Why can't I sort on a column in Plain View??
Posted: 20.02.2016, 09:08
I'm researching a possible solution for someone, and thought Free Commander XE could do it for me. But I'm having a problem.
The issue is that a collection of source folders contains lots of image files (e.g. JPG), a number of which represent pictures which were taken by a phone camera. The objective is to copy ALL of those phone camera pictures to another location, while ignoring all the other pictures in these source folders which were not taken by the phone camera.
The phone camera has a value of "SCH-I545" in "camera model" of the EXIF data, which is the identify of the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. And FCXE allows me to add "camera model" as an additional column of information to be displayed. And that works just fine, with "SCH-I545" appearing for all of those JPG's taken by the phone camera.
I then select the high-level parent folder (under which all of the lower level source folders exist which contain all of these phone camera pictures), and then I select View -> Plain View files. And sure enough, all of the files contained in all of the lower level sub-folders are now presented as one big list of files. And my additional added column for "Camera model" shows "SCH-I545" for each of the JPG's listed which came from that phone camera. All exactly as I expected. Works perfectly.
Say I have 1000 files listed, of which 750 are from the phone camera. What I now want is an easy way to select just that subset of 750 which have "SCH-I545" in the "Camera model" column. So either some way to "filter" based on a value in a column is needed, or what I thought would be the easiest approach is simply to click on the "Camera model" column heading to sort the list of 1000 files by the value in that column. All 750 with "SCH-I545" should then be consecutive, and I could then easily select them all (CTRL+SHIFT and click on first and last) and then right-click to copy them all in one operation to the target location.
Well, it doesn't work. Clicking on the "Camera model" column heading DOES NOT SORT ALL FILES INTO ONE GROUP (i.e. which had "SCH-I545" in that colum). Some type of sorting is taking place, which reverses (I guess) if I click on the "Camera model" column heading repeatedly, but I don't know what's actually happening. It definitely is not a simply "flat file list sort" which is what I was looking for, which will end up with all 750 files together consecutively. There are inexplicable gaps, suggesting that somehow this "plain view files" is really NOT just a flat file list after all.
So, I'm looking for help. Is this a bug in FCXE? Should that "plain view files" really be able to sort any column heading, even on an added column like "camera model"? Is my expectation reasonable? Is the program malfunctioning, which needs to be fixed? Am I correct here, that this sort SHOULD BE WORKING but isn't??
And second, is there already a better or alternative way to accomplish what I want to accomplish? I'm looking for a "search" which looks through EXIF metadata in JPG pictures (which is nothing more than a specific value in an additional column offered to be displayed by FCXE), so that I can find all files which have this particular metadata column value.
Here's an example of the "before sort", showing the additional "Camera model" column in Plain view files.
And here's what it looks like "after sort". Note that the expected collection of all rows with "SCH-I545" together does not occur.
The issue is that a collection of source folders contains lots of image files (e.g. JPG), a number of which represent pictures which were taken by a phone camera. The objective is to copy ALL of those phone camera pictures to another location, while ignoring all the other pictures in these source folders which were not taken by the phone camera.
The phone camera has a value of "SCH-I545" in "camera model" of the EXIF data, which is the identify of the Samsung Galaxy S4 phone. And FCXE allows me to add "camera model" as an additional column of information to be displayed. And that works just fine, with "SCH-I545" appearing for all of those JPG's taken by the phone camera.
I then select the high-level parent folder (under which all of the lower level source folders exist which contain all of these phone camera pictures), and then I select View -> Plain View files. And sure enough, all of the files contained in all of the lower level sub-folders are now presented as one big list of files. And my additional added column for "Camera model" shows "SCH-I545" for each of the JPG's listed which came from that phone camera. All exactly as I expected. Works perfectly.
Say I have 1000 files listed, of which 750 are from the phone camera. What I now want is an easy way to select just that subset of 750 which have "SCH-I545" in the "Camera model" column. So either some way to "filter" based on a value in a column is needed, or what I thought would be the easiest approach is simply to click on the "Camera model" column heading to sort the list of 1000 files by the value in that column. All 750 with "SCH-I545" should then be consecutive, and I could then easily select them all (CTRL+SHIFT and click on first and last) and then right-click to copy them all in one operation to the target location.
Well, it doesn't work. Clicking on the "Camera model" column heading DOES NOT SORT ALL FILES INTO ONE GROUP (i.e. which had "SCH-I545" in that colum). Some type of sorting is taking place, which reverses (I guess) if I click on the "Camera model" column heading repeatedly, but I don't know what's actually happening. It definitely is not a simply "flat file list sort" which is what I was looking for, which will end up with all 750 files together consecutively. There are inexplicable gaps, suggesting that somehow this "plain view files" is really NOT just a flat file list after all.
So, I'm looking for help. Is this a bug in FCXE? Should that "plain view files" really be able to sort any column heading, even on an added column like "camera model"? Is my expectation reasonable? Is the program malfunctioning, which needs to be fixed? Am I correct here, that this sort SHOULD BE WORKING but isn't??
And second, is there already a better or alternative way to accomplish what I want to accomplish? I'm looking for a "search" which looks through EXIF metadata in JPG pictures (which is nothing more than a specific value in an additional column offered to be displayed by FCXE), so that I can find all files which have this particular metadata column value.
Here's an example of the "before sort", showing the additional "Camera model" column in Plain view files.
And here's what it looks like "after sort". Note that the expected collection of all rows with "SCH-I545" together does not occur.