cheers!
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AdminIlian (Dev, TagSpaces) commented
We are already working on a tagging solution, which will save the tags in sidecar json files.
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Anonymous commented
I completely agree. I cannot use a program that changes my filenames - this is the only reason I cannot use TagSpaces even though I would love a program like this.
I have other programs that are linking to absolute paths which are messed up in the filename changes:
- I use a program called docear for managing PDF files and creating mind maps for research purposes. It links to PDF files which are broken if the filename changes.
- iTunes. Maybe it would be nice to tag songs? iTunes will fail miserably.
- Company wiki. My work uses Confluence (wiki) and often links to files on our fileserver. Links break if the filename changes.
Plus, if I start tagging items with dozens of tags I'll start having enormous filenames. I still want to be able to view my files in a file manager and keep my sanity.
I understand TagSpaces is storing tags in the filenames for easy syncing to other devices, but surely other methods are just as easy to sync - json files, xml files, sqlite database, ...etc